Soon-to-be orphaned calf

I realize and appreciate the plethora of experience here, and I'd like to tap a little of it.

Situation Cow that freshened about 10 days ago was diagnosed with listeriosis this evening. I'm going to put her down in the morning. Still trying to decide what to do with the calf.

Possibility #1.  Wean the calf. Question: How easy is it to try to start a calf on milk replacer at this age? Would you recommend a bottle or bucket ? The calf is not especially tame.
Possibility #2  There's a show heifer that's about 75 days old that should be weaned pretty soon anyway.  Is it a pipe dream to hope that we can graft the orphan calf onto the show heifer's dam and wean the older calf instead?

Any other ideas or advice?

Thanks a million.

Well, I would not try to graft it onto the female that you are getting close to weaning a calf off of.  It would be very hard to graft one that has a calf that age.  I personally would recommend going the bottle feeding route or finding a nurse cow that has just recently freshened as well.  If you have any dairies in your area you could perhaps talk to them and see what their protocol is for their bottle calves.  Don't worry about that calf being a little "wild". When it gets hungry and you are the only food source then it will quickly learn to love you.  You will also be able to start the calf on creep in a few weeks.  Make sure that you give it access to fresh water and perhaps a little amount of fresh grass hay.  Talk to your feed person about milk replacer.  Personally, i do not like to feed medicated milk replacer unless the calf is having problems.  Your feed person may argue with you but you can easily locate milk replacer that is not medicated.  If that calf isn't sick there is no reason to keep pumpin g medication into it.  I just feel that when the calf actually does get sick that the antibiotics won't be as effective.

Good luck!

Maines in PA said:

I realize and appreciate the plethora of experience here, and I'd like to tap a little of it.

Situation Cow that freshened about 10 days ago was diagnosed with listeriosis this evening. I'm going to put her down in the morning. Still trying to decide what to do with the calf.

Possibility #1.  Wean the calf. Question: How easy is it to try to start a calf on milk replacer at this age? Would you recommend a bottle or bucket ? The calf is not especially tame.
Possibility #2  There's a show heifer that's about 75 days old that should be weaned pretty soon anyway.  Is it a pipe dream to hope that we can graft the orphan calf onto the show heifer's dam and wean the older calf instead?

Any other ideas or advice?

Thanks a million.

Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about your cow. A loss of any kind is never easy.

It would depend on the cow. We have had cows that will feed all comer's. Any calf in the herd that wants to nurse she will allow. The temperment on the momma would make a big difference. If you are weaning at 3 months or 90 days that wouldn't hurt the cow to be in production another 90 days. I know people have had luck with bucket calves, we have not.

I would say good luck with the adoption. It might work, but chances are you will have a real fight on your hands.

Getting the calf to take a bottle at 10 days old isn't an impossible dream though. Depending on the calf, it might be real easy, or it might be a BIG fight. We just put a month old calf on the bottle (mama had a BAD case of mastitis). That calf took the bottle about 6 hours after we pulled her off the cow. And she was not at all tame, had never been handled before.

Here is my technique.
The most important thing in my mind is a soft nipple, the kind you can slide onto a pop bottle. They are made of soft rubber/latex and are a lot more like a cows teat than most of the others out there. Once the calf is going on the bottle, you can switch. If you can't find a calf sized one, a lamb one will work too.

NOW, back the calf into a corner, you'll understand why once you start working with the calf.
Then, straddle its neck/shoulders, facing forward, and holding the calf in the corner.
Now you pry its mouth open and stick the nipple in. You will have to cup its lower jaw, and try to keep him from spitting the nipple out.
Pull his head up snugly against your chest/belly. It helps if you are wearing a looser fitting shirt, something that kind of covers its eyes, this really does seem to make a difference.
You may want to try : squeezing his mouth around the nipple, to kind of mimic him sucking, sliding the nipple in and out of its mouth, rubbing his neck to get him swallowing.

Remember, you NEED him to be hungry. If he isn't hungry, you will just end up frustrated for no reason. Give him at least 6 hours after you pull him off mama, before you try the bottle. A 10 day old calf can go without a feed for more than a day if he is really, really stubborn, and you won't hurt him that badly. I wouldn't go much more than a day, though, without getting it into him somehow (probably tubing him).

being raised on a dairy I have bottle fed lots of calves.  I would agree with the last person put the calf in a corner or small chute. make sure the milk is warm and you may have to milk a little into the calf's mouth first so they can taste it.  You may have to do this several times before it figures everything out, but just be patient.  Also calves at 10 days can start eating feed and hay.  Don't give up even the stupid calves figure it out eventually.  Stay clam with the calf and don't get mad it it doesn't start sucking right away.  When it gets hungry it will eat, they all do it just might take a while. 

Had a heifer calf a few years back that we had to pull and put on a bottle due to problems with the cow, calf was about three weeks old at the time. It took about a day and a half and some persistant work, but the little gal took to the bottle as well as feed and turned out quite well. Good Luck!

I wanted to thank everyone for the comments and tell the rest of the story.

It was a couple of days until we got the calf in. She was making a living from what she could steal from a couple other cows, but her#1  adopted mom is the thinnest cow out there, and we weren't too thrilled about the prospects of her getting any thinner. Had to back the calf into a corner the first couple of feedings, but she took to the bottle pretty quickly. This morning when I was breeding a cow I inadvertently let the calf loose, but she came right up to me in the pasture this evening for her bottle. She's probably not going to set the world on fire for pre-weaning growth, but I think she'll survive. My daughter has been watching her eat and named her "sucker".

Thanks again for all the help.

You're a good bunch!

I've always had good luck getting old show heifers to accept orphan calves.  They are easy to handle and they will do just about anything to get back on feed again.  Bring her #1 adopted mother and her calf in and feed the cow as a reward for letting the 2nd calf nurse.