Not very scientific milk fever prevention study (mine)
Jul 21, 2015 9:16:51 GMT -5
Jenn, missevelyn, and 2 more like this
Post by wyomama on Jul 21, 2015 9:16:51 GMT -5
Been doing this cow thing for a good long time - about 15 years now I guess?
Last year was my first experience with milk fever. I had to pull the calf, not because there was anything wrong with the presentation, but because her contractions just weren't doing anything. she went down within a couple of hours, gave her a bottle of calcium gluconate sub Q, she got up in a while, a few hours later she went down again, another bottle set her to rights. Not any fun at all, but not totally horrible. I decided that the "reason" was that the mineral in the feeder wasn't clean enough and they hadn't been using it.
This year, I was diligent and obsessive about making sure the mineral was clean, fresh, and full, and while I made sure I had "stuff" on hand, I wasn't really worried.
Along comes Maggie. She calved fine, but the next morning, was ambulating like a drunken sailor. I quick got her in the hospital stall, she went down, I administered Cal gluc sub Q and.... it was just awful. It ended up taking 3 bottles, subQ, IP, and she really suffered, and scared me half to death. I learned that milk fever doesn't *always* make their ears cold.
So then Eva was due to calve again, and I was feeling pretty worried. I gave her ACV, 2 oz 2 times a day, ended up being for 3 weeks because I was off on her due date. I also gave her calcium boluses - broke them up and added them to her feed. That was not as easy as folks make it seem - I had to add molasses and mix it, and lock her up with it for the first week or so, but later she started eating it with gusto - I don't know if that meant that she needed it, or if she just finally gave in.
Anyway. She calved yesterday, unassisted. That's already an improvement. We are at about 20 hours, and so far she's fine. I'll keep her in the hospital stall and continue with the boluses and ACV until we are past the 48 hour mark.
I really hope that I don't update this thread with anything other than I turned her and her calf out and they are fine.... we'll see. Either the boluses or the ACV are "supposed to" prevent MF. I'm not about to only do one or the other to see which it is. I'll do both with any high-producing cow from here on out, I think... because this is already so much better than her last calving.
Last year was my first experience with milk fever. I had to pull the calf, not because there was anything wrong with the presentation, but because her contractions just weren't doing anything. she went down within a couple of hours, gave her a bottle of calcium gluconate sub Q, she got up in a while, a few hours later she went down again, another bottle set her to rights. Not any fun at all, but not totally horrible. I decided that the "reason" was that the mineral in the feeder wasn't clean enough and they hadn't been using it.
This year, I was diligent and obsessive about making sure the mineral was clean, fresh, and full, and while I made sure I had "stuff" on hand, I wasn't really worried.
Along comes Maggie. She calved fine, but the next morning, was ambulating like a drunken sailor. I quick got her in the hospital stall, she went down, I administered Cal gluc sub Q and.... it was just awful. It ended up taking 3 bottles, subQ, IP, and she really suffered, and scared me half to death. I learned that milk fever doesn't *always* make their ears cold.
So then Eva was due to calve again, and I was feeling pretty worried. I gave her ACV, 2 oz 2 times a day, ended up being for 3 weeks because I was off on her due date. I also gave her calcium boluses - broke them up and added them to her feed. That was not as easy as folks make it seem - I had to add molasses and mix it, and lock her up with it for the first week or so, but later she started eating it with gusto - I don't know if that meant that she needed it, or if she just finally gave in.
Anyway. She calved yesterday, unassisted. That's already an improvement. We are at about 20 hours, and so far she's fine. I'll keep her in the hospital stall and continue with the boluses and ACV until we are past the 48 hour mark.
I really hope that I don't update this thread with anything other than I turned her and her calf out and they are fine.... we'll see. Either the boluses or the ACV are "supposed to" prevent MF. I'm not about to only do one or the other to see which it is. I'll do both with any high-producing cow from here on out, I think... because this is already so much better than her last calving.