Post by crmemory on May 12, 2014 11:34:59 GMT -5
Hi all! Our long awaited calf finally arrived this morning. It's a beautiful red heifer calf out of our jersey girl that had such a rough winter. We are located in central IL, and have been working with our vet for several months monitoring health of the mom. She battled coccidia and lost a lot of weight over the winter. I was concerned about selenium deficiency in the area, but the vet said just to give her some minimal supplementation with selenium/vit E and otherwise not worry about it. None of our goat babies or other calves have shown any signs of deficiency.
We awoke to find the calf on the ground, mom licking her, and calf mostly dry. We didn't see the calving, so have no idea how smoothly it went, but mom seems to be doing fine, if a bit tired. Due to mom's currently poor condition and some other factors, we had decided to pull the calf and bottle feed. When we first the found the calf, it was up and walking on wobbly legs. It is possible it may have nursed, but not likely. To minimize stress as much as possible, we took them from the pasture up to the barn, and simply put mom in the stall with the head gate. Mom could stick her head through and see/talk to calf, but calf couldn't suckle. Not that it wound up being an issue, as the calf won't get up. I milked mom out and syringe-fed the calf the colostrum within about 2 hours of birth. It wasn't much before the calf was acting exhausted. I'd estimate 2 oz. colostrum. I have been forcing an ounce or two at a time about once an hour. The only way to get the calf up is to irritate it and pick it up into the standing position. Then, she will stand and wobble, take a few steps, and plop down. She's all curled up like she has no interest in life.
As a side note, I did at one point put the calf back with mom to see if mom could stimulate her, but to no avail. Nothing seems to get her attention. She's just blob on the floor. She DOES swallow, thankfully, so I haven't had to tube her (not that I know how). She swallows well as long as I squeeze the plunger slowly. This has consumed almost half my day though, and I've probably gotten only about 4 oz colostrum all total into her. Any other ideas?
We awoke to find the calf on the ground, mom licking her, and calf mostly dry. We didn't see the calving, so have no idea how smoothly it went, but mom seems to be doing fine, if a bit tired. Due to mom's currently poor condition and some other factors, we had decided to pull the calf and bottle feed. When we first the found the calf, it was up and walking on wobbly legs. It is possible it may have nursed, but not likely. To minimize stress as much as possible, we took them from the pasture up to the barn, and simply put mom in the stall with the head gate. Mom could stick her head through and see/talk to calf, but calf couldn't suckle. Not that it wound up being an issue, as the calf won't get up. I milked mom out and syringe-fed the calf the colostrum within about 2 hours of birth. It wasn't much before the calf was acting exhausted. I'd estimate 2 oz. colostrum. I have been forcing an ounce or two at a time about once an hour. The only way to get the calf up is to irritate it and pick it up into the standing position. Then, she will stand and wobble, take a few steps, and plop down. She's all curled up like she has no interest in life.
As a side note, I did at one point put the calf back with mom to see if mom could stimulate her, but to no avail. Nothing seems to get her attention. She's just blob on the floor. She DOES swallow, thankfully, so I haven't had to tube her (not that I know how). She swallows well as long as I squeeze the plunger slowly. This has consumed almost half my day though, and I've probably gotten only about 4 oz colostrum all total into her. Any other ideas?