The correct use of hip lifters

[regolith]

otherwise known as "a really, really bad morning in the calving paddock".

(For those who might want to speculate the reasons yet again - yes, the herd gets a high level of milk fever, discussed it with the vet last week telling him I'd treated six out of 70 calved cows for it. Out of the last forty cows, treated two. Yesterday five cows calved, four went down one had the wobbles. Today three aged cows have calves all are on their feet bright and perky in pouring rain. Feed hadn't changed, mineral supplementaion hadn't changed, weather was good.)

Fourth cow is hidden by the group near the tractor.

pulled the calf. She'd been well underway calving in the middle of the night, found her 'down' in the morning with the calf still in the sac, presented correctly aside from straightening the head out a little... he probably got a bit bored by the delay and pulled it back. All four cows have had a bag of calcium under the skin, the other three had been treated about five hours earlier also. Hitching the ropes to the tractor in a 'triangle' like that seemed to work well, just tightened them as necessary and was able to maintain traction while getting the calf out.

new calf

lifted 154 first. 9 got to her feet and wandered off after a bag of calcium boroglutamate under the skin but sat down again and willingly took her oral drench of calcium chloride also.

lifting 61

wound off the hip lifters and away she goes

on the way to pick up 260

lifting 260

wound the hip lifters off 260

Being prepared - as it turned out I used everything I'd thrown on the tractor before heading up there, including the packet of chocolate biscuits. Shaddap, if you're rich enough to own a herd of cows you're rich enough to have chocolate biscuits for breakfast.

Had to tidy the carry tray before kidnapping the calves.

you wouldn't believe the people who walk onto the farm, look at this scene and say things must be going well :???: :???:

 

[regolith]

For those who might be interested: on the tray, the Jersey calf in front is Gannon heifer out of a Jersey cow, the other Jersey calf is Camboge bull out of a Jersey cow (154), the small brown and white calf is Hawthorn Grove Zeus heifer out of a black and white crossbred cow. The dark bull with the lilac tag is 260's calf, sired by Brown Swiss (Hunize), and the blaze face black heifer calf is Puketiro Frostman (Friesian) out of a mostly Jersey crossbred cow (9, the brown cow lying down) and has a 3-yr old full sister in the herd.

 

[inyati13]

regolith, this is all new to me. Thanks, that is very interesting. I love the information available here!!!

 

[kickinbull]

That does seem like a lot of milk fevers. We used to have simular problems. We had always brought the dry cows in with the milkers giving them a little grain to try to boost them up. When we turn them dry now they are taken away from milking cow diet. They dont recieve any until after they calve. Have a lot less edema also. Just what works here. Hope you figure out the cause.

 

[cow pollinater]

That's a ton of milk fever. Even if you're able to treat it all and get cows turned around you're losing a ton of milk and components by them being slowed down early in lactation. :frowns: I won't pretend like I know what's causing it as we're litirally worlds apart but something is waaay wrong. I'd be examining my dry cow program realy closely as there's a hole there somewhere.
Is milk fever specific to certain times of year for you? If so that would give some clues about what is lacking or maybe even what is overabundant.
Overall they look like they have a bunch of milk but are also pretty course for having milk so I have to believe it's coming off their backs.
The jersey looks like a good candidate for a DA in about fifteen days :nod: .

 

[regolith]

specific time of year... er yeah, if you're lucky it's specific to the day they calve.
Calving officially started 27 July and will be over by mid-October. They will be milking off their backs for the next few weeks at least, timing calving so that peak yield matches peak grass growth means that this time of year is about managing milking cows on much less than they would like to eat.

Kickinbull, traditionally I've had calving cows on grass and hay, or just grass. Part of managing the very low growth rates on this farm has meant feeding concentrate through the winter to dry cows. We calculated a maintenance ration but they've been losing weight since May so obviously it wasn't maintenance. This herd is getting a milking allowance (don't have to graze down to bare soil, and get the same concentrate and minerals the milkers are getting) from about 10 - 14 days pre-calving till they go into the milking herd 4 days after calving. Maybe that does have something to do with it. PKE isn't supposed to be fed pre-calving because of the milk fever risk, got away with it last year but have used much more this year.

