When our jersey bull calves arrived, we were elated! The kids immediately named them. Aleska chose the name Cocoa for the larger calf, who was lighter in color, and Parker chose the name Pookie for the smaller calf, who has a darker streak of color down his back. I did have to explain to them that these calves are not pets and that we are going to eat them, and both of them look disgusted and appalled! We had a hamburger and steak discussion, and how long we would have them before they would be butchered, and even though the information seemed to be accepted I still got glances of abhorrence after our talk.
The calves seemed to settle right in, taking to the buckets with very little assistance, and eating really well. We were told to feed them two quarts of real milk (not milk replacer) two times each day twelve hours apart. We had straw in stalls for them and we thought we were set!
Fast forward one week and they both have scours. Ugh. Cocoa is still acting healthy, but Pookie was shaking as I was feeding him and eliminating at the same time. Everywhere. And it had traces of blood. We found this recipe and we're trying it, but replacing the pectin with gelatin. Not sure if that is an improvement or not, but the pectin is vegetable and fruit based where the gelatin is beef based. And we had it on hand. We'll be following everything else she recommends.
Best Bottle Calf Recipe via Hub Pages and Leighr67
Calf Health
The weather here in Southwest Idaho has wreaked havoc on my bottle babies this year! I lost several calves to scours and dehydration or pneumonia. I tried all of the feed store brands of electrolytes but found them all lacking and over priced. My calves wanted nothing to do with them and wouldn't drink them!
Here are a couple of the ways I have stopped my calf mortality...
Simple and Effective Recipe to Cure Scours!
This recipe I found online is the best and has brought my calves back from near death!
The price is also a fraction of that of commercial electrolytes!
When they will not drink anything else they will drink this! I have never had to tube a calf when feeding this mixed with warm water to equal 2 quarts.
1 can beef broth (not concentrate)
1 box of pectin(the kind used to make jello)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
Mix Broth and baking soda and salt, add pectin and mix with enough warm water to make 2 quarts( a full calf bottle). Feed to the calf laying down, standing up, whatever you have to do to get it down his throat. Once they taste it they usually want it and will keep sucking.
Feed 2 bottles of this before returning to regular milk feedings and feed the milk in smaller amounts more often.
Example: 1 quart of replacer 4 times a day or split 2 bottles into 3 feedings. Sometimes little calves cannot handle all that milk and over feeding is what causes the scours to begin with.
Shots
Another big help I have found is giving Selenium and Vitamin A&D.
I inject Bo-Se 2.75 ml and 1.5ml of Vitamin A&D
The minute I get my calves home. This has helped with preventing White Muscle disease. They go down and wont drink and do not have scours, lose their will to live. This has happened to a couple of calves this year. Since I started these shots It has stopped.
B-12 helps to bring back their appetites when they are not feeling good as well. Ask your vet for prescriptions for that and the Bo-Se.
UPDATE: This home made electrolytes worked for the scours for one calf but we lost the other calf. I would chalk it up to inexperience and not recognizing the scours for what they were early enough. I'm confident this would work if given early enough.
UPDATE: This home made electrolytes worked for the scours for one calf but we lost the other calf. I would chalk it up to inexperience and not recognizing the scours for what they were early enough. I'm confident this would work if given early enough.
