Tongue sticks out - birth defect or calving issue?

[dcbehle]

I'm bottle feeding a couple of calves and one has issues with his tongue that affects his ability to nurse. I've checked some past related posts on this site and a few on other sites. Still looking for some advice.

The bull calf with the tongue issue is not mine. We keep our few cows with another breeder and our donor calf had twins, with one appearing to be a Freemartin. So I brought her home to bottle feed. I offered to bottle feed his bull calf with the tongue issue and it has me thinking.

He's about 10 days old and his tongue hangs out to the right all of the time. He is a club calf and I suspect he was about 95 lbs. at birth. I don't believe they had any significant calving problems, but I was not there. When he nurses on the bottle, he can't create suction because of the tongue sticking out. So I push it in and create a seal with my left hand around the mouth so that he can suck better. It still takes 10 to 15 minutes to finish a bottle and I suspect he gets a little milk in his lungs with how hard he's working to suck. No significant health issues, but he does cough some after nursing and a couple of days he had yellow discharge from his nose.

I've seen advise range from giving an anti-inflammatory, putting sugar on the tongue to pull moisture out, a selenium deficiency, and just waiting a few days. As I mentioned, it has been about 10 days since he was born with this issue.

 

[CAB]

IMO it's beyond a difficult birthing issue at this point. Those issues will almost always be gone within a couple of days.

 

[Hoof Hearted]

Does he kind of have a short face? Almost an underbite with kind of buggy eyes?

 

[dcbehle]

His face appears normal to me. For awhile, I thought his snout may be narrow, but when I compare him to our Angus heifer calf that is a couple of days younger, he's very comparable with a little bit larger head. In the photo, it may appear that he has a slight under bite, but when feeding a bottle it feels normal.

 

[AZWrightCattle]

Had a calf this year tongue out front legs a little crooked had to tube him for awhile eventually he figured out how to suck a bottle then his mom. Still is a bit retarded still has his tongue off to the side in his mouth but it’s not sticking out. His legs have mostly straightened out but you can pick him out driving through the calves really easy

 

[idalee]

The picture looks like his ear on that side is droopy also,  suggesting  cranial nerve damage from which he probably will not recover

 

[dcbehle]

I had not thought of the ear connection with the tongue. He's performing good enough to be a bucket calf for our 8 year old. I'm guessing he may struggle to keep up in the feedlot this fall.

Thanks for your insights!