# calf refuses to drink



## Justin Seaborn (Feb 2, 2014)

I bought a week old Jersey heifer three days ago. She has been eating fine until this afternoon. She had diarrhea when I bought her so I gave her one of those big blue anti scours pills. It helped with the diarrhea I thought but it was still runny this morning. I called the farm where I got her and he said she was supposed to get two pills so I gave her another this morning and tonight she has bloody poo and will not attempt to eat. Really need help, not sure what to do from here. She ate 11 hours ago.


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## Martin Farms (Feb 3, 2014)

We had 7 Holsteins about 2 years ago. When we bought them, the guy said he left them on the trailer over night and didn't feed them the night before. We got home and I attempted to feed each one but they were so weak I couldnt' get them to eat, they had the scours bad. My husband gave them the pill and we also used that pink medicine for swines and mixed it in the milk and when that wouldn't work we got revitilyte-gelling, which you mix in a bottle give when your feeding, but let her eat that then her milk.  After i lost them all, we had them checked and they ended up with salmonella from stayin on the guys trailer all night, something in their poo. I suggest to keep her pen she is in clean, clean out the old and put new bedding down every day when she is runny. When we couldn't get them to eat, we gave them something called bounce back, we stocked up on it. Just mix it with water and give it to her when you feed her. It has a sweet taste that the calves like. We ended up making some eat through a tube, my husband had to help me with that, some sort of tube feeder they had when they had their dairy farm, it goes down the throat and you pour the milk in a bag and she can drink it that way. I don't know if this helps any, I have had several baby holsteins and know its hard when they won't eat. They get down and very hard to get back to normal, but I've done it for 5 years now. Also check with the farm you purchased her from, make sure she got colostrum from her mommy, not the bag colostrum. I've lost a few from not getting good colostrum from their mommys. Hope I helped a little and hope she gets to eatting better.


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## elevan (Feb 3, 2014)

@Justin Seaborn - How is your calf today?

I don't have much cattle experience but when I had a calf go down, I got a bag of Lactated Ringers and IV Tubing from the vet and proceeded to give SubQ fluids forming "saddle bags" over the ribs by the shoulders on both sides.  I repeated this every couple of hours.  I also tubed Oral Neomycin (an antibiotic) along with Kaolin Pectin (pepto) for the scours.  Since I was giving SubQ fluids I didn't worry about giving milk for 48 hours.  At the end of those 48 hours my calf was up on his feet, no scours and screaming for his bottle.  He survived to drive me crazy with his escape attempts.  Best of luck to you.


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