Calving 2019 - Advice and Help thread

patsy_mccabe

I think the best thing is to seperate the cow and calf and let them in then every 8 hours or so. A right pain, but at least you will be there when they drink.

Who2

I was talking to a lad yesterday who told me about using liquid paragon Mod: liquid paraffin as a calving lube. He said to fill a flexible stomach tube, insert the tube in around a few places around the unborn calf and squeeze in the liquid paraffin, that way you would soak the calf in it and he reckons the calf slips out like a wet fish. Has anyone ever tried it?

greysides

L1985 wrote: »

This is prob a v v stupid question but sure when has that atoppped me ��.
Is there something like a food colourant or similar you could put on the cows teats so you would be confident if a calf is drinking or not? Some on the first day or two I wouldn't be fully sure and also if a calf gets sick I'd like to know if their still drinking...I know you can kinda tell by looking at the cows teats but some of ours have massive udders and it would take four calves for them to go down! It would save some time when I'm standing trying to see if the calf is drinking or not.!

You could try some Alamycin spray on the tests and look for a blue tongue in the calf... to prove the concept. If it works you'd need to come up with some non-antibiotic colouring.

Mac Taylor

greysides wrote: »

You could try some Alamycin spray on the tests and look for a blue tongue in the calf... to prove the concept. If it works you'd need to come up with some non-antibiotic colouring.

A herd of a lad using food colorant, spray the tears red.... never tried it though.

valtra2

Would like a bit of advise. Have a calf 2 weeks premature and was up and down when born and after few days has went down and now have been stomach tubing him for last few days. Very weak. Had vet out few days ago and have treated him with antibiotics and anti inflammatory and still the same. Any thing I could do. Thanks

L1985

Might be worth trying it out with the food colouring-@patsy I agree in theory but in reality I don't have time during calving times and I don't have enough pens either!! I have done it on occasion but I don't like seperating them too early either as it affects the bonding. It's only occasionally but I think it might help us spot a calf not drinking-also we usually have a couple of foster calves in the mix and they can be robbers m.

Buford T. Justice XIX

valtra2 wrote: »

Would like a bit of advise. Have a calf 2 weeks premature and was up and down when born and after few days has went down and now have been stomach tubing him for last few days. Very weak. Had vet out few days ago and have treated him with antibiotics and anti inflammatory and still the same. Any thing I could do. Thanks

Keep him warm anyway. Smaller animals get chilled quicker and take longer to warm up afterwards. And a little feed more often might help too. Awkward with a stomach tube though.

The Trusty Tuber is handy for calves like that, it's almost foolproof for tubing calves.

valtra2

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Keep him warm anyway. Smaller animals get chilled quicker and take longer to warm up afterwards. And a little feed more often might help too. Awkward with a stomach tube though.

The Trusty Tuber is handy for calves like that, it's almost foolproof for tubing calves.

Have him under red lamp and getting 1.5l 3 times a day. 9,4,11

sonnybill

RD10 wrote: »

Yes they can - ive seen a calf 10 minutes old, & still laying wet on the ground pass poop.
Just because they've pooped does not gaurantee they have fed!

I was just about to clarify that, my calf never broke the seal on any of the cows teats yet he passed the 2 big black lumps of mericodium

tanko

sonnybill wrote: »

I was just about to clarify that, my calf never broke the seal on any of the cows teats yet he passed the 2 big black lumps of mericodium

I was wrong about that, shows what i know. How is he getting on, sucking away himself??

Lady Haywire

And if they're stressed or under pressure coming out of the cow they'll pass it then too! It's never foolproof. The auld finger up the asshole to encourage them to press is a great job.....yuck though :pac:

Say my name

valtra2 wrote: »

Would like a bit of advise. Have a calf 2 weeks premature and was up and down when born and after few days has went down and now have been stomach tubing him for last few days. Very weak. Had vet out few days ago and have treated him with antibiotics and anti inflammatory and still the same. Any thing I could do. Thanks

I'm not sure how anyone would take this.
Probably as a brain fart.

But since the antibiotics have been done and you may have nothing to loose.
I wonder would a small drop of Guinness help?
I've heard of poitin being tried but maybe that'd be too rough?

Edit: Another thing I've done is give raw eggs with mixed success.
Not sure how that'd work with Guinness though..

sonnybill

tanko wrote: »

I was wrong about that, shows what i know. How is he getting on, sucking away himself??

He alive but he broke my heart !! I took her in from winterage as he could be persuaded along today and she has settled. I didn’t like the look of him and I was justified, seal not broken on any tit, front tit looked sucked and clean etc but he was only licking it and never got on, he was surviving on what I was tubing him, milked her out gave him 4 litres in stomach tube , going to give him the other 2.0 litre now ... far from ideal but I hope he will be okay

greysides

Mac Taylor wrote: »

A herd of a lad using food colorant, spray the tears red.... never tried it though.

That must be your best best Yorkshire accent. 😀

I've just changed my tablet's keyboard for one with bigger 'buttons'.😕

valtra2

Say my name wrote: »

I'm not sure how anyone would take this.
Probably as a brain fart.

But since the antibiotics have been done and you may have nothing to loose.
I wonder would a small drop of Guinness help?
I've heard of poitin being tried but maybe that'd be too rough?

Edit: Another thing I've done is give raw eggs with mixed success.
Not sure how that'd work with Guinness though..

