Post by thesmilingtree on Dec 7, 2011 13:55:10 GMT -5
I posted here on 27 October about my 6yo Jersey cow, Lollipop, who had calved with Milk Fever and was down for 18 hours. Thanks to your help she recovered well.
Now she has had ketosis for 2 1/2 weeks but I didn't realise and the vet didn't make out it was any big deal when she came 11 days ago and now Lollipop seems to be dying.
Here is the short story and what we are now doing:
27 Oct - calved, milk fever, calcium IV, recovered fairly quickly although, now I think about it, she never really regained her usual bright, inquisitive personality and her appetite was not as ravenous as usual.
21 Nov - didn't want to get up in the morning, when she did she was very wobbly on her back legs, staggering like she was drunk, very sunken in - clearly had not eaten much during the night. I called the vet but they 'forgot' to come but by that evening she seemed a little better and I thought it was just one of those things, so didn't push the vet to come. Over the next few days she is dull, her appetite suppressed, but getting up, moving around ok and I see her chewing the cud occasionally and she is eating some hay but not really interested in her nuts or sugar beet.
26 Nov - relapsed back and was very staggery again, very hollow, dull, ears cold, not happy. I call the vet - she suspects ketosis but to be sure wants to take some blood, which she did, to test for ketosis but also her mineral levels. She gives her an injection of steroids with B vits and gives me one packet of Pro-Rumen to help replace good gut bacteria, which we drench her with later that day. I know I should know by now after reading this website enough times, but I didn't realise that ketosis can be deadly and the vet does not seem unduly worried, so I don't panic - even when it takes 6 days for the blood test results to confirm that she has ketosis (mineral levels were ok). Even then though, the vet does not seem to be raising any worries - I am telling her she has not improved and she is then saying maybe it's a displaced abomasum (which I look up - part of her gut getting in the wrong place and causing a physical restriction in her being able to digest / pass the food she is eating, which can also cause a supressed appetite). If it is a DA then it's a two vet job to operate and they couldn't do it for a couple of days.
7 Dec - pour Lollipop, she looks like a hat rack, so skinny, hunched back, coat sticking up, cold ears, dull, sad, almost no milk - I call the vet again and say 'this is an emergency'. A vet comes, a different vet from the same practice, she tests (by tapping her all around her belly and listening through the stethoscope) and says she is almost certain she does not have a DA but she is now in the final stages of chronic ketosis, probably also by now has a fatty liver and is likely to die. Of course, I'm standing there crying, holding Lollipop's head in my arms, she seems to have no energy to hold her own head up. I can't believe we've got to this point and she hadn't been treated sooner. The vet gives her more steroids and another multivit injection. She tells me to drench her 3 x per day with a glucose/electrolyte powder in 1/2 gallon of warm water and also to drench her 2 x per day with propylene glycol. We have also taken the calf off her (but kept him in a pen in her stall, so she doesn't stress about him going) and tubed her, to stop her having to use energy to make milk. But I am sure this is all too late.
I've offered her warm molassed water, but she's not interested and won't touch any food of any sort.
If anyone has any other ideas of what I might do please let me know.
So sad to see a cow starving herself to death in front of you.
Christine
Now she has had ketosis for 2 1/2 weeks but I didn't realise and the vet didn't make out it was any big deal when she came 11 days ago and now Lollipop seems to be dying.
Here is the short story and what we are now doing:
27 Oct - calved, milk fever, calcium IV, recovered fairly quickly although, now I think about it, she never really regained her usual bright, inquisitive personality and her appetite was not as ravenous as usual.
21 Nov - didn't want to get up in the morning, when she did she was very wobbly on her back legs, staggering like she was drunk, very sunken in - clearly had not eaten much during the night. I called the vet but they 'forgot' to come but by that evening she seemed a little better and I thought it was just one of those things, so didn't push the vet to come. Over the next few days she is dull, her appetite suppressed, but getting up, moving around ok and I see her chewing the cud occasionally and she is eating some hay but not really interested in her nuts or sugar beet.
26 Nov - relapsed back and was very staggery again, very hollow, dull, ears cold, not happy. I call the vet - she suspects ketosis but to be sure wants to take some blood, which she did, to test for ketosis but also her mineral levels. She gives her an injection of steroids with B vits and gives me one packet of Pro-Rumen to help replace good gut bacteria, which we drench her with later that day. I know I should know by now after reading this website enough times, but I didn't realise that ketosis can be deadly and the vet does not seem unduly worried, so I don't panic - even when it takes 6 days for the blood test results to confirm that she has ketosis (mineral levels were ok). Even then though, the vet does not seem to be raising any worries - I am telling her she has not improved and she is then saying maybe it's a displaced abomasum (which I look up - part of her gut getting in the wrong place and causing a physical restriction in her being able to digest / pass the food she is eating, which can also cause a supressed appetite). If it is a DA then it's a two vet job to operate and they couldn't do it for a couple of days.
7 Dec - pour Lollipop, she looks like a hat rack, so skinny, hunched back, coat sticking up, cold ears, dull, sad, almost no milk - I call the vet again and say 'this is an emergency'. A vet comes, a different vet from the same practice, she tests (by tapping her all around her belly and listening through the stethoscope) and says she is almost certain she does not have a DA but she is now in the final stages of chronic ketosis, probably also by now has a fatty liver and is likely to die. Of course, I'm standing there crying, holding Lollipop's head in my arms, she seems to have no energy to hold her own head up. I can't believe we've got to this point and she hadn't been treated sooner. The vet gives her more steroids and another multivit injection. She tells me to drench her 3 x per day with a glucose/electrolyte powder in 1/2 gallon of warm water and also to drench her 2 x per day with propylene glycol. We have also taken the calf off her (but kept him in a pen in her stall, so she doesn't stress about him going) and tubed her, to stop her having to use energy to make milk. But I am sure this is all too late.
I've offered her warm molassed water, but she's not interested and won't touch any food of any sort.
If anyone has any other ideas of what I might do please let me know.
So sad to see a cow starving herself to death in front of you.
Christine