Idiots, cattle ranchers in order to get a cow to geed a strange calf will spray the cows nose with hair spray and the calf with hair spray. When the cow sniffs the calf it recognizes the smeel.
We used to put the cow in a stanchion, put some hobbles on her, and put four calves on her. She didn’t like it but could do nothing about it. We fed them twice a day that way.
Worked great till the scours hit.
Heard an expert on CNN say the calf was rejected because it would’ve no longer smelled like the mom or the herd after being separated too long. Seems like your trick might’ve gotten him back in the pack.