I have done the egg today.
I don't think me with a few pints of Guinness will help the calf....

whelan2

There's a zinc sulphate test. Young lad learnt about it in ag college recently. I had never heard of it. You do it through a blood test I think. Does anyone know anything about it. It gives you the immuno globulin status of the calf.

valtra2

whelan2 wrote: »

There's a zinc sulphate test. Young lad learnt about it in ag college recently. I had never heard of it. You do it through a blood test I think. Does anyone know anything about it. It gives you the immuno globulin status of the calf.

Is that the test they do to see if the got
Adequate colostrum

whelan2

valtra2 wrote: »

Is that the test they do to see if the got
Adequate colostrum

Ye. I had never heard of it before. Could be useful

greysides

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

Keep him warm anyway. Smaller animals get chilled quicker and take longer to warm up afterwards. And a little feed more often might help

THIS was exactly what I was going to post. I see from a later reply you're feeding three times a day. I think four or five would be better, initially anyway.

Raw eggs is an old 'cure' but I think I remember being told they can't digest it...

A little bit of LIVE yogurt after the milk, a teaspoon or so, might help too.

I know a woman who reared a seven month premature calf successfully. The keyword there was 'woman' (and screw the sexists). You can't beat TLC and an experienced farm woman will know what to do from rearing kids and calves.

greysides

whelan2 wrote: »

Ye. I had never heard of it before. Could be useful

Lab test, unless someone knows otherwise.

sonnybill

Big lad

grassroot1

greysides wrote:

You could try some Alamycin spray on the tests and look for a blue tongue in the calf... to prove the concept. If it works you'd need to come up with some non-antibiotic colouring.

I often wondered about spraying kitchen food colouring on the cows teats if the teats were licked clean at least you would know.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Lady Haywire wrote: »

And if they're stressed or under pressure coming out of the cow they'll pass it then too! It's never foolproof. The auld finger up the asshole to encourage them to press is a great job.....yuck though :pac:

Sure we're only farming for the glamour:D

valtra2 wrote: »

I have done the egg today.
I don't think me with a few pints of Guinness will help the calf....

You're wide awake anyway, valtra:D
The eggs are very handy for a calf recovering from a bad scour, my vet says they are getting access to a large quantity of protein from the eggs to help repair the damage done by the scouring.

oneten

Who2 wrote: »

I was talking to a lad yesterday who told me about using liquid paragon Mod: liquid paraffin as a calving lube. He said to fill a flexible stomach tube, insert the tube in around a few places around the unborn calf and squeeze in the liquid paraffin, that way you would soak the calf in it and he reckons the calf slips out like a wet fish. Has anyone ever tried it?

Doin' it for years, some job, its in a different league to that lube the vets use as its gets all over everything which is what you want, I use one of those auto fill drench guns with a hose down into a gallon of paraffin, and the the hose off a stomach tube fitted over the front steel tube of the gun ,hold the tube in your hand so you don't damage the cow and go along the calf's shoulder and pump with the other hand , get it around his shoulders both sides and don't spare it, hard to get over his head if he's big enough and if there's no space over his head you'll be glad you used it .
Cut the wee filter out of the snout of the gun ,it clogs with tiny bits of straw and you'd want arms like Arnie to pump it.
How much to use ? depends how nervous you are , more nervous--- more paraffin, more gooder !!
Generally a liter and a half does the trick but if you're really nervous keep pumping till its squirting back at ya.
No issues with cows licking calf or going back in calf
You know yourself you don't need to do it every time, but tis some job when you need that bit of help.
The stomach tube is a good idea if you have help , or lucky enough to have three arms.

downcow

greysides wrote: »

THIS was exactly what I was going to post. I see from a later reply you're feeding three times a day. I think four or five would be better, initially anyway.

Raw eggs is an old 'cure' but I think I remember being told they can't digest it...

A little bit of LIVE yogurt after the milk, a teaspoon or so, might help too.

I know a woman who reared a seven month premature calf successfully. The keyword there was 'woman' (and screw the sexists). You can't beat TLC and an experienced farm woman will know what to do from rearing kids and calves.

I would agree to be careful with the eggs. 30 years ago my dad had a real cracker of a pedigree friesan bull and was rearing it for pedigree sales. He put two eggs in its milk every day and it died at about 4 weeks Vet said he thought it was salmonella and that he was being TOO good to the calf

sonnybill

My fella calved 19.00 Friday only started sucking right there today , he flying now though and has the cow tormented which is great, wouldn’t want one of them again

tanko

Good stuff, you can start him in the creep feeder next week.
Levi has a skeletal figiure of 121 i think, very high for a CH, going to bring big calves. Will you have any more of them?

charolais0153

tanko wrote: »

Good stuff, y9ou can start him in the creep feeder next week.
Levi has a skeletal figiure of 121 i think, very high for a CH, going to bring big calves. Will you have any more of them?

Doon nust the job. Top 2% for muscle and skeletal,you'd see it in his calves too!

sonnybill

tanko wrote: »

Good stuff, you can start him in the creep feeder next week.
Levi has a skeletal figiure of 121 i think, very high for a CH, going to bring big calves. Will you have any more of them?

I gave him to other BA x LM cow and she not due til May 05th but will keep good eye on her

whelan2

Had a heifer calving this morning, just head coming, put her in crush and she kept coming back on top of me, wouldn't put her head out the gate. Got oh out of bed... I got the 2 legs up and calf was very tight. Massive Hereford bull. Have 7 Hereford calves now and no Hereford bull..