Cow down because of low calcium

[farmerjan]

Someone correct me if I am wrong but low Phos will cause it,too.Had a cow go down a few years back and,although I was feeding mineral and a protein block,both with high mag.,The cow was getting enough salt out of the block she didn't go to the mineral.Block had practically no Ca/Ph/ Using a 4:1 ratio high mag mineral now and,when I feed blocks,they are the type with no salt.
If you are feeding in rings,hay wagon,etc,you could have a case of the young,stronger cows eating the best hay and she's only getting the coarse,lower value hay.Had a wet season once and was feeding 22 cows on one hay ring.Size of bales equaled out to around 22 or 23 cows per day.Thought I was doing great until an older cow got down.Short teeth,old and couldn't compete.IMO there needs to be enough feeder space for each to have equal space or unroll the bales.

Had a dairy cow get "low phos" milk fever years ago. Vet said it was more common late lactation, but she had to have IV. Older cows tend to have more problems with both low calcium and low phosphorus, and the balance being right.

 

[Silver]

I saw it once when I was a kid, cow was down and Grandpa said it was milk fever. He fixed her up with a lantern pump and some twine. Took just a few minutes and she was up like nothing ever happened.

C'mon, this didn't pique anybodies intrest? :lol2:

 

[ez14.]

I saw it once when I was a kid, cow was down and Grandpa said it was milk fever. He fixed her up with a lantern pump and some twine. Took just a few minutes and she was up like nothing ever happened.

C'mon, this didn't pique anybodies intrest? :lol2:

I was curious but didn't ask because I didn't want to sound stupid :lol:

 

[Silver]

I saw it once when I was a kid, cow was down and Grandpa said it was milk fever. He fixed her up with a lantern pump and some twine. Took just a few minutes and she was up like nothing ever happened.

C'mon, this didn't pique anybodies intrest? :lol2:

I was curious but didn't ask because I didn't want to sound stupid :lol:

Well, Grandpa was an old cowboy who earned a living as such back in the 30's when modern fixes just weren't available.
He knew what he was looking at straight away. Apparently the old method was to pump up the teats of the cow up to force milk back into the blood stream, thereby giving her a quick dose of calcium. Once he was satisfied he had forced enough milk upstream he tied off the teat to prevent everything from coming back. It took literally no time for the cow to go back to normal. I don't remember if he took the twine off her teats when she started to come around or if he roped her a little later to do the job.

 

[TexasBred]

C'mon, this didn't pique anybodies intrest? :lol2:

I was curious but didn't ask because I didn't want to sound stupid :lol:

Well, Grandpa was an old cowboy who earned a living as such back in the 30's when modern fixes just weren't available.
He knew what he was looking at straight away. Apparently the old method was to pump up the teats of the cow up to force milk back into the blood stream, thereby giving her a quick dose of calcium. Once he was satisfied he had forced enough milk upstream he tied off the teat to prevent everything from coming back. It took literally no time for the cow to go back to normal. I don't remember if he took the twine off her teats when she started to come around or if he roped her a little later to do the job.

Forgive me Silver but I'm going to pick my feet up and put them on the table on that one. lolol

 

[Silver]

Forgive me Silver but I'm going to pick my feet up and put them on the table on that one. lolol

I did some googling to see if this was ever common practice and finally found this on Wikipedia:


Urination and defecation commonly occurring during calcium treatment
Treatment generally involves calcium injection by intravenous, intramuscular or subcutaneous routes. Before calcium injection was employed, treatment comprised inflation of the udder using a pneumatic pump. Inflation of the udder worked because the increased pressure created in the udder pushed the calcium in the udder back into the bloodstream of the cow.[5]

 

[TexasBred]

Forgive me Silver but I'm going to pick my feet up and put them on the table on that one. lolol

I did some googling to see if this was ever common practice and finally found this on Wikipedia:


Urination and defecation commonly occurring during calcium treatment
Treatment generally involves calcium injection by intravenous, intramuscular or subcutaneous routes. Before calcium injection was employed, treatment comprised inflation of the udder using a pneumatic pump. Inflation of the udder worked because the increased pressure created in the udder pushed the calcium in the udder back into the bloodstream of the cow.[5]

I'll be darn....we gotta get this on U-tube. lolol

 

[tom4018]

Bringing up my old thread as we had another one do it this year. Really making me think something is lacking in our mineral. This was another older cow 1 day after calving. They have had more feed this year due to running short on hay, some mineral is mixed in feed so she had some regardless if she ate free choice mineral or not.

