Clarabelle After 6 Days - An Update

I wanted to give an update on little Clarabelle, our Jersey heifer born last Saturday a little after noon. She's been quite a challenge.  For whatever reason, she was slow to stand up.  After about 6 hours she finally stood up on wobbly legs.  Problem solved? Well, she still needed to nurse to get Rosie's colostrum into her gut that gives her the antibodies she needs to fend off infection and disease.  And she wouldn't nurse.  It seemed as if she just didn't have the sucking reflex.  We worked and worked with her and were finally able to get her to get maybe a mouthful down.

Sunday morning we woke up and milked about a half gallon into a bottle and the little fart drank it from the bottle.  Progress!  We'll take it.  Same thing at noon and again Sunday evening. We then began to try to fool her now that she craved the milk and had the sucking reflex down.  We simply moved her closer to Rosie and after she finished the bottle and still wanted to suck, we quickly substituted Rosie's teat for the bottle and voila! She nursed from Rosie!

Here's what you are looking for, Clarabelle

Except for one small problem.  She would never initiate the nursing on her own. Tricia and I got up each morning at 5 and trudged out to the barn and repeated the process of helping her to find Rosie's teat and nurse in order to ensure that she would continue to grow stronger and not dehydrate in the hot weather we're having. She kept drinking, but only after we helped her find it.  I began to even wonder if she was blind, but we watched her and she clearly could see.

And then on Wednesday afternoon of this week, a full four days after she was born, something clicked and we observed Clarabelle rooting around Rosie, trying to find the milk spigot on her own - without our intervention!

A little further back, girl

Finally she found it and latched on.  There was rejoicing going on at our house. Clarabelle was going to make it.  Yesterday morning when we went to the barn, Clarabelle had already had her breakfast and had almost emptied both quarters on Rosie's right side.  She didn't want any more and that's okay. Dairy cows will produce more than their babies can drink.  We simply milk out Rosie of all of the milk that Clarabelle didn't want.  You might say we share the milk with her.

Latching on

Clarabelle will alternate between the rear teat and front teat and either empty them or drink until she's full.  At first, she was only drinking when we'd take Rosie in the barn in the mornings or evenings, but now we notice she's nursing off of her Momma whenever she's hungry out in the pasture.

Milk - It does a body good!

Now that we think that after 6 days she's finally gotten down what all our other calves have learned on day 2, we'll try to get into our normal routine that we normally work out with our calves in order to share milk with her.  We will leave Rosie and Clarabelle together all day, and then at around 6 pm, we'll separate them. We put the calf in a stall in the barn and allow Rosie to have a "Mother's Night Out." That allows her to produce milk for US from 6 pm until around 5:30 the next morning.  At that time, we'll milk Rosie out and then put her and Clarabelle back together.  Rosie will produce milk for Clarabelle between 6 am and 6 pm.  Our milk sharing is mutually beneficial to Clarabelle and our family and the demand for milk keeps Rosie's supply up.

Summary:  Clarabelle, after a shaky start, looks like she's gonna be fine.  Tricia saw her running in the pasture yesterday, kicking up her heels! Hallelujah!