Calf won’t suck

[Wishful Thinker]

Calf born last Saturday and has yet to suck. Cow is 15yr old and bag fairly low to ground so chances of it sucking her are slim but it won’t take from the bottle either.
Tubed twice a day, has got vit e and mineral drench. Also shot of metacam and norodine.

Any ideas?

 

[M-J-G]

Are you certain it's not sucking?

If it's over a week old, I'd leave it for 24 hours and see what it does.

 

[Wishful Thinker]

Are you certain it's not sucking?

If it's over a week old, I'd leave it for 24 hours and see what it does.

Yep. It’s not in great shape I would be scared to leave it 24hrs. Have done it in the past but to stronger calves

 

[ladycrofter]

Will it try and suck your fingers if you dip them in milk? Occasionally they can need help learning to suck, especially if they've tried repeatedly and got nothing, or kept getting locks of hair etc rather than the teat. Takes perseverance and patience, but they usually come right. Possibly a bit of neural underdevelopment just needs a week or two to catch up.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

I had one go 3 weeks before it decided to start sucking

 

[Wazmos]

Try covering the teat in syrup, worked for me in the past, anything is worth a shot.

 

[Wishful Thinker]

Will it try and suck your fingers if you dip them in milk? Occasionally they can need help learning to suck, especially if they've tried repeatedly and got nothing, or kept getting locks of hair etc rather than the teat. Takes perseverance and patience, but they usually come right. Possibly a bit of neural underdevelopment just needs a week or two to catch up.

Yes usually try that first, tongue just out to the side.

Will give the syrup a go anything to get it going. Adds so much time to the day, still milking the cow in the hope it will come and milk will still be at her.

 

[bobajob]

We have mostly found that they don’t suck because they are not feeling well/ not right. It’s to do with the sucking action and relaxing the throat.
We had one that wouldn’t suck for two days and the vet was here at something else, so got her to look at it. She jagged it with Nuflor and metacam. Next day it was sooking like a good un.

Tubing them for days on end doesn’t do from past experience- they usually die..

 

[Lovegoodstock]

Just looked in on this thread, normal problem is selenium or iodine deficiency but I see you have used vit e, but I saw you said tongue hanging out the side of mouth? Is it a fairly big calf or a calf with decent muscle? The tongue is a muscle so double muscled calved often have a tongue that is too large and hangs out the side of mouth, and they cant latch on properly to the teat. Patience is key sadly, if they will suckle a bottle or teat then its simply a case to nurse tongue sideways back centrally into mouth to allow latching onto teat

 

[Wishful Thinker]

Just looked in on this thread, normal problem is selenium or iodine deficiency but I see you have used vit e, but I saw you said tongue hanging out the side of mouth? Is it a fairly big calf or a calf with decent muscle? The tongue is a muscle so double muscled calved often have a tongue that is too large and hangs out the side of mouth, and they cant latch on properly to the teat. Patience is key sadly, if they will suckle a bottle or teat then its simply a case to nurse tongue sideways back centrally into mouth to allow latching onto teat

It’s a fair calf, but born naturally. Have had bigger this year.
Think this is either her 13th or 14th calf, vet out doing tb test at back end was telling him she was a great cow bla bla bla. His words were you should sell her before she has another, looks like he’s right.

 

[Werzle]

More than likely it hasnt sucked because of her big udder, you will have to suckle it on its knees twice a day until either it learns to do it itself and/or the udder relaxes. Cull the cow before nxt yr, we all get them.