I was at the cattle auction last Friday watching our feeder heifers sell when I got a text message from my brother-in-law that said, “You haven’t been checking on your adopted calf lately, have you?” I panicked, thinking maybe it was dead. “No, why? Is it sick?” I typed back. “Emaciated, lethargic, and has a runny nose and scours,” he replied. Great….I had quit checking on the mama cow, several days earlier, thinking she had adopted it and was caring for it. Evidently not.
So when I got home to assess the situation, the vet had already been there, thankfully. He had tubed the calf’s stomach to give it electrolytes and medicine, and taken her temperature—it was 107 degrees, so she was very feverish. My husband bought several packets of medicine to add to milk replacer as well as an injection to help bring the fever down. We went out to the cornfield to catch the baby and give her the shot. Earlier that day, a cow belonging to my brother-in-law had died of a respiratory sickness and perhaps old age, and her little black heifer calf was out standing by her looking sad. So we picked up both babies and loaded them into the pickup and brought them up to keep in a stall and bottle feed.
The red baby that my kids had named Uniqua was in really bad shape. She was bony and weak, and didn’t even try to suck the bottle we offered her. We had mixed in a packet of Resorb, which has electrolytes and medicine in it for scouring calves, and then filled the bottle with diluted milk replacer. We had to put the nipple in her mouth and then squeeze it with our fingers to get the milk to squirt out into her mouth. Then she would swallow, with a throat so parched you could hear each gulp. But she was very weak and just wanted to lie down in the hay. We got most of a bottle down her, before offering some to the black calf. The black calf drank down a whole bottle, she was very hungry and eager to drink.
The next morning we took bottles out for both calves, and the red one stood up and drank hungrily, so it was evident that her fever was better and she was feeling more like eating. The black calf never showed any hesitation, and after that first day, they both took their bottles eagerly.
It’s been almost a week now, and both calves are growing and gaining strength. One day I let them follow me outside into the barnyard, and the black one went running around, leaping and bucking. Then she remembered where she’d last seen her mama, and took off out towards the cornfield. I had to chase her quite a ways before I could catch her again, and so I decided that she’d better not be loose on her own until she got used to following people around a little more. The red heifer is very gentle and just follows you wherever you go.
So yesterday I made them a pen outside in the fresh green grass that’s growing near their barn, and I let them out in the daytime so they can graze and sleep in the sunshine. They love to jump and kick and race around their pen, and it’s so much fun to watch them.
I wasn’t exactly thrilled at the prospect of bottle feeding two calves, but once you start caring for an animal, you can’t help but become fond of it. Somehow taking responsibility for something just makes a job more rewarding. I am disappointed that the red calf’s adopted mother didn’t take care of her, but I think it was just too long after her own calf died that we introduced the new baby, and she just wouldn’t look after the little red one with enough attention to keep her in good health. She was allowing her to nurse, but probably not long enough or frequent enough.
So I’m stuck with these babies for awhile. I would like to feed them long enough to put some weight on them and get them looking healthy again, as they are both a little gaunt looking, and then maybe sell them. But we might just feed them until they don’t need the milk so much, and then put them out to pasture with some of our replacement heifers for the summer. They are sure cute!
