Redneck Hillbilly Search

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

One week down!

It's been just over a week since we got this year's calves: JimBob, Hank, Delilah, and Bessie.

It's been an interesting week of changing routines to allow for milk feedings in the morning before the school bus arrives, and in the evening just before dark. Then there's the shelter bedding changes, topping up water, hay and grain, and anxious mom syndrome while we assess the health and wellbeing of the little babies.

Shipping fever is a common occurrence for calves being moved from place to place, and a couple of them were feeling a little punky in the back corner of the shelter for a day or two but are lively and alert once more.

Going from excess waste dairy milk at their old farm to commercial milk replacer at ours also caused a little bit of scouring for Delilah and JimBob while their digestive systems adjusted.

Scours, for those unfamiliar with the term is a nice way of saying diarrhea. Explosive, extremely watery, foul smelling diarrhea that can cause a calf to dehydrate and die within days. We added some electrolyte powder to their milk and water, and I tried a commercial Scour Remedy this year which worked wonders to clear that up.

So now they are all pooping solid brown, happily eating hay and grain in addition to two litres of milk twice a day, and lively enough to play ring-around-the-rosy after a feeding.

Life is good in calf land today.