Calf, Constipated

We have had an on going problem with our calf and she is finally doing better! The little one had a rough time of it, her mom stopped giving milk (or letting her nurse) when she was only 2 1/2 months old. The problem we encountered with the calf was she would not take a bottle (although we did get her to drink milk out of a bucket) so the vet said to start her on grain and hay along with the milk in a bucket. The problem we had though was every day by late afternoon the left side of her tummy would swell (bad) and would push the right side out also (she would get constipated). We took her to the vet and he said to give her a teaspoon of dark Caro syrup and a teaspoon of mineral oil a day with her grain feed (2 quarts of grain). This started a problem of every day she would bloat something awful then over night would go down only to repeat itself the next day. Some of these days she would swell so bad I was worried it would interfere with her breathing. This went on for about 5 weeks....

Then I ran into a a neighbor of mine and told him of the problem we were having and he said he had also had a problem similar to this about 15 years ago. He said he changed the feed to a lower protein base and only gave a pint of feed a day along with the grass in the fields and he also did not give hay. I thought she could not possibly get worse so I started this the next day (low protein feed, milk in a bucket and the grass) I was amazed at the  night and day difference, she stopped bloating from the first day of changing the feed. That was two weeks ago, she is a little smaller than the other calves that are her age, but that is to be expected with her set backs, I wish I would have ran into my neighbor earlier! This is one of those "better late than never", I think she will be fine now and in another month or so her rumen should kick in and she will then be more able to digest food (higher protein and hay). My neighbor said at this early of an age the calf's tummy is not ready for a higher protein base nor big amounts of hay and because of this they get constipated. He has seen a few die with this because of the pressure that is put on their heart and/or lungs from the bloating.