Post by evamommy on Jan 1, 2010 20:07:17 GMT -5
I'm hoping someone will have some advice for us..
We have a 3 month old beef bottle calf; when we went out this evening to bring her in, she wouldn't get up. A little history..
She has been just fine, until the storm we had Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, I went out, and she was covered in ice, not doing well at all, wouldn't walk. We carried her into our horse trailer (it's the tightest shelter we have), gave her an extra bottle of warm milk, got her wrapped in blanket and a bunch of hay, and got her warmed up, and she seemed ok, except for a slight limp sometimes. Since then, on bad weather days, we have kept her in the trailer, and on good days, we let her out with our other two cows (not related to her) during the day, and take her back to the trailer. Tonight is very cold (it's about 8-10 degrees out right now). When I let her out for the day this morning I noticed the limp, but she seemed ok otherwise, and went right to eating hay with the other two.
Anyway, we were going to bring her to the trailer tonight, but she wouldn't get up again, and looked even worse than she did that first night. So we have brought her into the house, have her wrapped in blankets, rubbing her, trying to get her to take a bottle. Is there anything else we could/should be doing? Is it just too cold for a young calf to be outside at all? She has a cattle panel hoop house that she shares with the other cows, but honestly, they don't spend much time in it, unless rain or snow is actually falling...they mostly just hang out beside/inside/up against their large round haybale.
Thanks for any help,
Carrie
We have a 3 month old beef bottle calf; when we went out this evening to bring her in, she wouldn't get up. A little history..
She has been just fine, until the storm we had Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, I went out, and she was covered in ice, not doing well at all, wouldn't walk. We carried her into our horse trailer (it's the tightest shelter we have), gave her an extra bottle of warm milk, got her wrapped in blanket and a bunch of hay, and got her warmed up, and she seemed ok, except for a slight limp sometimes. Since then, on bad weather days, we have kept her in the trailer, and on good days, we let her out with our other two cows (not related to her) during the day, and take her back to the trailer. Tonight is very cold (it's about 8-10 degrees out right now). When I let her out for the day this morning I noticed the limp, but she seemed ok otherwise, and went right to eating hay with the other two.
Anyway, we were going to bring her to the trailer tonight, but she wouldn't get up again, and looked even worse than she did that first night. So we have brought her into the house, have her wrapped in blankets, rubbing her, trying to get her to take a bottle. Is there anything else we could/should be doing? Is it just too cold for a young calf to be outside at all? She has a cattle panel hoop house that she shares with the other cows, but honestly, they don't spend much time in it, unless rain or snow is actually falling...they mostly just hang out beside/inside/up against their large round haybale.
Thanks for any help,
Carrie