Here are some more pictures of the calf that is getting extra attention now.
It's decided that the heart lamp is too hot. First it was just outside of its glow, and I just came in to find it clear across the garage and by the freezers.
I hope some folks like the pictures. As always, if you have questions, feel free to ask here or in a message. I'll do my best.
Twinning isn't uncommon in beef cows but it isn't common either. I'd guess between 1 and 2 % of live births result in twins. I'd guess we have between 4 and 8 sets a year, depending on the year, just off the top of my head.
It also isn't extremely common for the mother to not take them, but more common than in single births and worth an extra check in with them.
That's how we found this one wasn't taken after all. And it's not usual for such an old and experienced mother of a cow to not take them both. This one's mother is eleven years old (hence the 704 in the calf's ear, the calf doesn't have a number yet but it's mother was the second female calf born in 2007 that was kept to join the herd).
To be honest, I don't know why a cow wouldn't take her calf, or both her calves, as the case may be. I sort of suspect she gave birth, turned around, found a calf, said "yep that's what I'm looking for " and called it good enough. I'm joking with that, but only half.
This calf hasn't been vaccinated for anything yet. It's just over 24 hours old. It will be though, and I don't much care what anyone's stance on vaccinations are. Denying them to children is absurd to me, and I feel the same way about animals. Same goes with antibiotics. Right now I don't plane on giving this calf (or any other) a antibiotics, but if they get a bacterial illness you can bet your butt they won't be denied medicine. That's just the way it is, and I sort of feel that anything else is not responsible animal husbandry and probably not in line with what I call ethical.
This calf has been fed, several times. As you can see by the pool of pee it made on my garage floor, it's on a liquid diet right now.
When it was brought in yesterday, it was given an electrolyte mix called resorb. That was given by tube, so I ran a tube into its stomache to get it fed. After a while last night, it was fed milk replacer (think powdered baby formula for cows) by bottle. This morning its noise was cold, so I tried giving it glucose by bottle. It wouldn't suck so that got tubed in also. Since then it has had three bottles of milk replacer and is doing well.
As you can see, it decided the heat lamp had too much heat and moved itself.
I hope everyone had a great day and has another one tomorrow. Again, let me know if you have any questions.