 

[ez14.]

Bringing up my old thread as we had another one do it this year. Really making me think something is lacking in our mineral. This was another older cow 1 day after calving. They have had more feed this year due to running short on hay, some mineral is mixed in feed so she had some regardless if she ate free choice mineral or not.

try bring down the calcium levels pre calving

 

[tom4018]

Bringing up my old thread as we had another one do it this year. Really making me think something is lacking in our mineral. This was another older cow 1 day after calving. They have had more feed this year due to running short on hay, some mineral is mixed in feed so she had some regardless if she ate free choice mineral or not.

try bring down the calcium levels pre calving

You lost me here, how would bringing them down help with low calcium?

 

[ez14.]

Bringing up my old thread as we had another one do it this year. Really making me think something is lacking in our mineral. This was another older cow 1 day after calving. They have had more feed this year due to running short on hay, some mineral is mixed in feed so she had some regardless if she ate free choice mineral or not.

try bring down the calcium levels pre calving

You lost me here, how would bringing them down help with low calcium?

I know it doesn't make any sense lol. But if the calcium levels are to high pre calving then they can't properly use there calcium stores

 

[Aaron]

Previous posts about moderating calcium levels pre-calving are correct to prevent milk fever, but milk fever in beef cows is so rare, I will say there are more potential issues that can arise with lower calcium blood levels pre-calving, than higher levels. Different case in dairy cows. I feed a 1:1 mineral year-round and add a few handfuls of extra fine ground limestone to every bag, to boost calcium levels. Started doing this after a handful of uterine prolapses and uterine infections over several years lead to blood testing which concluded low blood calcium levels were likely to blame. Haven't had any issues since I started adding the limestone.

 

[farmerjan]

I am thinking the cal/phos levels are out of whack...so might be too high calcium pre calving... but unless you do blood test, can't be sure.

 

[alisonb]

Ketosis perhaps?

 

[TexasBred]

Bringing up my old thread as we had another one do it this year. Really making me think something is lacking in our mineral. This was another older cow 1 day after calving. They have had more feed this year due to running short on hay, some mineral is mixed in feed so she had some regardless if she ate free choice mineral or not.

try bring down the calcium levels pre calving

You lost me here, how would bringing them down help with low calcium?

Wish Lucky the vet would chime in on this Tom but basically by feeding elevated levels of calcium you increase the calcium level in the blood almost immediately. When the cow calves and begins producing milk the sudden depletion of the calcium in the blood causes the milk fever. If you would remove or at least reduce available calcium during the last two months of pregnancy blood calcium level would be reduced and when the cow calves and begins producing milk she will pull the calcium from the bone rather than the blood and there will normally be no problems. It is the sudden reduction of the excess calcium in the blood being suddenly reduced that causes the problem.

 

[tom4018]

try bring down the calcium levels pre calving

You lost me here, how would bringing them down help with low calcium?

Wish Lucky the vet would chime in on this Tom but basically by feeding elevated levels of calcium you increase the calcium level in the blood almost immediately. When the cow calves and begins producing milk the sudden depletion of the calcium in the blood causes the milk fever. If you would remove or at least reduce available calcium during the last two months of pregnancy blood calcium level would be reduced and when the cow calves and begins producing milk she will pull the calcium from the bone rather than the blood and there will normally be no problems. It is the sudden reduction of the excess calcium in the blood being suddenly reduced that causes the problem.

Not sure if he has seen my results personally but his lab did the tests. Usually get something in the mail from them. As of now we just had the phone call from the vet. Once I get them I may PM him.

 

[Aaron]

Just got this article in Western Dairy Farmer magazine yesterday. Found it to be very pertinent to this conversation. I am going to repost these images as a new thread so that someone can find it if looking for answers surrounding milk fever.

There are a few paragraphs on 2nd page that are poorly edited/spell checked - but you get the general idea.