Bottle Calf

[rebelemtp]

Calf born 2/2/22. Her mother when down a week later and no success on getting mother back up. So started bottle feeding the calf. have had starter feed available along with water. Yesterday evening my wife gave her the night bottle and she told me that the calf drank it all but the last 1/4 of the bottle. which is very unusual, she normally will suck down a bottle with no problems and of course want more. and then mouth on the gate. She has been eating grass that has be coming up and I gave her some of the hay I was feeding the rest of the heard about a week ago, in which she went to smelling and then started eating, which seemed like she was eating a lot of it. (to me anyway).
Now this morning she didn't come up to me when I went out to feed her this morning, and when she did just mouth the nipple and didn't want any of it. it looks like she is having the runs. I found some white looking diarrhea on the ground and see what looks like some on her tail.
She hasn't eaten much if any of her starter feed in the last 2 days. Concerned and don't know if I should call the vet yet or wait.

Thanks for all help.

 

[Mini Horses]

Don't wait. They go downhill fast. I'll assume the cow passed and your using milk replacer or? Pls advise as that may be a concern.

@farmerjan can you help with some insight???

 

[rebelemtp]

Yes milk replacer. and yes when I found this form and read some of @farmerjan's post that's why I joined.

 

[farmerjan]

I am sorry to have been pretty much MIA for a couple of days. Several things going on.
Sounds like the calf has one of 2 things... Coccidiosis or e-coli scours. Stop the milk replacer, get it on electrolytes to get energy up. Use either Corid for the coccidiosis and any gram negative anti-biotic treatment for the e-coli. So that means anything like penicillin, or oxytet (LA 200 and such)... there are many that can be used but the sad thing is there is much anti-biotic resistance so some don't necessarily work.
NOW, this was told to me directly by a vet.... and it is NOT the label recommendations.... USE 3 cc of Corid directly into the mouth (down the throat) and 1 cc daily for 3 days to kill the coccidiosis... and yes, that is what I use. You have to get it to the source QUICK... the mixing it in the water is fine if they aren't real sick.... but it takes more time than a young calf has. Also, you can give the same of either pen or oxytet, down the throat... for the initial dose for e-coli. Then go with it in the neck muscle or sub-q... under the skin. Dose for the weight which in a 30-45 day old calf ought to be 150 +/- lbs.
I keep them off milk replacer for 24-48 hours...
And another thing to do is try an-antiscour pill.... many are sulfa based....which is fine also for the e-coli.... But in a pinch... give one Immodium AD pill... human type... and another 12 hours later.... it will "stop it up" so that it isn't running out the back end faster than you can get it in the front end.... so that they don't dehydrate....
Kaopectate will also help to slow down the passage of the liquid... it is the DEHYDRATION that kills them as fast or FASTER than the actual disease.
Both are environmental so could have been picked up anywhere... The experts say that cocidiosis is species specific... but it you have chickens running around loose, I would bet a nickle that it is from them. I had turkeys in a stall one year and 2 years later used it for baby calves and they all came down with cocidiosis scours... and I had seen it before... and stopped using that stall for calves for another 4-5 years because everytime I did, they got scours... it was cultured cocidiosis... but oh, no, impossible to have come from the poultry..... they can carry it and have no symptoms and never have it bother them... some do get sick as baby chicks but most older birds do not....
The hay looks to not be as nutritious as she needs... not criticizing... they just need very HIGHLY nutritious feed and hay. I would limit the amount of hay she is getting and try to up the grain a little.
Is she a guernsey? They seem to have less resistance to some of the "bugs" as calves and probably should be kept a little more confined so she will eat more "dense" nutrition... So many dairy calves will try to eat more hay than they can get the food value out of... so often need more milk and more grain for the first 3-4 months and just a little hay... a 2nd or 3rd cutting of good soft blade orchard grass that is green colored and has more protein and less stem.... Their rumens start to develop but they sometimes will try to meet their nutritional needs more from the hay and wind up with alot of bulk that does not meet the protein needs.
At least she is a month old plus instead of a 2 week calf... but guernseys and jerseys do not have alot of "body" reserves to fall back on so "stopping her up" so her body can absorb the liquid is first... higher energy from electrolytes....and killing the bad "bugs" in her gut tract....then putting her back on 1 feeding of a bottle of milk, and 1 bottle of electrolytes... then the next day go back to milk if she is looking better. And you might need to up her to 1 1/2 bottles a feeding.....many dairies are feeding 6 qts milk now instead of the 4 qts like we used to....

