preme calf?

[ba]

  What do ypu think? Born at this evning and  gave bar gard 99,clostridium anti toxin alfa7,moved to box stall into dryer
bedding left mom working on baby for awhilethen went out found calf all spralled out. Rancalf to the house feet were
getting cold so put bath tub with warm watercalf got more active then crashed . We did calf CPR for 15-20 min got back
and went down about three times thendied. Alot of fluids came out nose and mouth when held up by back feet . The
feet look to be a little early to me.  Out of big EXT cow and between 60-70 pounds.

 

[DL]

OK - remember us with landlines - I did chores while the pictures downloaded 

Questions  - what about the teeth?
How long was the hair?

Comments - babies, especially premature babies, have special needs because they cannot do things that "normal" critters can - for example they do not regulate their temperature properly and they do not regulate their glucose (blood sugar) properly. Consequently they are at risk for really low temperature (in cold weather) or really high body temperature )if they are born in a hot climate).

They also because they cannot regulate their glucose can become hypoglycemic rather rapidly - this ---> decreased mentation (if cows mentate) and eventually coma.

The other thing that can happen in calves that die shortly after birth is that they have some weird congenital defect - often of the heart, but of any organ....

but in your case I think your calf (from his feet) might have been a tad premature, but it is likely that he got hypoglycemic and then cold...that is when you found him. You made a valiant effort to save him ...the only way to know for sure he didn't have a congenital defect is to do a necropsy.

It is likely that the fluid you saw when you lifted him up was from CPR and not necessarily related to his demise

I don't know where you are but it is darn cold here and some fool decided to calve out a bunch of cows in Jan and Feb and I can tell you what I do! Because calves can crash so quick I never leave a calf until I see it nurse, give it a bottle of colostrum or colostrum supplement/replacer or tube it. Then if the mother knows what she is doing and we have no swirling wind (no walls on the barn) and the calf is up and bouncing I put him in a polar fleece coat (yeah I know dori! in Wyoming you would need thousands of coats, but this is MI) - if it is miserable or I am worried I put him in the calf warmer. In fact I have a 15 day early 60 lb bull calf in the warmer as we speak - he had the membrane over his face so he got a big gulp of fluid in his lungs, his mother is a heifer, he will take a bottle and nurse the heifer and as soon as he does all the blood goes to his gut and he gets cold. I'll sleep better with him in the warmer - his mother might not, but I tried to explain to her it was for his own good.

Sorry about your calf - I just hate it when babies die, DL

 

[ba]

Because  I can not think , poke keyboard and spell at the same time I forgot to post that I gave 1QT of colostrum milk re placer
when we hit the door of the house. One reason I back off was the cow was very nervous and I have allready been mauled
early this year by a ?????????? of a cow and that's not fun but I won!!  Felt the calf was having some respiratory problems at birth
because of the rattles it had minutes after birthwhen found him asI was watching from the gate. Someone on aboard told of
giving re sparations through one nostrial mouth closed. Had port O2 bottle but was empty so no luck there.

Tnank goodness for spell check

We arein west centrial  IN









o

 

[DL]

ba - being mauled is no fun! Could the calf had taken a slug of amniotic fluid? That can make them sound gurgly. The other thing I forgot to mention is that the lungs of premature calves can also be immature - dexamethasone has been used in situations of lung immaturity with some success - you might want to ask your vet for a prescription to have on hand (and then hopefully you won't need it) - again, sorry about your calf

 

[ba]

Thats what I have got figured on the amniotic fluid deal in the birthing process

 

[dori36]

I don't know where you are but it is darn cold here and some fool decided to calve out a bunch of cows in Jan and Feb and I can tell you what I do! Because calves can crash so quick I never leave a calf until I see it nurse, give it a bottle of colostrum or colostrum supplement/replacer or tube it. Then if the mother knows what she is doing and we have no swirling wind (no walls on the barn) and the calf is up and bouncing I put him in a polar fleece coat (yeah I know dori! in Wyoming you would need thousands of coats, but this is MI) - if it is miserable or I am worried I put him in the calf warmer. In fact I have a 15 day early 60 lb bull calf in the warmer as we speak - he had the membrane over his face so he got a big gulp of fluid in his lungs, his mother is a heifer, he will take a bottle and nurse the heifer and as soon as he does all the blood goes to his gut and he gets cold. I'll sleep better with him in the warmer - his mother might not, but I tried to explain to her it was for his own good.
quote]

Dang, DL, you're good!!  You read my mind!  Just envisioning 500 or so little calves all running around wearing little fleece coats!!  (lol)  Seriously, whatever it takes....  I'm not even going to make fun of you!  I respect your knowledge!