Calf won't suck!

[Katemcattle]

We had a calf born with no calving problems 6 days ago. It is lively and trying to eat silage but will not suck cow or bottle. I have given it multi vits, salt on tongue, iodine down back and tried the dummy foal technique with no improvement. I am tubing her twice a day. Is there any other suggestions or is there no hope that she will start sucking?
Thanks

 

[livestock 1]

We had a calf born with no calving problems 6 days ago. It is lively and trying to eat silage but will not suck cow or bottle. I have given it multi vits, salt on tongue, iodine down back and tried the dummy foal technique with no improvement. I am tubing her twice a day. Is there any other suggestions or is there no hope that she will start sucking?
Thanks

Vitasel injection

 

[twizzel]

Leave her go hungry. It’s the only thing that worked for a calf we had at Xmas. She had 2 litres of milk tubed in morning and then missed a feed.

 

[livestock 1]

Just looked it’s still out of stock ask vet Vitamin E and Selinium is what it contains
Vet may give you another injection to complement it and an alternative for the vitasel

 

[Katemcattle]

Leave her go hungry. It’s the only thing that worked for a calf we had at Xmas. She had 2 litres of milk tubed in morning and then missed a feed.

I gave her a feed last night but have left her. How long should I leave her to go hungry?

 

[Katemcattle]

Just looked it’s still out of stock ask vet Vitamin E and Selinium is what it contains
Vet may give you another injection to complement it and an alternative for the vitasel

I have given her two lots of selenium and multi vitamins.

 

[livestock 1]

There was a. Covasone type injection to active suck reflex ask vet for one

 

[Whitepeak]

Chocolate!
Heard a trick to get calves to suck is to put a piece of chocolate in their mouth. When the chocolate melts and sticks to the roof of the mouth the calf starts sucking it's tongue and smacking its lips. You can then latch it onto the teat. I've never tried it, but I've heard of lots of people who have and swear by it.

 

[startinghandle]

The only way I got calves to suck is a lot of perseverance and a bit of honey on the milk bottle teat also putting my fingers in calve's mouth to squeeze teat ... used the cow's milk but had to do it for a few days and never failed
It was always with limousin calves as they sold better than Hereford calves in Shrewsbury market 30 odd years ago

 

[milkloss]

Is it still running with mum and are you milking her out?

personally I never got on with any of the tricks and suspect the desperation of trying them usually coincides with the calf starting to drink anyway....... keep on tubing.......

 

[Werzle]

I gave her a feed last night but have left her. How long should I leave her to go hungry?

24hrs wouldnt hurt, make sure it cant get to water or it defeats the object

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Only thing I’ve found works is time, had a calf once went 2 weeks without sucking then went into pen one morning and it was sucking away

 

[JSmith]

What’s the dummy foal technique ??

 

[Katemcattle]

Foal Squeezing

Madigan Foal squeeze Method- Step 1 putting rope on Foal Squeeze Method- Step 2 pulling on rope Foal Squeeze movie - Step 3 release rope and foal stands up

www.equineneonatalmanual.com

 

[harperfarmer]

Time is key. Once it's had colostrum it should be fine to leave it up to 48hrs. Sounds a long time but it's the only way I've ever managed to get calves sucking that have steadfastly refused to. Until they want to they wont.

 

[nails]

Time is key. Once it's had colostrum it should be fine to leave it up to 48hrs. Sounds a long time but it's the only way I've ever managed to get calves sucking that have steadfastly refused to. Until they want to they wont.

Yes that is the best way, they wont die as long as they have had a good amount of colostrum. A lot of these calves you think are not sucking sometimes are , maybe for just 2-3 minutes at a time when you are not looking.

 

[Muck Spreader]

If it's male and a beef breed they can often be a pia. I would only tube it for a few feeds then persevere with a bottle and teat.

 

[pembsarable]

Have you checked it's temperature? We buy loads of calves from local marts. Some are a real pain to get to feed. Often find a jab of Draxxin and Metacam just sorts out any pneumonia. It seems that if the calf even has a slight touch, not really showing symptoms, it puts it off its feed. Just a thought.

 

[czechmate]

We had the new season start three days ago, the little bull was a bit premature. I must if put him on the teat a couple of hundred times now. Daft little thing. Mind, he couldn’t stand up on his own to start with but he has at least learnt that. Glad his mum is easy

 

[Katemcattle]

Great news!!! Day 6 and we have managed to get her to suck the cow!!!!! Thank god. Thanks for all the support.