05/01/2026
Now that he’s two weeks old and looks like he’s out of the woods, we feel we can finally share our little miracle baby!
Little Joey was born with a severe cleft palate, which affected both sides of his mouth. This was something that was new to Mike and Sam, and even Frank in his over 80 years of cattle raising had never dealt with. After calling a few vets, the prognosis was not looking good.
Unlike humans, having a surgery to reconstruct the palate and lips is not really an option in cattle. And having suction for a calf to nurse from mother is one of the most important things. That was the first thing that the vets warned us about.. If he did have suction, the next big hurdle was the worry that his trachea and esophagus did not properly form into separate tubes, i.e. meaning if he ever did get milk, he might end up drowning…
The good news is that he did have suction! We then had to wait to see how it would go after the first feedings.
With how he had to put the bottle at just the right angle when he was first born to create suction, he got tired fast nursing. This led to us having to tube feed him a couple times, which is not an easy feat.
After several days of tubing and bottle feeding Joey, he finally figured out how to latch onto his own mother and nurse! We still have to supplement him with a bottle at this point, but we are pretty optimistic!
