PSR calves have no desire to purposely seek out milk and suckle. They may seek a teat intermittently in the wrong areas (legs, flank or chest of cow), and they have a poor response to teat contact. They do not respond when a teat or finger is placed into their mouth. Apart from this, they show no signs of ill health, however will progressively get weaker as they go longer from birth without receiving colostrum. This will often persist for 2-6 hours, after which the cow becomes less tolerant of the calf’s attempts. The calf will begin to weaken, the cow’s udder may become engorged, there is higher incidence of retained placenta and the window of antibody absorption from colostrum in the calf is rapidly closing – meaning long term complications for the calf.
PSR can be reversible in some cases, by forced suckling multiple times in the first 24-48 hours of the calf’s life, or by tube feeding. Other cases are not reversible, either requiring tube feeding until early weaning, or resulting in the death of the calf/foal. If the suckling reflex is not able to be stimulated, it is lost completely.
The cause is not well known and appears to be a combination of multiple factors creating a ‘perfect storm’. Although it is commonly associated with an adverse peri parturient (around the time of birth) event, it is also seen in neonates that have not had an obvious problem. Amongst foals, there is the theory that it may result from some type of unrecognized in utero hypoxia (inadequate oxygen supply). Hypoxia can affect the neonate’s central nervous system, brain, gastrointestinal tract, liver and kidneys, and is caused by a decreased blood flow to the placenta and neonate. It could occur:
- In utero, caused by placentitis (inflammation of the placenta) or decrease in blood flow to the uterus from other maternal illness
- At birth due to dystocia
- Shortly after birth due to prematurity, recumbency, pulmonary disease, sepsis, or anaemia
- Complicated by factors such as inclement weather/poor environment, mothers with poor udder and teat conformation and poor mothering ability
From when I got her home she was clearly very different to normal kids. When she was hungry, she would run to me but appeared to have no concept that suckling was the way to find food. Every feeding I would need to pry open her mouth, hold her on my lap, and trickle the milk into her throat. She would chew on the teat and swallow milk that ran into her mouth but it was a 30-40 minute task that only got about 150-200ml milk into her. She was about one month old at the time, starting to nibble solid feed but really needing the inclusion of milk in her diet to grow well.
I began researching and talking to dairy cattle and horse breeders who had experience with dummy calves/foals. Most dairy calves are tube fed twice a day until weaning if the suckle reflex doesn’t appear after a few days of forced sucking. I was fairly hesitant to commit to twice daily tube feeding for at least another month. Foals on the other hand tend to be weaned very early onto pellets or grain soaked in milk and made into a mash. I thought this idea had merit so started to introduce it to Imagination. I thought perhaps she would always be a bit on the small side but her genetics would make her a valuable breeding doe so she was worth persisting with, even if she may never make the show ring.
A more recent ‘treatment’ has been trialled successfully in foals called the Madigan Foal Squeeze Procedure. Dr John Madigan and researchers at UC Davis believe that there may be other factors at play involving a group of naturally occurring neurosteroids that act as sedatives for the unborn foal – in order to keep it quiet and calm in utero. However a foal or any infant prey animal needs to be able to transition to being able to run with the herd only a few hours after birth. The Madigan theory proposes that during labour, a biochemical “on switch” must be triggered during birth to allow the neonate to recognise its mother, nurse and become mobile. It is believed that the physical pressure of the birthing process plays an important part, as dummy foal syndrome is seen often in foals born via caesarean section or unusually rapid births. The researchers have found that by using a rope harness to gently squeeze the foal to mimic the birth process, the suckle reflex can be stimulated and the foal begin to nurse normally.
Unfortunately this process is recommended to do within 24-48 hours of birth and as such, it was too late to attempt it on this kid.
As luck would have it, fate intervened for me. At the time I had no other kids of a similar age to buddy up with her, so I was housing her at night in a stable with my heavily pregnant goatling who was very gentle with her. My other goats would bully her too much. Though I was making some sort of progress on bottle feeding, it was inconsistent and I wasn’t having too much luck with the pellets soaked in milk either. On the morning of 2nd September I went to the stable and found Imagination absolutely soaking wet from head to toe. I thought perhaps she’d fallen into the water bucket accidentally, but then I realised my goatling (Fleur) was in early labour, and had been licking her incessantly for what appeared to be hours! She looked like a drowned rat, but appeared very happy and to my amazement, appeared to actually be interested in taking a bottle. She took more milk that morning than I’d ever managed to get into her previously. Fleur proceeded to have twins later that day, but continued mothering Imagination and was very happy with her ‘triplets’. From that day, Imagination improved in leaps and bounds. She began to seek out the bottle, though I still had to open her mouth and place the teat. She actually began to suck and drink a full 600ml bottle three times a day, though it was with a strange open mouthed motion and with her head raised almost vertically. After about two weeks she even began drinking off Fleur, who was happy to accommodate.
Now she is a very healthy and happy five month old doe, who has almost caught up to her peers size-wise. She has placed well at shows and was awarded Champion Doe Kid All Breeds at Busselton Show 2017. It is my belief that the mothering and licking from my goatling somehow triggered that “on switch” and stimulated the suckle reflex.
She is definitely a very special kid and has firmly wiggled her way into my heart. I do believe all the hard work has paid off and she is going to be a beautiful dairy doe in time - and big thanks to Fleur for doing her part too!
Resources – just a few of the many web pages and articles I found helpful while trying to find out more about what might have been wrong with my kid
“Poor Suckling Reflex” by Alex Ashwood, Australian Brahman Breeder’s Association
http://www.brahman.com.au/technical_information/general/poorSuckingReflex.html
“Dummy Foal Syndrome” by Marcia King
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/26863/dummy-foal-syndrome-equine-neonatal-maladjustment-syndrome
“Newborn Horses Give Clues to Autism” by Pat Bailey, UC Davis
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/newborn-horses-give-clues-autism/