HELP with dumb calf

[SKF]

We had a heifer calf born Friday that has not figured out that can not find the udder. This cow is 15 yrs old and has had a baby every year with out a propblem and her udder looks fine. Unfortantly this cow is not a halter broke cow or one that is easy to work with. Normally she is very protective of her calves and on friday and sat she would not let anyone get near her calf. Went out today to check on all the calves and noticed she had left her calf and after looking at the calf and the cow I can see that she is not nursing. The strange thing is she let us get out and mess with her calf instead of coming after us she walked away. So we took the calf to a friends cow who's calf is being weaned and tried to get the calf to nurse. The calf has a desire to nurse because she will latch on to anything but could not find the udder. We finally put the teet in her mouth and she nursed like crazy but as soon as you stop helping she seems to not know where to nurse. This cow does not want this calf she will let her nurse her when she is forced. Is it possiable that after a few days of helping that this cow might take this calf or should we just bottle feed. Has anyone else had a really dumb calf before. She is the dumbest calf I have ever seen!! HELP!!!! Thank you!

 

[Duffer]

We have had that problem before if there is a cow that you can use to teach from then you should just keep doing what you are after about 4-5 days the calf will get it figured out. I had a calf one time I had wrote off cuz I had messed with for 2weeks told my uncle he could have the calf he spent another week teaching the calf to nurse but my patience was shot so give it time

 

[dori36]

My biggest concern is that the calf is now approaching3 days of age. Did you get any colostrum into her after she was born?  You can only hope that, maybe, she got a little from the dam when you weren't watching.  Is she strong and vigorous?  I think she'd be pretty weak and dehydrated if she was born on Friday and hadn't eaten anything 'til you put her with the other cow today.  For now, I guess if the dam has definitely rejected her, you better go to bottle feeding or find her a surrogate.  Otoh, if she's strong, filling out, shiny, not bawling, she might be getting milk from either her dam or another cow that's letting her steal some. If she didn't get ANY colostrum from the day she was born, you may have some serious challenges keeping her healthy.

 

[SKF]

I am not sure if she has nursed at all but I would have to say at some point and time she had to have nursed. I would think that in this heat she would not live long without nursing. This morning I noticed that the cow is engorged and the calf was very sunken in. We got the calf up and she just seems to have a problem finding the udder and the cow seems to be losing intrest in the calf. I realy did not pay much attention to this calf when she was born because this cow is an old pro and everything seemed fine at first. The calf got to nurse another cow today but that cow does not like the calf she only let the calf nurse because we forced her to. The calf just has the hardest time figuring it out she kept trying to nurse the flank area. She is very hungry and will nurse anything. I would like to get another cow to take her but just not having luck.

 

[dori36]

I am not sure if she has nursed at all but I would have to say at some point and time she had to have nursed. I would think that in this heat she would not live long without nursing. This morning I noticed that the cow is engorged and the calf was very sunken in. We got the calf up and she just seems to have a problem finding the udder and the cow seems to be losing intrest in the calf. I realy did not pay much attention to this calf when she was born because this cow is an old pro and everything seemed fine at first. The calf got to nurse another cow today but that cow does not like the calf she only let the calf nurse because we forced her to. The calf just has the hardest time figuring it out she kept trying to nurse the flank area. She is very hungry and will nurse anything. I would like to get another cow to take her but just not having luck.

Sounds like you'd better get her on a bottle, the sooner the better.  That sunken in look indicates dehydration - probably not getting anything from anyone unless you force the other cow to let her nurse.

 

[SKF]

I am not sure if she has nursed at all but I would have to say at some point and time she had to have nursed. I would think that in this heat she would not live long without nursing. This morning I noticed that the cow is engorged and the calf was very sunken in. We got the calf up and she just seems to have a problem finding the udder and the cow seems to be losing intrest in the calf. I realy did not pay much attention to this calf when she was born because this cow is an old pro and everything seemed fine at first. The calf got to nurse another cow today but that cow does not like the calf she only let the calf nurse because we forced her to. The calf just has the hardest time figuring it out she kept trying to nurse the flank area. She is very hungry and will nurse anything. I would like to get another cow to take her but just not having luck.

Sounds like you'd better get her on a bottle, the sooner the better.  That sunken in look indicates dehydration - probably not getting anything from anyone unless you force the other cow to let her nurse.

We just had her nurse the other cow again and she did better at figuring out where she needs to nurse. I am going to have her nurse the cow a couple more times then I will try her again on her mother and see if she can figure out where to nurse on her own tomorrow if she can't we will bottle feed. She looks much better now that she has started nursing and is acting a little more perky.

 

[cowcrazy]

Is it possible to get the Momma cow into a chute?  If so, you can milk her down and put the milk in a bottle for the heifer.  Or you could even try to let the baby nurse the mom while in the chute.  Try pouring some of the milk on the calf if the mom doesn't seem to accept it.  Good luck!

 

[SKF]

Is it possible to get the Momma cow into a chute?  If so, you can milk her down and put the milk in a bottle for the heifer.  Or you could even try to let the baby nurse the mom while in the chute.  Try pouring some of the milk on the calf if the mom doesn't seem to accept it.  Good luck!

The mom is not the easiest cow to catch. The mothers has a great udder and she will let the calf nurse the problem is the calf is dumb. She trys to nurse everything but the udder. She is nursing a cow that we can handle and we are trying to teach her that the udder is where she needs to nurse. I have never seen a calf this dumb she keeps trying to nurse us. We will try her again with her own mother and see if she has figured it out now that she has been nursing another cow with our help. So tomorrow will be the big test to see if she is learning.

 

[cowcrazy]

If you can get the cow contained, grab the calf by the flank and hold her beside the mom with her head close to the udders.  Don't try to force her to drink, just let her look and smell the udder for a while.  Usually when they try to suck everything, they are just really hungry and need to be pointed in the right direction.

 

[SKF]

This morning we put the calf back with her mother and she is finally figured out what the udder is for!!!!! <party>

 

[chigirl]

we had a bull calf about a week ago do the same thing he didnt know how to put his head down to nurse off the teets
he kept nursing on her flank the mother was getting pretty annoyed and she was so bagged up she was hurting so we
had to give the calf a bottle morning and nite for the first three days then milk out the mother to relieve some pressure
on her udder so she wasnt so sore then force his head down to the nursing position and he was kinda refusing at first
then if we put the teet in his mouth he would nurse but when he was done we offered a bottle just to make sure he had
his fill the he just caught on and he nurses like a pro now but we brought her in the barn to eat morning and nite and
made sure the calf came in with her so we could actually see him nursing to make sure all was well  doing great now but
i was ready to give up on the mother because i thought she was like kicking at him if he got close to her udder because
she was sore but it was not like the cow this was her fourth calf and my daughter told me not to give up on her it wasnt
her it was the bull was dumb and that was what it was.