DA = displaced abomasum? Why do you think so?
I've got a few cows doing 25 - 30 litres daily which is a *lot* for any NZ cow fresh calved except the better managed Holstein herds. I don't know how they're managing it, especially since the infrastructure is so poor at this stage that it's not possible to milk twice daily.
I think that day probably broke the record for number of cows down at one time. 260 didn't get to the shed the following day, couldn't navigate the mud and had to be dragged out of it. The rest are doing okay cross fingers, the mum of the Gannon calf was wobbly again this morning but is still on her feet after another dose of calcium.

 

[cow pollinater]

DA = displaced abomasum? Why do you think so?
.

She has a ton of milk but her guts are hollow. In a herd with no problems she wouldn't scare me so much but with a ton of milk fever I see a DA in the making.
With the problems you're having with bloat(past posts) and now milk fever, I think you may have a smooth muscle problem. I would guess calcium to be your enemy but I'm not anywhere near a nutritionist so that's only a guess.
Do you have cows that did well in the last lactation that fell of in the current one? Do you have cows that struggle some with milk letdown?

 

[regolith]

No problem with letdown except one or two of the first calvers - two I'm treating for mastitis now. and suspect that developing mastitis was the cause of the apparent letdown failure and not the other way around.
Earliest calved cow has been milking a bit over three weeks - it's too early to say much about production, especially under the current circumstances. Their production was all over the place when they came back from lease last spring and I culled a number of cows who had previously been good.
Had four of the eleven cows I've culled lately identified at the works as having liver damage also, which has been the case since moving here and I had presumed was caused by FE exposure the previous year. That shouldn't still be showing up now.

154 had been down at least seven hours without eating, and as she was neither calved nor showing signs of milk fever at the previous check she probably calved and didn't get up again - one of my biggest frustrations with calving cows is that they neglect eating to calve which then brings on milkfever because every other cow in the herd has in the meantime shared out her ration.
She's the first cow this year who hasn't been up within a couple of hours of treatment, and I'd decided to wait till daylight (five hours later) to deal with everything as the two cows (61 and 9) I'd just given calcium to at milking were also getting worse.
Rotten weather and dealt with another two downers since this lot.

 

[alisonb]

Just a question - Why would you want to lift them? I have always believed that once you have treated the animal it should be left to recover on its own, within a reasonable period. As you know milk fever is caused by stress of calving and the sudden switch to high milk production(calcium drain), why would you want to stress the animal any further?
After IV(usually in the milk vein, depending on stage of MF) + SC infusion, I allow animal to recover on it's own. They are usually up in minutes after the infusion. I never force an animal to stand up as that says 'relapse' to me. I will assist if it is ready to stand up and is having difficulty. The animal is fed and watered immediately and does not get milked for 24hrs, I don't usually drench the day after.
Am I missing something?

Your calves look good!

 

[regolith]

a reasonable period is *not* 5 - 7 hours.
Three of those cows had been treated with calcium five to seven hours earlier.
As a rule if I find a down cow I treat, leave her, if she doesn't get up on her own or with a kick on the rump within two hours I come back with the hip lifters. That should give you the results shown here - lift the cow, let her steady, wind the hip lifters off and she walks away and eats. You'll note 260 was calved first (after treating everything with calcium) and picked up last; she probably had somewhere between 1 - 2 hours between treatment and being lifted.
It's about the only good way to use hip lifters. If they're left lying long enough the hip lifters become less effective because of the muscle damage, while the cow weakens because she's unable to eat enough.
My main concern here is to get the cow on her feet and eating and back in the milking shed asap. And part of the decision is based on the fact that *all* I can give her to eat in the paddock is grass.
I couldn't count how many cows and hours of nursing those hip lifters have saved for me since I bought them in '07.

 

[cow pollinater]

I worked with a dairy where there were a ton of problems at freshening and we started having the maternity guys give everything a tube of calcium paste orally when they were getting ready to drop the calf. It was still a wreck but it warded off a lot of problems as they were starting. Is that something that's doable in your situation?

 

[alisonb]

Rego - Is there a reason why you don't use IV method? Recovery is so much quicker, Calcium borogluconate can be infused quite quickly without the risk of heart failure.

If available you could try including lucerne and mealie hay or something that is low in potassium in your dry cow ration, ideally you want to drop the potassium level.

