# bottle calf/ fly strike



## lasergrl (Nov 24, 2007)

As some may remember I had been looking for a bottle calf highland heifer. Well, there is one available about 4 hours drive from me. Problem, it has bad fly strike. Breeder says that hair on back end is gone and a patch of skin even. His vet looked at it and thinks the mother didnt clean it well and flies took it. It is functioning normally, but the mom is not being as attentive as she could and would like her bottle raised. He discounted the price to $300. Has anyone dealt with such a thing? The calf I think is about 2 weeks old at this point. Anyone have any experience with this sort of problem and if so what were your results? I dont mind taking on a sick calf if it has a fairly good shot.


----------



## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

I've only ever had to deal with flystrike in cattle once. It was a calf but wasn't one of mine, it belonged to the station I was working on and the calves and cows were in the paddock next to our house. The mother had cleaned the calf up well enough but the flys had homed in on the nice yellow poohs that had stuck to the calf's hair. By the time I noticed that there was something wrong with it, it was a mess. With the help of one of the station shepherds, I was able to cut the cow and calf out from the mob and bring them into my cowshed paddock. I cut all the hair well back from the bare flesh and gave it a liberal dressing of fly strike powder - really satisfying to watch all the maggots writhing and falling off! I gave it another dressing the following day and then left it but kept the cow and calf in my house paddock for a further three weeks. By the time they went back to their mob the calf was putting on weight, growing new skin and I understand she went on to become a replacement heifer. 

The calf would have been a bit younger than the one your looking at and in actual fact, the breeder could fix it up in the same way I did but if this is what you want and you think that is a good price, I would say go for it. 

Cheers,
Ronnie


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

I say, don't do it. It is an ugly mess that the farmer should have dealt w/ it already. Oh yucky yucky maggots. Or offer him $100 [max] for her. If he won't take it, I would pass.


----------



## Madsaw (Feb 26, 2008)

I been farming for yrs and never heard the term Fly strike. But if a calf gets maggots from the poo on its butt then use a spray called screw worm aresol. Bigmudder on here used it on one of his calves. The hair will grow back. We had a heifer like that last yrs too. She is doing fine now with no visiable signs from it.
Bob


----------



## bigmudder77 (Jun 9, 2008)

yes id use that it is GREAT stuff turns them blue where you spray it but it kills them as soon as it was sprayed on and they fall off and it keeps flys away too 

i also use hydroproxide before i sprayed it and waited till it dryed about 4 hours till i sprayed that on cause i read some where that it kills the eggs the fly lay so they cant hatch and it helped the skin the maggots already started to eat just watch out when you do that mine tried to kick me 

but yes screw worm spray get it 

but i still wouldnt pay that much the time your gonna have in this calf and she sounds pretty bad to start with and the longer he or you wait to do some thing the worse she is gonna get and i know today it hit 90 again around wooster area where i live and thats just nasty for these maggots they will hatch like crazy in this weather

where is this calf at any ways? and how did you hear about it? if you dont mind me asking


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

curiosity again...did you get this calf, or not?


----------



## lasergrl (Nov 24, 2007)

No,

I passed, and only because it was a 4 1/2 hour drive and with the gas prices.... just wasnt worth it in the long run. Back to my search for a bottle baby highland. I actually would love to find a high-dex.


----------

