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Calf Defect

A

Anonymous

Guest
A very interesting topic I have been following on another forum-- about a possible genetic (?) trait or deficiency trait that has been found in calves (Angus)- and the studies that have been done in Australia...The good Doc from Australia has some pictures on the 3rd page...

Luckily I can't remember every seeing any calves that fit this :)

http://www.advantagecattle.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1919
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Definitely something I'd never heard of before in cattle--"fawn calf syndrome"--guess you learn something new everyday.......
 

alabama

Well-known member
I had a bull calf last friday that went 38 pounds out of a heifer. He is a son of Baldridge Nabraska and seems fine. Just a very small calf.
 

Mike

Well-known member
alabama said:
I had a bull calf last friday that went 38 pounds out of a heifer. He is a son of Baldridge Nabraska and seems fine. Just a very small calf.

38 Pounds?

Was it a full term calf?
 

Ranchy

Well-known member
Wow, that was strange looking! :shock:

38# is a pretty small calf, but if I remember correctly, ACS had some 20# ones this year.........in my limited Angus experience, the calves were always small, the main reason they make good heifer calves.

Thanks for the link!
 

Faster horses

Well-known member
In my opinion something is wrong, both with a 20#calf and a 38#
calf.

This is what I was talking about with the killed vaccines. The virus can cross the placenta and cause 'dink' calves. The registered producer/veterinarian that explained this to me, said he won't allow a
killed vaccine on his place. Since he quit using it, he has not had any
of these tiny calves. He says (especially commercial) people often times think they are premature, but truth be known, they aren't.

Not to say there aren't any premature calves, because I am sure there
must be, but not as many as get called preemies.

We don't use killed vaccine and we don't have those tiny, tiny calves.
65-85 lb. calves would be normal for an Angus. Sure there are huge ones,
but you hardly ever see a calf born less than 65#. Just about any heifer
should be able to have a 65-80 lb. calf without assistance, if she is
nutritionally sound.
 

alabama

Well-known member
The 38-pound calf was 11 days early. He seems to feel fine and is up running around.
I suspect part of the trouble is with the heifer. She won't be two until late Jan. I bred her early as part of trying to back up my calving dates. So the momma is just a little young.
She took the calf to start with, cleaned it and nursed it. That was Friday evening. Well, Saturday I could not find the calf and momma was with the herd. We finely found the calf late in the evening and brought it back to its momma. She was reluctant to let it nurse but she did re take the calf. I thought that momma might be dry so we caught her and tried to milk her. The teats were too small to milk but I did get a little milk. I tried to give the calf some bag colostrums but he wanted none of that. He is nursing but just a little at a time. We penned them together and they are doing fine. I plan to keep them up together about a week and then see how it goes in the pasture.
My normal calves art 65 to 85 pounds.
 

Hanta Yo

Well-known member
That's very interesting. Our ET cows are about done calving (only 2 left) and one of them had a calf with NO TAIL. :shock: When I caught it for sw to tag it, I looked and looked, something doesn't look right, and NO TAIL. :shock: I've seen all kinds of weird things through the years, but never saw a calf born with NO TAIL. :shock: These are Angus embryos, I think ET is getting 'way out of hand, breeding unknown sires to cows, or perhaps breeding sires to daughters and then collecting the embryos.

Will post a pic maybe tomorrow if I can find the little bugger :?
 
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