 

[KNERSIE]

Rego - Is there a reason why you don't use IV method? Recovery is so much quicker, Calcium borogluconate can be infused quite quickly without the risk of heart failure.

If available you could try including lucerne and mealie hay or something that is low in potassium in your dry cow ration, ideally you want to drop the potassium level.

In my experience lucerne (alfalfa) hay made for more cases of milk fever, but feeding the cows oats hay before calving reduces the number of cases significantly.

 

[alisonb]

For years it was believed that lucerne, due to it's high calcium content, was detrimental if fed to cows in the transition period. That has not been my experience. Knersie, I agree with the oats hay. Do you agree with dropping potassium levels in feed/fertilizing etc?

It is not so much the high level of calcium but the high level of potassium, which regulates the calcium levels/absorption, that should be lowered. Also, calcium has little effect on the alkalinity of cow's blood.

I find this discussion interesting, anyone else have more info?

 

[KNERSIE]

I live in a very potassium deficient area so I can't really comment with authority on that. Interestingly enough we had lots of milk fever cases in the jerseys and very few in the holsteins and almost no cases when my dad still had Friesians.

 

[Nite Hawk]

Comparing the dairy farms in this country that doesn't seem like that much milk fever, as the cattle here have lots of it, maybe in part due to the incredible volumes of milk they produce and very high concentrate diets.
There are a few studies out there that say that feeding of legumes right up to calving there is a higher incedence of milk fever, than feeding legumes till 6-8 weeks before calving and then changing to oat hay for the remander of the gestation.
The Theory is that in feeding legumes till calving the thyroid gland is "coasting" and not having to to work to pull calcium out of the bones, and the sudden demand sends it into "shock", where the feeding legumes till 6-8 weeks before calving builds up the reserves and then cutting legumes off and switching to oat hay, the gland is "working" at calving time. Then right after calving they are put for a short time back on alfafa hay to give them a calcium boost.
They are not totally milked out for about 24 hours after calving to give the cow time to mobilize the calcium.
Alot of the farmers give their cow a bottle if they start to get the wobbles instead of waiting for them to go down.
Some studies I believe it was from UBC say that Jersey cattle are more prone to milk fever because they put like 25% more calcium "in the bucket" than other breeds.
Now I don't know if that was ajusted for volume differences or not, but ,may explain the high rate of milk fever among Jersey cattle.
Some people swear by feeding apple cider vinegar to their cows before calving, as it is high in potassium, but have good luck finding enough A.cider vinegar for a cow!
Concerning twisted stomachs some farmers swear by feeding hay /roughage immediately after calving to bulk up the stomach, they claim it is less likely to twist than if fed grass and concentrates. If it works it is better than a vet bill that is for sure.
Nite Hawk

 

[alisonb]

Knersie, I suppose I get away with feeding lucerne as it is dry milled lucerne and does not make up more than a third of the dry cow ration. It is known to regulate/maintain proper blood pH even though it has high levels of calcium and potassium.

It would seem that the ideal would be to decrease potassium levels as excess levels in the diet will depress calcium metabolism. Monitor magnesium levels very closely and increase at pre-calving if necessary. Proper magnesium level is vital as it tells the body when to start drawing calcium from the bones etc when it is most needed, inadequate magnesium = MF. Pastures, especially those that are mixed with legumes and are being fertilized by means of manure will have very high potassium levels. Pre calving cows should have access to dry hay at all times.

Hope things are going better for you Regolith.

 

[regolith]

No down cows for the last few days, at any rate. Don't want to speak to soon. One beautiful dead Brown Swiss heifer out of a heavy milker with a twisted uterus - I didn't know it either, could reach in and feel the calf and all and didn't feel the twist but the vet said pulling the calf like that could have killed her. Good thing I was lazy enough to call the vet to deal with that one then.

I'd have called the K levels on soil test here dangerously high, but don't know if the plants can take it up effectively with no P. That was where I was losing cows to milk fever when I moved to Taranaki in '06, was on the parts of the farm where the K levels were through the roof.
When I told the vet that was here two days ago I was seeing lots of milk fever he asked "is it just the Jerseys". "Nope, it's all of them." Jerseys are well known for it.