# Calf won't suck



## strong42 (May 5, 2009)

I have an issue I have never run into before with a calf.  He won't suck.  He won't suck fingers, he won't suck a bottle, he won't suck his mother.  We are tubing him to keep him going.  What do you suggest to fix this problem?

He was born Saturday night and I have never had a baby with less of a will to live.  He just lays around like a lump on a log for 12 hours until we tube him again.

Someone on xxxxxxx suggested I try this forum.  Thanks in advance for any help.

Nic

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## Farmer Kitty (May 5, 2009)

Was he early by any chance?


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## strong42 (May 5, 2009)

No, we AI and he was due last Wednesday so was 3 days past the actual due date (I know that there are variables of a couple of weeks on each side of that date, but we usually have them all within a few days of the date).  We have another one that still hasn't calved.  We were joking last week when nothing was happening that they were out there having an udder competition to see who could get the biggest!!


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## Farmer Kitty (May 5, 2009)

Was delivery normal or did he have a hard time coming into this world?


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## Thewife (May 5, 2009)

A guy gave me a little Hereford bull calf years ago, that would not suck. I ended up tubing him twice a day for a week, before he caught on.


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## strong42 (May 5, 2009)

Goodness me, a week?  But then he got it?  That's encouraging.  After that long, did you have to bottle feed or did his mother allow him to nurse?
Delivery was perfectly normal - no stressors whatsoever.


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## Farmer Kitty (May 5, 2009)

I would say he's just slow at learning and some never do. There can be things internally that we can not see that keep them from thriving. Keep tubing and see what happens. I know we had another member that had to tube for several days and even had the calf in the house for a bit that was able to turn calf and mom back together. It will just depend on mom and baby. Good luck.


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## Thewife (May 5, 2009)

strong42 said:
			
		

> Goodness me, a week?  But then he got it?  That's encouraging.  After that long, did you have to bottle feed or did his mother allow him to nurse?
> Delivery was perfectly normal - no stressors whatsoever.


After a week he decided to get up and be a bottle calf!

The guy wanted him back to put on the cow? But I figured he was just going to let it lay in the field and die. He gave the calf to me, I tubed it for a week, it was MINE!


Are you giving him mamas milk?


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## laughingllama75 (May 5, 2009)

Glad you took my advice, welcome! You will really enjoy this group, hope you stick around.


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## strong42 (May 5, 2009)

Thanks to you all.  We will stick with tubing for a while.  What if we tube for a week and he still won't suck?  (I know, I shouldn't plan for the worst, I should wait and see what happens...)  We can't tube him forever.  Will he drink from a bucket?  Should we be trying Calf Manna as well?

We are catching momma and milking her now that we can actually catch her...2 broken fences later...she is not the nicest cow, but I figure it's best to try to get her milk into him.


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## Farmer Kitty (May 5, 2009)

As long as you are able to milk mom you won't need a milk replacer. I'm not sure if he would drink from a pail but, you could try it.


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## Thewife (May 5, 2009)

strong42 said:
			
		

> Thanks to you all.  We will stick with tubing for a while.  What if we tube for a week and he still won't suck?  (I know, I shouldn't plan for the worst, I should wait and see what happens...)  We can't tube him forever.  Will he drink from a bucket?  Should we be trying Calf Manna as well?
> 
> We are catching momma and milking her now that we can actually catch her...2 broken fences later...she is not the nicest cow, but I figure it's best to try to get her milk into him.


Ahh!
The joys of milking a cow that don't want milked! 
I feel for ya!

When ever we have a non sucking calf, we milk to mom to make sure the calf gets her milk and to make sure she does not get soo tight and sore, that she tries to kick the ---- out of it, when it is ready to nurse!


We had to teach Bobs calf how to eat last year! It took Hubby and the boy, poking sticks over the walls just to get her into the squeeze.(nobody was going in the pen with her)
When we went to see what her calf was the other day, she would not let us within 20 feet of it, she was pawing the ground, ready to take us both on! 
She *used* to trust me!


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## Farmer Kitty (May 5, 2009)

thewife said:
			
		

> strong42 said:
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I know you don't want to hear it but, if she doesn't trust you anymore it's time to let her go. I hope the calf is a heifer!


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## Thewife (May 5, 2009)

Farmer Kitty said:
			
		

> thewife said:
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WHAT! 
This is Bob we are talking here! She is the one that had the bull calf Sunday.


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## Farmer Kitty (May 5, 2009)

thewife said:
			
		

> Farmer Kitty said:
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Sorry, I don't remember seeing that it was a bull calf.


