Baby calf won’t suck

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Baby calf won’t suck- New calf that refuses to suck from a bottle

One of my cows passed away last week leaving behind a five week old calf. I tried bringing him into the pens at the house to bottle feed him, but this baby calf won’t suck. I tried every trick that I knew, but he just refused to nurse.

I tried putting salt on my finger and letting him suck on it first, but no go. He just didn’t want anything to do with me while fighting the whole time.

I cut the X in top of the nipple bigger and removed the weep hole so the milk would run out letting him swallow the milk but he never would suck on the nipple.

I give him a shot of B12 to help increase his appetite, but that failed as well.

I tried only feeding him just a pint of milk in the evening and waiting to the morning to attempt to feed him again, but still no sucking.

I tried to get him to feel comfortable with me and my scent, by covering his eyes and blowing in his nose and place his nose under my arm. After a few days he was comfortable with me being in the pen with him but still the baby calf wouldn’t suck.

I knew the calf wasn’t sick. He had great energy and wasn’t coughing or had runny eyes. His ears were alert and had no problem getting up. He was strong little bully.

These were all tricks that have worked well of me in the past, but he wasn’t having no part of the bottle. He would put his head back and twist from side to side fighting to get away from the milk every time. Sometimes he would lay down to pout and refuse to stand knowing it would make it harder for me.

I named the little red Brahman cross calf Spit Fire. I was able to place the nipple after it was open wider in his mouth and allow him to swallow. He would take pint, sometimes two by just swallowing and a few times I got whole bottle down him. I never did try to tube feed him. He never got weak or sickly on me.

I kept the struggle up for eight days and realized that he would never be willing to suck. Lucky he was six weeks old and would be fine without milk. He was already eating hay and grain. I like to feed milk longer up to 2 1/2 to 3 months old, but I knew his fighting would only get worst as he got older.

Spit Fire has been going for a week now without milk and is doing fine. He has joined the other calves in the pen and goes out to graze on grass and fights his way  to the feed trough for some grain. 

I knew Spit Fire was going to be fine but I was still feeling down a bit about not getting him to take a bottle so searched youtube for something to cheer me up. This worked:

Cute Video of Farm Kids Bottle Feeding Calves

The photos are of Spit Fire.

How to stomach tube a calf

Learning how to stomach tube a calf can be very useful when you have a calf that is to weak to nurse from a mother cow or replacement bottle. Stomach tubing a calf can also be useful when administering electrolytes to scouring calves.

Calves that are still suckling their mothers will be unwilling to drink or suckle from a bottle. It is important that when a calf is scouring that it doesn’t become dehydrated. Electrolytes will help to prevent this while at the same time help to repair the damage caused by the agents causing the calf to scours. In these cases the stomach tube is the best method to get the electrolytes in the calf.

For calves that are too weak to suckle, it is important to get the nourishment into the calf as soon as possible. Stomach tubing the calf will be the most effective way to get the job done. Not everyone is comfortable with administering a stomach tube because of the fear of entering the lungs of the calf.

This concern is not without warrant. It is possible that tube could enter the calf throat and straight into the lungs. Allowing the fluid of the tube feeder to enter the lungs would drown the calf causing death. So it natural for someone that has not preformed the act of stomach tube feeding before to be nervous.

Feeding with a stomach tube is really quite simple and when done properly there is no need for concern. It is actually easy to preform and only a few simple steps need to be following to ensure the stomach tube is done correctly.

Frist, mix up the milk replacer, colostrum, or electrolytes that you are going to use. Then pour into the bag of the stomach feeder.

Then get the calf in position to be easy handled and the stomach feeder can be administered

Allow some of the fluid to run out of the tube. Then clamp off the soft tube part of the stomach feeder to prevent any more fluid from escaping.

Next place the end of the stomach feeder into the calf’s mouth. There will be a ball at the end of the tube feeder. Place the ball into the back of the mouth with applying a small amount of pressure allow the calf to swallow the ball end.

You will feel the ball end snap into place after the calf swallows it. You how have the stomach feeder in the correct place and let go of the soft tube allowing the fluid to flow into the calf’s stomach.

The key is to allow the calf to swallow it.

Click Here for a Step by Step Instructional Video on How to Stomach Tube a Calf  .

Cattle Ranching Cow Calf 100.3

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