New to me-- Calf born with cleft palate

[Shorthorns4us]

Had another first-- calf born with a cleft palate.  He can nurse--  I watched that very closely this weekend, but down the road am I looking at him not being able to graze in the pasture with mom and the herd?  Anyone have experience with this?
thanks
EF

 

[Dale]

https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/2009/aug/cleft

 

[idalee]

If he can nurse,  he will do fine later in life.  Usually,  calves with cleft palates cannot nurse effectively,  so in addition to failure to grow or in some cases,  starvation,  they tend to develop aspiration pneumonia.  If they survive the nursing period,  they can do fine with grazing and hay. 
We had one that could not nurse,  and we gave it to a friend.  They fed the calf with a bucket,  with the bucket on the ground, so the calf's head position was low and would not aspirate milk.  That heifer went on two raise several calves of her own and never had problems.  None of her calves had cleft palate. 

 

[SlickTxMaine]

We had our first a couple of years ago.  Could not nurse.  We tried bucket feeding him, but while he was drinking, most of the milk was coming out of his nose.  He couldn't breathe, so would stop feeding.  We tried tubing him for 2-3 days.  Someone said as they get older they will likely aspirate what they eat and get pneumonia.  We put him down. 

 

[aj]

So it's not genetic then......

 

[ROMAX]

Had one last yr. Basically had no right nose, you could see his tongue and teeth through hole.He got long well and grew and I put him in my freezer. Only thing was when he was on feed he couldn't eat all his grain in a manger, so I fed him in a feed tub.

 

[SlickTxMaine]

So it's not genetic then......

We were thinking about selling the cow but she has had two subsequent calves and both were fine. Vet said just a fluke.

 

[ROMAX]

The cow that raised mine had a heifer the yr before he was born 5hat I showed,And her heifer calf from last yr is gonna be shown this yr.