# Orphaned newborn calf



## alisha (Feb 14, 2016)

I have a newborn angus calf  She was born around 4:00 pm Friday and was brought to me around 9:00 when the mother would not care for her. I am new to this so I don't really know what I'm doing when I got her she was very cold so I put her in a pen with a heat lamp to warm her up I got her to eat about a pint of milk around 11:00 that night Saturday she sucked a quart at 7:00 am 3:00 pm and also at 11:00 she was doing well on the bottle Sunday I went to feed her at 7:00 am again she would not eat and has not ate since now she have diarrhea with blood in it please help me try to save this sweet baby girl thanks everyone


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## Latestarter (Feb 15, 2016)

Greetings @alisha from the front range in Colorado. Welcome to BYH. Congrats on the new calf, now we just need to help you get it warm and happy and things will be much better. I hope that the calf got some colostrum from the mother, either by forced nursing or from the owner milking it out and feeding it to the calf. Something to check into. I don't know much about cattle, but there are some really good folks here who do. I'll tag a few and hope they come on in the next 12-24 hours. I don't know if that will be soon enough though, and you may want to think about a vet visit for your little heifer. I hope she pulls through. Good luck!

@WildRoseBeef @greybeard @jhm47 @Bossroo @Goatgirl47


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## Goatgirl47 (Feb 15, 2016)

Has she had colostrum? We have only had one bottle calf, and that was a few years ago, so I'm not that experienced, but it sounds like your calf might have coccidiosis. Here are a few links that might be helpful: 

http://familycow.proboards.com/thread/56494 
http://familycow.proboards.com/thread/53903 and 
http://www.thecattlesite.com/diseaseinfo/206/coccidiosis/ 

Hope that helps and that your calf will get better!


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## WildRoseBeef (Feb 15, 2016)

Call the vet! Sounds like she's got scours, but not sure what from.


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## Pamela (Feb 15, 2016)

I would back off on the milk a bit and let her rest. When we used to raise newborn calves, the dairyman we got them from would drench them with a gallon of colostrum and then send them to us. We let them set, warm and dry or course, for at least 24 hours before starting milk replacer. We always did 24-48 hours of half volume feeds twice a day, with a water bottle at noon if it was particularly hot or a very large calf. After they did that for the first 2-3 days they were up to full volume bottles twice a day, still offering water midday until they were drinking from a bucket well. 1 qt was a half feed. We raised 36 newborns one summer in this manner and only lost 3. If this one didn't get colostrum, I hope you can find some for her or that the vet will have some ideas.  It is not impossible to keep a non-colostrum fed calf alive, but it is extremely difficult.  Keep us posted.


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## GLENMAR (Feb 15, 2016)

Take her temp. Is it low or high?


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## alisha (Feb 15, 2016)

Latestarter said:


> Greetings @alisha from the front range in Colorado. Welcome to BYH. Congrats on the new calf, now we just need to help you get it warm and happy and things will be much better. I hope that the calf got some colostrum from the mother, either by forced nursing or from the owner milking it out and feeding it to the calf. Something to check into. I don't know much about cattle, but there are some really good folks here who do. I'll tag a few and hope they come on in the next 12-24 hours. I don't know if that will be soon enough though, and you may want to think about a vet visit for your little heifer. I hope she pulls through. Good luck!
> 
> @WildRoseBeef @greybeard @jhm47 @Bossroo @Goatgirl47





GLENMAR said:


> Take her temp. Is it low or high.



Thank you all for your post. She is back to eating and on meds for scours and electrolytes I let her out of the pen today and she is very spunky I know we are not out of the woods yet but things are looking up for the young girl. Thanks again for the help


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## GLENMAR (Feb 17, 2016)

good luck


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