Poor colostrum?

[CWshorthorns]

I have a cow that  i bought last year  and her calf looked to be sick when we bought them and sure enough it dided breeder made it right with a replacement. She just had another calf and it apears to be the same thing. Black tar possible blood in the stool. I talked with the vet and he is checking to see if the colostrum is good as it didnt seem to be as sticky as others.Vet said could be jsut bleeding in the intestine. We trested calf with probias and substain pills and a shoot of Banamine. Calf seems to be going strong. Can anyone give me some insight on this?

 

[kfacres]

sounds to me like this is why the breeder sold the cow..

We used to have a ewe do similar things-- after trial and error, we came to the conclusion that she wasn't let enough milk down-- started giving her Oxytocin shots- and until her lambs began eating strong enough-- problem solved...

I would make sure the calf is getting enough to eat-- sounds to me like you have a poor milker- or mastitis or some other cause. .starvation is number 1 killer of newborns.

 

[CWshorthorns]

Tha cow has more milk than the new calf can take at this time.

 

[kfacres]

but that didn't answer the question if the calf is getting any or not...

usually, those with tons of milk- aren't losing any.  Those with not enough milk- lose plenty.

 

[linnettejane]

have no idea what the problem is, but sharing this product with you that i keep in stock now...i have used this stuff for 5 years now...and i highly recommend it,especially if you have a difficult prolonged birth, or if its really cold out, a huge calf, or if its the middle of the night and i dont want to stay up for the next 4 hours to make sure the calf nurses, or heifers who seem to hold back on the milk for a day or two,  i givethe calf a tube as soon as it hits the ground and then go back to bed

i assume since its says its a first milk supplement w/vitamins and such, if you have one with poor colostrum, it would help

nursemate asap

An appetite stimulator/first milk supplement containing special proteins, vitamins & lactic acid-producing bacteria to help get newborn calves up and nursing A.S.A.P. Calves then receive the benefits they need from mother's colostrum. Administer 1 tube as soon after birth as possible.

http://www.pbsanimalhealth.com/details/Nurse-Mate-ASAP-for-Calves/437-15.html

 

[CWshorthorns]

The calf is getting plenty of milk. bw was 76 lbs. it was about 40 degrees the mornign it was born and we have not been below 35 at night since ne was born. I even milked out a bottle about 5 hours after he was born cause her 2 front quaters get to big for the calf to suck so i milked it out. and the calf took the hole bottle. tha calf also had the back 2 quaters all but gone. then that night i had to milk the front 2 quarters out again and did the same as i did that morning.

 

[leanbeef]

I have heard that colostrum from heavy milking cows is less concentrated that lesser milking females. It makes sense...if the calf needs a certain number of antibodies and gets less milk, the milk he does get needs to be more concentrated. A real heavy milking cow's colostrum is probably less potent...especially if she isn't very old. The best colostrum would be from older cows that give less milk... Least concentrated is from young, heavy milking cows. Age matters because older cows have been exposed to more germs and built up more natural antibodies in their system that they pass along in colostrum.

I'm not sure how scientific or how proven this theory is, but it's something I remember from an animal science class in college. I thought it was interesting because at first it didn't seem to make sense to me, but it does make perfect sense.