#45 was born early Sunday morning, March 17th. He was born to #19, who was only 18 months old. I did not want her to breed yet and did not expect a calf. However, she was showing signs of pregnancy about 3 days ago.
I fully expected either the calf or the cow to die, probably both.
I saw #45 early in the morning, and she was still wet, so I thought everything was normal. I would come back in the afternoon and check in on him and the mom.
When I found the calf in the afternoon, I saw that he was unable to stand. Shortly after that, I borrowed some colostrum from my neighbor. The directions indicate that the calf should get 2 packages in the first 24 hours. We made up one package and I fed most of it to the calf. There was only about a cup left.
After spending 3 hours on the land trying to get the calf to walk and nurse, I left satisfied that the calf was getting better, was able to walk, and probably would find his mom’s teats eventually. I went home and came back to the field early the next morning.
The calf was showing some signs of progress. Somehow the calf had moved himself outside the grazing area. The mom’s bags seemed to be slightly smaller than the night before. Even though the calf was still weak, I couldn’t get him to drink much of the leftover colostrum, so I left satisfied that maybe he was doing better, but retaining the idea that things were not well.
I came back that afternoon with powdered calf milk and tried again to feed him. I wasn’t successful, and his mom wasn’t showing much interest. I showed myself that the calf was able to walk and stand, and not knowing what else to do, I went home.
The next morning, I found the calf dead. Rigor mortis had already set in, so he died at least a few hours ago. The ground underneath him was dry and we had a morning sprinkle, so I estimated he died some time before dawn. We had a cold night that night.
Going forward, I am making the following changes to hopefully prevent this from happening again:
- Keep the bulls off the cows, and far away, until July-August when it is time to breed. This way, calves are only born in April and May and young heifers will not be bred early.
- Keep colostrum on hand with both bottle and force-feeder. If I have an idea that a calf did not get colostrum or is weak, I am going to feed the calf. If that is not successful, then I am going to force-feed the calf until a sufficient amount is fed. Then I am going to follow up every few hours to check on the calf, except at night time.