 

[rebelemtp]

She is a longhorn. And no chickens are around her. They have there own pen. I did notice the a armadillo has visited last yesterday and last night. My Wife gave her a bottle of electrolytes this evening and she did drink that all . Thanks for your help!

 

[farmerjan]

Okay, longhorn is great. I have 1 for my "yard ornament" as they bring peanuts here... just like them... But again, they are a thinner leaner breed so will dehydrate a little faster too...
The big thing is to get her to be eating more of the higher nutrition; ie... the grain, to feed the growing muscles and bones in her body. This is nutrition that nature would have provided in the cows milk... and longhorns have higher butterfat so more nutritionally beneficial to the little growing body...
Also being a longhorn, she may just not have enough room in her little "tummy" for too much milk at a time... sometimes calves will scour simply due to "too much milk " all at once... don't forget they drink only a pint or 2 at a time from the cow while nursing and nurse more often... Just cutting the amount and feeding 3 bottles (partial) a day might solve the problem too.
You are a bit ahead of the game with her being 6 weeks old and not a newborn.
I don't know what "diseases" armadillos carry or if she can contract something from them. Possums here carry some stuff that can make horses very sick and even die. It is a big deal here to keep possums out of feed... most use a metal can.
If she drinks another bottle of electrolytes well, then I would try a 1/2 bottle of milk a few hours later... if she does okay with that then probably will be okay... but I would watch. Sometimes both coccidiosis and e-coli will cause blood in the scours but not always.
She could have eaten something out in the pasture that upset her stomach too... nature's way of purging is to have the scours/diarrhea clean out the intestinal tract...might not see another bit of problem...

 

[rebelemtp]

Thanks for the reply! Ok we got electrolytes in her yesterday and this morning. She is acting better yesterday evening. Not seeing anymore diarrhea so that’s good. Cleaned all bowls used for her. I had forgot that we had used the same bowls for the chickens last year, so just in case I cleaned them both. Gave a small amount of alfalfa again today. She seems to be back to her energetic self again. We also gave her one dose of terramycin this evening. She’s not really eating the starter feed for calf’s that much. It seems to go in spurts on how much she will eat of that.

 

[farmerjan]

Some of them are picky on grain eating... our Red Poll cattle were not grain eaters and the one bottle calf I had a terrible time getting her "going" because she did not want to eat grain and she needed the extra protein for growth.
Be careful of the alfalfa as that is very rich and could give her scours. You might want to try to balance some of the "cow hay" and the alfalfa so she gets more bulk and not too much concentrated protein from the alfalfa. I used to feed a section (leaf) of alfalfa to the dairy cows in the barn when I was milking along with their grain... I like it but it can founder them if too much.

It seems like I am going to have a bottle calf ...... and also from my longhorn. Seems she must have had twins, my DS tagged one he saw with/on her and then 2 days later saw her with a different untagged calf and now she is rejecting the first calf... It is stealing off a couple of the other just fresh cows... so I am going to supplement with a bottle and see if it can be raised that way so it stays with the herd... I have one cow that has plenty of milk for 2, she just calved a week or 2 earlier...she's a dairy cross, but she has an attitude and I don't know if I can get her to maybe accept this one along with hers... she jumps the gate in the barn when she gets confined... not mean, just "don't fence me in" kind of attitude..... would be perfect if she would let this one nurse too....

So glad that the heifer is acting/feeling better... I wouldn't worry too much about more antibiotics unless you see a reccurrence of the scours... then I would do a full course... but it just might have been a simple case of upset. Happens... she just might have been nibbling something out there with the green grass and it didn't "settle right"....

 

[rebelemtp]

She's still doing good. She's eating a little of the calf starter, and does eat the hay, will feed 1/2 electrolytes with 1/2 milk replacement this evening. gave her that this morning and she's doing good. Still running around and wanting to know what i'm doing. And haven’t seen any more scours!!! Thankful for that! Don't want to loose her. Thank you @farmerjan

 

[farmerjan]

It is not advisable to mix the electrolytes and milk in the same bottle. There is some contraindications on it... I never give both within an hour or 2 of each other. I cannot remember off the top of my head the "why",,,, it will come to me eventually. I would put her on full milk this evening and if no scours in the morning, leave it that way... It seems to me without doing some looking up that the electrolytes interferes with the milk clotting so it is like the milk will "run right through them"... I just know that you just don't mix them... I used to do it until I started having some problems then did some reading up and realized I was actually making the problems worse.

I am glad she is doing better, I think it was just an upset and nothing too serious.