Reply #7: he is doing great now, he was 3 weeks old on the 13th [View All]

he did have a little set-back at about 5 days of age. I'm not sure what it was - seemed to be a fairly common problem called navel ill or joint ill (it's a septic infection that enters the body through the navel and settles in the leg joints usually) except it was pretty early (usually hits at 2 - 4 weeks), his navel never seemed to get the problem, and it went away with a course of penicillin - normally it can be hard to cure and takes longer. Whatever it was, his joints swelled up and he got real lethargic for a couple days. He seems fine now. I'm sort of waiting for a bout of scours as that is very common in bottle calves, but I have electrolytes ready and it usually passes pretty fast if it happens at all.

anyway he is a vigorous nurser, he steps all over me, butts me with his head and butts the bottle almost out of my grip (this is a normal movement when calves nurse from the cow - they hit that udder HARD to stimulate the milk response), and he slobbers EVERYWHERE. Here are two shots from the cell phone I took earlier tonight.

Stewie getting dinner:



Lupe stealing a little meringue (old cowboys used to call meringue "calf slobbers" - texture is very similar - I have it all over my leg or pants twice a day now):