Sick calf...

[Grant]

I’d get some sweet feed in front of him too. Anything he will eat is a positive.

 

[Promiseofglory]

I’d get some sweet feed in front of him too. Anything he will eat is a positive.

I have two different kinds of calf starter in front of him. One is a pelleted feed, the other is a textured feed that is very aromatic with molasses. I can certainly add some sweet feed, but the older calf is also getting sweet feed, so it will be available.

 

[Grant]

Perfect. The more options the better.

 

[Promiseofglory]

I stopped in and visited with my vet again late this afternoon. I took a video of the calf moving stiffly and showed him. Also, the sale barn where we purchased the calf added to their sales report info that a lot of the calves going through the sale were sick attributing their illness to warm days and cool nights. Maybe.

My vet sent me home with Bantamine and another antibiotic, and so I’ll inject those three times over the next 9 days. It’s possible it’s a mycoplasma so we’ll see if there is a good result.

 

[farmerjan]

It could also be a joint ill of a type... although that ususally occurs with calves picking up an infection through the navel, but it could very well be a mycoplasma..... and that contributes to the not wanting to eat too. He//, when my knees get to hurting, I often don't want to eat either.
Banamine is for swelling and pain. Hope it helps the calf to feel better which will help it to want to eat too.

 

[Promiseofglory]

I have one more question, and I’ll be searching the internet for the answer also...the calf’s mama had a horrific eye injury dripping blood and pus. I’m sure she went from the sale ring to the packers. My question is this...is it possible for the infection of the mother to transfer to the calf through the milk? She was a huge Hereford cow in very good flesh, not in anyway looking sickly apart from the eye. My best guess is that it was another cows horn that did it and maybe it went undiscovered. It really didn’t look like a cancer. This info would be important for buying calves in the future.

 

[farmerjan]

It is unlikely but I won't say impossible. However, it would depend on what the organism that was causing it to be infected. If a Staph then it would be possible as staph is a blood transmitted organism as well as surface. It does sound more like cancer eye to me than an injury, but they don't all look the same. A cow with cancer eye can go for months before it will start to drag her down. We had one and we kept her for over 2 months so that the calf would get a longer time to "get going". The thing of it is here you won't get much if anything for a cancer eye cow and many sales won't even take them in. The seller would have been better off keeping her and letting her get the calf along further and just burying the cow as we did ours.
We also had a cow one time get a cancer eye looking infection.... had the vet take the eye out and sew that socket area shut. She was 8 months pregnant. She raised that calf and 2 more before she developed another growth on the jaw and when that calf was 5-6 months we also buried her as again, they would not have accepted her at the sale.
I think that you just got more unlucky than anything. And since they announced that there were several sick calves I am thinking that they all were exposed to some "bug" that they were not vaccinated against and had no immunity against.... the shipping fever type things will hit them fast and hard especially in the fall with the warm and cold and rainy weather.

But that said, it might be wise to not buy calves in that 150-300 lb range right off a cow like that. It is a hard stage, and as you are finding out, a relatively reasonably priced calf is going to wind up costing quite a bit more and alot more work.

 

[Promiseofglory]

I actually planned on coming home from that sale with several calves. He is the only one we actually got purchased...that is the real blessing.