Post by cackleberryfarm on Apr 27, 2011 13:47:08 GMT -5
I posted under April Calving Watch that our cow, Sweetmilk, delivered a stillborn heifer on Monday afternoon. Needless to say we were devasted. We made a quick decision to get a bull calf from the dairy we had bought Sweetie from. Long story short, after SMEARING the after birth on the calf, he started nursing(!) and she has fully accepted him as her own. Since then there are times when we have brought him to her to encourage him to nurse and he nurses and a few times when my dh has peeked in on them and found him nursing on her. He is 8 days old today. We're not sure if he got colostrum after birth but he did get some of Sweetie's less than 12 hours after she delivered tho not sure if that makes a difference since he was already 6 days old. He seems to be doing okay, just noticed that his poops are more runny today. I've checked on the forum, even found someone who posted a pic asking if the calf's poo was normal. Our calf's poo looks like that picture in terms of color, we're just concerned it's too runny. My dh bought some scour meds when he bought the calf. We've been trying to do all the reading we can to make sure we don't lose this little guy too. We don't want to give the med. if we don't have to as I read that it can kill both good as well as bad bacteria. Doing some reading on the forum last night I came across one person who recommended giving a raw egg, as it helped her calf with nutritional scours. There's been mention of electrolytes and probios. Someone mentioned giving some plain yogurt. I gave him some plain yogurt ,(approx. 8cc) via a syringe last night before going to bed. This morning my dh and I worked together to give him part of a raw egg. He's nursed a few times today, tho of course we can't say for sure how much he's getting. I was also under the impression that some of these things should be given between feedings. And what about electrolytes. I saw a homemade recipe using salt and lite salt. I have some 'real salt' which is Redmond's sea salt we use. Would it be okay to give him that in some warm water. If so, when and how much? My understanding is that with scours calves die more from dehydration than the scours themselves. Like I said, right now he looks okay but from what I read they can go quickly if you don't keep on top of this. Any help would be much appreciated!