Calf Issues

Well from what I can tell, I've got a calf with pneumonia. The calf was born on friday and seemed up and lively. It was born out in the field with no help and when the cows came up for dinner that night, she came in following her mom. I havent actually seen mouth to teet sucking but I saw her that evening with milky drool on her mouth and moms teets were cleaned off, so I'm ASSUMING, she had been sucking.

So fast forward to saturday night. She was laying right up against the barn and seemed kind of "out of it". When I went out to grab her and get her inside, she jumped up and took off running. Ok, maybe she was just sleeping and thats why she seemed out of it.

Ok sunday morning, cows are all out eating grass except her mom, shes standing behind the barn bawling. ok wheres baby? Look around corner of the silo, there she is laying flat out in a puddle. CRAAAAAAP!!! grab baby drag her inside to dry and warm her up, mom follows.

Calf is weak, heavy groggy breathing but feels warm. I did a little research and from the signs, it seems like shes got pneumonia. Ive given her 3cc of Propen LA, then lastnight and thismorning a shot of 3cc of penicillin. I didnt have any colostrum on hand but got a bottle of replacer in her. She wouldnt take much lastnight but did get a bit more into her.

Went out to check on her late lastnight and I managed to get her to stand and walk around a bit but she wasnt hungry so i just left her.

I went and got some colostrum thismorning but couldnt get her to drink anything. I poured a bit into. She doesnt seem to be breathing heavy or moaning thismorning but now her mouth is cold.

Ive got a heat lamp on her right now to try warming her up but i dont know what else to do now. Any ideas from the vetran catte folks? This is the first time in i've had this issue.

ps sorry for the novel, just giving as many details as i can.

Sounds to me like you have done about all you can. A little B complex for appetite never hurts. I have found that when you get into this situation with a calf, odds are not in your favor for success. Is momma in with her? If/when she perks up, it will be vital to get back on momma's teat or else you will have a bottle calf and a lactating momma eatin on your dime.

mom has been in with her until now, i had to take her out because of the cord for the heat lamp. Once she warms up a bit, ill toss her back in.

Colostrum wont do any good unless given with in the 1st 12 hrs of life.

Is the cows bag swollen? do you have a chute to get her in and milk her or a place to tie her up? Maybe the calf never got anything much to eat to start off with, did you see evidence that the calf had moved its bowels? It could be as simple as nothing to eat but if it is bacterial you need something like Nuflor, you have to get that from a vet. If she won't suck you probably need to tube her at this point, if you have never tubed a calf then you are probably better off to take her to a vet, get the shots and have him show you how to insert the tube and how to make sure the tube is in her stomach and not her trachea which will fill her lungs and drown her. It is way better to milk the cow and use that milk if at all possible. Hope it turns out O.K.

the mom is bagged up and "looks" like shes been sucked on but not 100% sure. Yes the calf did have a bowel movement while i was with her yesterday. When i found her yesterday morning, her stomach was sunken right in and she was all ribs. after getting the bottle into her yesterday, she fattened up and still looks good. She has drank probbably 2-2.5 litres of milk in the last 24 hours.

I would give the calf some electrolytes, shot of Vit. B and get it warmed up good. Then you can come figure out what I have going on with a June calf that is sickly.

Oh I forgot about that, I put some electrolytes in the bottles to

From our recent troubles, chances are you're gonna lose the calf. Keep it on a heat lamp and get it warmed up- you're fighting hypothermia for one thing. Keep up the LA 200 or terramycin shots or boluses for at least four days. If it isn't eating, try a few ounces of King or Karo syrup with the milk replacer for some quick energy- we use about 4 ounces per quart of replacer. The calf is weak and needs energy and it's pure sugar. Be careful- it can cause scours and dehydrate the calf. Several extra feedings of small amounts may be beneficial for a couple of days until the calf is back on it's feet. Make it get up as soon as possible- atrophy sets in quickly in a calf. Blanket it, also. Heat loss is a critical problem. There's a whole raft of troubles to a downed calf- good luck. But be ready to get a bull calf from a local dairyman to adopt to the cow....

If she doesn't perk up when she's back with mom and nurse, I'd load them & take em to the vet. At today's prices you don't want to lose any & the $20-50 you might spend at the vet will be worth it.

Pneumonia or some form of respiratory issues have been given my cattle problems. I've had to doctor 2 cows and i three month old calf. I administer Nuflor Gold. All my cattle have had 7 way shots too.

If it's a June calf, I'd suspect worms. Give it a good dose of Safegard, put it on a sweetfeed for a month and another dose of Safegard, and see how it does....

She's a Longhorn, they aren't supposed to get worms. I have had her on all the corn she can eat for over a week. No bloat, nor excessive corn in her piles.
I'll try worming her, or send her home, and let the owner worry about her.

You have to be sure she sucked in the first few hours, not assume she did. Good luck, keep us posted.

Do you have one of those feeding tubes?

We've saved countless calves by "bagging" them with a feeding tube.

If shes been on free choice corn it could be rumen bacterial Clostridium perfringens she will bloat eventually if thats what it is but it might take a week or so, you can get boluses that will knock it out.

sounds like you may need to vaccinate for vibrio- lepto had this problem many years ago till we started vaccinating cows the calves would be born weak.this bulletin helps.explain better than me

http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_b/B-224.pdf

I would administer penecillin any day over LA for pneumonia symptoms. The doseage is quite different and penecillin is stronger.

If at all possible try to milk the cow and check the milk for mastitis.Milk one quarter at a time and look for pinkish,red in the milk.that can really sour the calf's stomach.If the milk looks good try to get the calf to drink from the mother.just one of 1oo's of things that it could be.A calf that young shouldn't get pneumonia if in fact it did nurse.The mothers milk has a lot of natural antibodies.Just my two cents.Good luck.

Update? How is that calf doing?

Update? How is that calf doing?