Calf won't suck

strong42

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I have an issue I have never run into before with a calf. He won't suck. He won't suck fingers, he won't suck a bottle, he won't suck his mother. We are tubing him to keep him going. What do you suggest to fix this problem?

He was born Saturday night and I have never had a baby with less of a will to live. He just lays around like a lump on a log for 12 hours until we tube him again.

Someone on xxxxxxx suggested I try this forum. Thanks in advance for any help.

Nic

edited to remove another forum name.
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strong42

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No, we AI and he was due last Wednesday so was 3 days past the actual due date (I know that there are variables of a couple of weeks on each side of that date, but we usually have them all within a few days of the date). We have another one that still hasn't calved. We were joking last week when nothing was happening that they were out there having an udder competition to see who could get the biggest!!
 

Farmer Kitty

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Was delivery normal or did he have a hard time coming into this world?
 

Thewife

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A guy gave me a little Hereford bull calf years ago, that would not suck. I ended up tubing him twice a day for a week, before he caught on.
 

strong42

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Goodness me, a week? But then he got it? That's encouraging. After that long, did you have to bottle feed or did his mother allow him to nurse?
Delivery was perfectly normal - no stressors whatsoever.
 

Farmer Kitty

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I would say he's just slow at learning and some never do. There can be things internally that we can not see that keep them from thriving. Keep tubing and see what happens. I know we had another member that had to tube for several days and even had the calf in the house for a bit that was able to turn calf and mom back together. It will just depend on mom and baby. Good luck. :fl
 

Thewife

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strong42 said:
Goodness me, a week? But then he got it? That's encouraging. After that long, did you have to bottle feed or did his mother allow him to nurse?
Delivery was perfectly normal - no stressors whatsoever.
After a week he decided to get up and be a bottle calf!

The guy wanted him back to put on the cow? But I figured he was just going to let it lay in the field and die. He gave the calf to me, I tubed it for a week, it was MINE!


Are you giving him mamas milk?
 

strong42

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Thanks to you all. We will stick with tubing for a while. What if we tube for a week and he still won't suck? (I know, I shouldn't plan for the worst, I should wait and see what happens...) We can't tube him forever. Will he drink from a bucket? Should we be trying Calf Manna as well?

We are catching momma and milking her now that we can actually catch her...2 broken fences later...she is not the nicest cow, but I figure it's best to try to get her milk into him.
 

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