Orphan Heifer

[Kathy Millar]

Just had a very small (about 25 lbs.) Dexter heifer dropped off yesterday. Her mom may or may not have fed her, the owner didn't know but the little so and so managed to get out of the barn and was found about 600 feet away, curled up in a patch of thistles. Her mom wasn't interested and by this time she was maybe 8 hours old. Anyways, the fool here has taken her and is struggling to get her to take her milk. Managed to beg colostrum from the neighbouring dairy farm, had the vet up to tube her as she would not take a bottle, but he ended up just squirting the milk in her mouth. Well, he recommended to feed a litre more (it is about 3 pm now) and after it took me about 40 minutes to get 150 ml down her throat (part of it on me), I gave up and fed her just the 150 ml for the remainder of the evening. All in all, she was fed about 800 ml yesterday.

This morning she still isn't sucking but it took us only 15 minutes to get 150 ml down. So what is the world record (I'm afraid to ask!) for time taken to finally accept a bottle??? My husband is helping me thank goodness as she may be small, but she is strong and can really squirm and leap about. I have done this with lambs but not calves! Will try and get another litre of colostrum down her.

Don't know if she will make it as it is cold and RAINY (record rainfall at the moment, never seen so much!) but she has a draft-free corner in the barn with hay bales around her and a heat lamp so hopefully she will make it. I will keep you posted!

Kathy :O

[groubearfarm]

I have managed to bottle feed on a number of occasions for different reasons, I had one little heifer in front of the aga for twelve hours. I am sure with patience and time you will get there as long as it has some colustrum. I suppose you don't have a newly born calf or a cow due to calve because I usually double suckle and that is best for the calf and although more work short term, in the long run it will make the bottle redundant. If you persist with a teat, then when the opportunity arises, it is used to something in its mouth for food and will hopefully take to the cow's teat more willingly.

I must admit I would have persisted with its reluctant mum, that would have been best for the poor little mite. Anyway Good luck, Fiona

[Duncan MacIntyre]

No need to worry about a bottle if she will learn to drink from a bucket, when the sucking reflex is there put a finger or two in the mouth,preferably milky, and when you feel her tongue doing a proper sook lower the head into the bucket so the nose is almost in the milk. Keep a very close eye on the navel and for scour or any dullness as she may not have had adequate colostrum at an early enough age to absorb it well, and speak to your vet again if you are worried.
The main danger with bucket or bottle is to give too much at one time, a litre a feed is plenty for a new born Dexter for the first week or so.Good luck.

Colostrum should only be taken from another farm if you are reasonably confident of the health situation - it can carry lots of passengers as well as antibodies.

Duncan

[Saffy]

Kathy,

I have no idea what the world record is but I had my work cut out once with twin Charolais X Friesian bull calves.

After a 2 hour battle I decided they didn't want to suckle from the cow very much, so I milked her and offered it in buckets, waste of time failed totally to get them to drink, tried ALL ways. So I put it in bottles - still wouldn't drink, squirted into their mouths, dribbled it out - gave serious consideration to drenching - kill or cure! Anyway had to tube them both, one drank after 10 days the other took a fortnight!

It wasn't that I didn't know what I was doing I bucket fed 120 a year but these two were amazing, I've had nothing like it before or since save for a lamb that had to be tube fed.

Good luck Kathy, it is a labour of love but I am sure it is worth it.

Stephanie :D

[Liz D]

Hi kathy; Glad to see it wasn't 'orphaned' by one of yours. I bottle feed everyone, because I want the milk!, and as long as they get adaquate colostrum, I let them get a little hungry and then they seem to take to the bottle right away! This is just what I've noticed but heifers seem to take longer than bull calves getting used to the new mom. Liz

[moomin]

Make sure you tickle the roof of her mouth with your finger or the teat at first, pressure on the roof of the mouth stimulates the sucking reflex. Stand astride her wrapping her head slightly round your leg, your leg will feel like her mother's body and put your hand that is not holding the bottle over her nose applying a very light pressure on her nose as though she was pushing against the udder. This simulates the position she would be in and the pressures she would feel if she was feeding off her dam. I use a lamb teat for Dexters - it works better than a calf teat and is much softer.
Good luck, all of a sudden she will do it!

[Duncan MacIntyre]

I know one dairy farmer who tube fed a limousin cross (or was it a cross limousin?) for 6 weeks. By that time it was eating enough solids to carry on. Noyt to be recommended.

Duncan

[Inger]

It took a month of milking the mother and force feeding the calf, before we managed to get a prem calf to drink of his mum. He stubbornly refused to drink. I held the teat of the bottle in his mouth and squeezed his jaw together three times, then waiting until he swallowed, stroking the throat can help that and repeated the process for as long as my back could cope with it. At times I got so fed up sometimes that I just tube fed the creature. Eventually he got strong enough to feed off the cow and I used the same system of holding his mouth around the teat and squeezing it a few times until the milk flowed into his mouth. Evenually he got the hang of drinking from his mother and we finally sold him as a raising yearling at the sales with our other steers. The $405 NZ was worth the time put into him to get him started, even though I'm sure he would rather have died.

So keep it up, she'll get there in the end.

[Kathy Millar]

Well, it's 9:00 pm and we've "fed" her 7 times, once more at 11 and then to bed ..Took her temp as I am afraid she may have aspirated some milk and got pneumonia. It is 39.6'C which is a bit high. If it is higher at 11 I will start her on anitbiotics. Unfortunately it has to be thawed out as it was a soluble kind and the vet's office premixed it for me. I do have depocillan but I think that is not used for pneumonia?

Anyways, I will show my husband these e-mails as her is the one feeding her now. We are using a human baby bottle as that is what I use for my Shetland lambs.

They sure can have a death wish, can't they?

Thank you all for taking the time to respond,

Kathy