Opinions, advice?

[Kettle Creek Cattle]

Hello all! Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! I'm posting a picture of my first bottle calf to get some of you experts opinions. She is an angus holstein cross and she is 7 weeks old. Am I doing ok with her? Is she too skinny, too fat? Does her hair coat look ok. Overall, does she look healthy? Should I change anything up?

 

[farmerjan]

Looks pretty good for a holstein cross.... plenty of flesh, no pot belly, pretty "alive" looking eyes.

Suggestion.... how about starting a journal type thread.... then those of us (me) would be able to follow along with the progress of the calf instead of different threads? It would tie your whole calf/cattle projects in together....
plus I would get alerts on anything you post.......

 

[Kettle Creek Cattle]

Ok thank you! I'll try to figure out how to start a thread (not very tech savvy lol)

 

[Finnie]

Ok thank you! I'll try to figure out how to start a thread (not very tech savvy lol)

No journal yet to follow.... go here:

Member's "BackYardHerds" Journals

Your Journal MUST start with your username. For example: "Nifty - Here's my journal about my goats and cows!"

www.backyardherds.com

And click on the button I circled here:

I would like to follow a journal of yours too. I keep missing all your various other threads.

 

[farmerjan]

See, we all like seeing your calf pictures and all.... so now you HAVE to start a journal please........

 

[Beekissed]

She's beautiful! I don't see a thing wrong with her, but then I'm not much of a cow person.

 

[Ridgetop]

She looks good! Nice topline. Can't tell condition without feeling her.

How old is she? Did she get colostrum? How much milk are you feeding and how often? Are you giving her hay and/or grain to pick through and sample? Make sure she has fresh water available.

She looks good. Just some information about raising bottle calves - watch her stool carefully. If she starts to scour, immediately take action since a calf can scour and go down in hours. Once they go down they are almost impossible to recover. Keep paste probiotics (for gut health) and paste electrolytes on hand. If the calf goes down it will stop drinking and dehydrate. Using the past probiotics can help it recover the gut action, while the paste electrolytes are very salty and will not only replace the minerals lost due to scours but will encourage the thirsty calf to drink. Cut the milk in half with water (you want to restrict protein for the first few feedings after scours) and add a little bit of Karo syrup to encourage the calf to drink it. The Karo glucose will also give the calf some strength. Don't give her the probiotics or electrolytes if she is healthy though sine they can throw off her system if she doesn't need them.

Farmerjan is most experienced with calves. She probably has some other remedies you can give. Bottle calves can be tricky to raise on replacer. If you have fresh cow or goat milk they are easier since they don't tend to get the stomach upsets that can cause them to scour.

Don't worry, bottle calves can be fun. Just train her early to respect the halter and you.