Post by crystalkelly on Apr 18, 2015 21:07:57 GMT -5
I went to an area close to me today in MD, that has a lot of small and large Amish dairies, to buy another calf for Sugar. I wanted a beef cross, but the one I found had already sold. They always have calves for sale, so I was pretty confident I would find one. Well I found one. He is a HUGE, over 100 pound, Holstein bull calf. He was born right around the same time Sugar ' s Calf was. I loaded him up, after I paid the man the $200, and took him home. The gentlemen, who was not Amish but an Amish man recommended him to me, said I was getting a good deal because they were going from 300 to 500 at the sale barn last week. I thought he was stretching it a little, and thought nothing of it. Well I get the large boy home, smear him with part of the placenta Sugar still was trying to pass, with plastic gloves on of course, and gave him to her.
Sugar seemed happy, yet a bit confused to now have to calves. She picked him, and he preceded to lay down to sleep.She had a change of heart about him towards afternoon and was being a little rough, head butting and such, so I separated both calves from her with a panel in her stall. I was told by the farmer that the new bull calf, not named Idaho by my daughter, had had colostrum the day before and that morning. I assumed he had bottle fed it, as all of his calves were pulled off of their moms, but I did not ask. He had almost 300 cows. Well, when I tried to get him to nurse, 8 hours after he was separated from Sugar, he did not have a clue! He is SO TALL I have to fight to get him to even bend down that far! He does not root or even search for a teat! He also has almost no suck reflex. When I put my finger in his mouth and rub the top, his suck is very week. He should have been hungry at this point.
I manged to get him to eat 20 once of colostrum from a soda bottle with a lamb nipple with the cross holes cut larger so he did not have to suck as hard, but he required a lot of breaks. I have to hold his head up, and his mouth shut or he does not even try to eat. Has anyone had a calf that did not root and had a week suck reflex? He is huge, so he should be a term calf. I sure hope his suck reflex improves. Thoughts? I gave him a shot of B complex an antibiotic shortly after I got him home to be on the safe side. The farmer said he had not given him and shots. Thank you!
Crystal