This is what can happen to a Newbie

[Luca Brasi]

Actually, what happened to you could happen to anyone with experience too. Congratulations for handling it in a much more sensible way than many newbies today, who usually let their emotions, wishes and speculations govern how they operate.

You've gotten some mostly good advice here, but please don't follow the suggestion to go to that other forum. In between a whole lot of crap you might fish out a good piece of advice here and there, but overall that forum is visited by a bunch of suburban housewife calf huggers whose biggest concern is what to name their animals, and they don't even have the intelligence to come up with them on their own. They need their fellow simpletons to come up with ideas, and of course the name has to be something quaint and cutesy, which says loads about the emotional retardation which most of them suffer from.

Glad I'm not the only one that got that impression. Wow, there's some bad information there. A few knowledgeable people, but their posts get buried in a mountain of "I heard xxxx will cure anything" and "why did my pet calf die" garbage.

Morons, imbecils and mental defectives. The posts that get me are those which whine about their pet calf which they loved to play with and head butt when it was young, but now it's X hundred pounds and they want to know how to stop it. Invariably it's that they see the animal (um, I mean their wittle boy or girl) as turning mean, all of a sudden. Not that I wish harm to anyone, but I'm waiting for an increase of news stories about these people getting seriously hurt or killed because of this new culture which see all animals as children, puppies or kitties. Doesn't anyone research the basic requirements and behavior of an animal anymore, before they get it?

 

[Canesisters]

well... that's why I'm here - to find out as much as I can before I start cow shopping...
(but now I think I'll do a LOT more reading before asking any 'stupid' questions)

 

[M.Magis]

I don't think you need to worry about any "stupid" questions. You're trying to learn before you have animals dying on you, which is what far too many people don't do. They think the day old calves they bring home are like dogs, no worries. Then when they inevitably get sick, they're unprepared and many don't even know a vet to call. Though I've been around cattle most of my life, I'm far from any sort of expert. This is the best site I've found to find helpful, useful information.

 

[djinwa]

I don't think you need to worry about any "stupid" questions. You're trying to learn before you have animals dying on you, which is what far too many people don't do. They think the day old calves they bring home are like dogs, no worries. Then when they inevitably get sick, they're unprepared and many don't even know a vet to call. Though I've been around cattle most of my life, I'm far from any sort of expert. This is the best site I've found to find helpful, useful information.

On the other hand, the experts cause a lot of sick and dead animals by the way they feed them for economics. As my brother who worked at a feedlot said, "You're not a real cattleman until you have a dead pile". With all the stress they go through, and hot feed, as one veterinarian once wrote, we should not ask why any die, but why any live.

I recently commented to someone who wanted black Galloway that long black hair would contribute to heat stress. I received a PM from one of the "experts" on this CT site telling me:
"quit posting crap about heat loss in many threads. Many posters have proved that you're all wrong countless times so you should be move on and not post any heat stress crap from now."

So I went back to researching and googled "cattle heat stress hair length and coat color" and read countless articles detailing the increased heat stress from black and long hair. And the negative effects of heat stress on fertility and production. But apparently there are certain things the experts here don't want said. So each site has its issues.

 

[backhoeboogie]

ArkyRick!! Don't leave us hanging. How are those calves working out?

 

[hillsdown]

If I missed it I apologize , but what kind of milk replacer are you feeding your calves?

I agree as well that the calf that will not drink and has had real milk. Sometimes no matter what you do they just will not drink that powered "crap" no matter how good it is.

 

[SPH]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience as I have heard of similar stories before. I guess the best thing to do when buying bottle calves is to buy from a reputable breeder that you either know or more than 1 person you know can vouch for how they raise their cattle. We rarely sell bottle calves but when we do it's because either mamma is not milking well or needs to go to the sale barn for some reason or a twin that mamma can't handle 2 calves and would never in good conscience sell a calf that was sick or had a defect that would not make it. You paid a fair price for the calves, I've heard of higher prices than that lately for bottle calves in fact I can find ads as high as $750 on Craigslist right now. It's such a risky endeavor buying from a stranger these days and even selling someone a calf we know is healthy and been fed properly up to that point and had the experience that you had would feel obligated to somehow make it right in some manner. I have a feeling someone probably scammed you, you don't go from being a supposed healthy bottle calf to having to take it to the vet 2 days later and dead by 3 days without that calf having some kind of defect or disease. Even calves nursing on the cow get bloody scours that can be treated and not even show a sign of weakness by it.