Posted by helene on February 13, 2002 at 18:12:33:
In Reply to: Re: OT..Calves...need help..sorry in advance for it being OT posted by Nat on February 13, 2002 at 14:09:05:
Thanx Karen, Pam and Nat for all of your suggestions. Nat I will have my husband stop at the feed supply store tomorrow and see if he can find this tube you are talking about. I have some pedialite left over from when Zak our youngest was sick..so I will try that as well. They tried feeding him tonight, and they got him to drink the whole bottle, by squeezing it down his throat..it was a fight, but he is used to sucking from his mamma, so we expected the fight. I guess it is just like trying to bottle feed a goat that is not used to a bottle..except the calve is bigger..my poor son..got it good as he had the calve's neck between his legs..ouucchh..
Pam the pan or bucket idea is a good one, except one problem..he is not even drinking water..so I am afraid that he won't get what he needs if we just leave him on his own to drink just yet. I don't know if you could train a cow to pan feed, like a goat..but then again, I don't see why not..
Karen:
As I said earlier I still have some pedialite left over from when our son was sick so I am going to have them give that to him tonight..If Mike can't find that tube thingy tomorrow..I guess I could try with a turkey baster..like I use for the goats..I think that might be a little easier than trying to squeeze that bottle into his mouth..but we also want him to get used to the bottle..so we probably should keep trying both. I have no idea how long it takes a calve who is used to sucking from it's mom to take to a bottle..but I guess if he is hungry enough, he will learn.
Thank you guys so much!!
huggs
~H