# New to raising calves.....HELP!



## Kettle Creek Cattle (Dec 10, 2020)

I'm new to the site and just realized that I made this post in the new member introduction thread so I'm posting it here again so it hopefully catches someone's eye:

Good day all!

I'm hoping someone with wayyy more experience raising calves will chime in and help me out! I recently aquired two bottle calves, a holstein bull and a holstein/angus cross heifer. They were both born on 11-12-20. They came from the same farm and the farmer assured me they both received colostrum.
When I got them home the bull calf seemed sickly while the little heifer was lively and vibrant. Only having experience raising beef cattle (feeder size), I purchased high quality milk replacer.
Both calves took to the bottle right away and ate well. About a week after I got them the bull calf went down with a bad case of scours (based on everything I've read). Did electrolyte therapy but sadly he never got back up.
Fast forward to 5 days ago. My heifer calf started showing the same symptoms i.e., watery diarrhea, lethargic, going off feed. I contacted two large animal veterinarians (the only 2 near my home) and both would not come out because I live too far away.
I quickly hopped on the interweb for suggestions. After sifting through endless possibilities, I flew down to tractor supply and bought about everything I could get my hands on (penicillin, LA200, scour tablets, oral B12 gel, more electrolytes etc).
I continued feeding milk replacer with electrolytes in between. Contacted my dog vet of all people and she told me to give her a shot of penicillin (3ml) and give her the scour tablets (terramycin). She said to give both meds for 5 days. I gave her one shot of penicillin three days ago and started her on the scour tablets (one tablet every 12hrs). I lowered her milk intake from three feedings (8oz powder in 2 quarts of water) to two feedings with an electrolyte bottle in the afternoon between the two feedings. This morning she was seemingly starving (finally) and sucked her bottle down in no time. I gave her the reccomend dose of the oral B12 after her bottle. This afternoon I opted to not give her milk and gave her electrolytes instead. She sucked that down quickly and still seemed very hungry. She has mixed grass hay and calf starter pellets free choice. I did notice in her stall this afternoon that she finally had a bowel movement that was somewhat solid (the first in 5 days).
Now, before I screw things up and make her go backwards again, what should my course of action be from here on out?
I genuinely appreciate anyone taking the time to read this long post and willing to offer their expertise as I am flying by the seat of my pants here. I already lost one calf and don't want to lose her!


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## hysop (Dec 31, 2020)

I see this is three weeks old.  How is your calf doing?


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