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## wynedot55 (May 5, 2009)

you are doing the right thing by tubing the calf.since you have what is called a dumb sucker.hopefully he will learn to suck in time.but ive seen calves like that never learned to suck.an they ended up dieing.years ago me an my dad bought what we thought was 4 weaned holstein calves.an gave $230ea for them.got emm home an they was bottle calves.no sweat we already had 12 on the pail.we never got them to take a bottle,ended up tubing them till they died.


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## jhm47 (May 5, 2009)

Every couple years, we get one that won't suck.  We fight with it, trying to get a teat in it's mouth while the cow kicks and kicks.  We finally restrain the cow, and still the calf won't suck.  Then, we resort to tubing.  That works for awhile, but eventually nearly all of them die.  It seems to me that something is missing in their instinct, and that it's nature's way of eliminating this genetic abnormality.


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## CherylR (Jan 6, 2010)

Feedback on this topic on your site was useful to us recently, prompting me to register and pass on our experience here in Australia. One of our very experienced cows gave birth to a bull calf, on time, on a hot (40 deg. C) day soon after Christmas. Calf and mother healthy and moved around paddock as normal. By day three, however, we noticed the calf seemed to have the wrong idea about where the teats were. Aiming way, w-a-ay too high! We have no idea what brought this about and suspect he must have had some fluids or would have suffered dehydration. We've had cows all our lives and have never seen this before. We yarded the pair, and no improvement, so the first step was to milk out the mum and offer mum's milk to the calf. This worked well over three sessions for one and a half days, using the thumb of a clean rubber glove over the end of a clean plastic drink bottle as a feeder. The calf was very, very keen to drink all that was offered. By New Year's Eve, however, our very patient mother (a paddock cow, never hand milked before) was losing patience with us but not her baby - she was doing everything right, presenting her udder when he stood up, making encouraging noises etc - and he was still looking, but still aiming way too high. With farm supply shops due to close for New Year we bought calf formula and teats and have been bottle feeding since, letting the cow out to graze during the day. Sucking is not a problem, I should add. He was latching on and draining his formula very efficiently, with no spills. Then last night, voila! Mum's udder was noticeably 'down' and clean, as though a calf had been on her. And her usually ravenous calf politely declined the bottle. Maybe he'd noticed how the system works for another newborn, born a few days after him. Same this morning, and we've now seen him drinking normally - the lights, as they say, appear to have gone on. It was wonderful to open the yard gates this morning and watch the pair take off for the green feed in a nearby gully. The calf ran four rings around his mother, up and down the hill, kicking his heels. Am posting this to let others know that sometimes, with a patient mother, there can be a happy outcome.


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## Beekissed (Jan 7, 2010)

Great post, CherylR!  I had a day old Jersey calf bought at auction that had scours and wouldn't nurse on my Jersey cow, even when we placed the teat in his mouth, squeezed her milk into his mouth, etc.

We milked the cow and used her milk as a base, added a few things for the scours, and syringed the mix into this little guy.  I held his head up like one would do if he were feeding and, though the syringe wasn't soft like a teat, he still had to swallow his liquids.  With tube feeding, they don't have to swallow or even get to taste the fluids, so I think this may hinder learning to suck, not sure.  

I also added something sweet to the milk to stack the deck in my favor.  Within 3 days he was back on his feet and~after being shown the way~ actually competed with two older and stronger calves for a teat.  After a week of letting him get first preference with feeding, we were able to turn them out on pasture and he was able to compete for milk.


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## Kymberlyn (Aug 24, 2010)

I was so glad when a search engine picked up this thread.  I had never encountered a Dumb Sucker, or Dummy Calf before.  I didn't know what to do.

I initially used a tube as suggested but by day 2 the calf was down and his eyes were rolled back.  I used the tube until he lifted his head.  Then, figuring I had nothing to loose, I used a syringe as someone had mentioned.  By the 3rd syringe feeding, and trust me this takes forever, the calf was doing well enough to walk around again.

For the heck of it, I tried goat milk the next time.  The calf started to suck on the syringe so I grabbed a bottle which had cows milk in it.  The calf refused the bottle but would still suck the goat milk syringe.  I started wondering... what if he just doesn't like cow milk.  

I filled a bottle with goat milk and the dummy sucked it right down.  

The next feeding I offered a cow milk bottle.  No luck.  He would not suck at all.  I offered a goat milk bottle and he suckled it without any hesitation.

It's now day 4 and he is doing very well but will only suck the goat milk.  He is doing so well that I have lost any fear of loosing him.  I am so happy about that.

Anyway, I thought that I would pass on this story just in case it might help someone else.  For me the goat milk was the answer but I never would have seen that without going to the syringe method of feeding.  Thanks a ton for that tip!


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