Depressed after calving

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ffamom

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My son's heifer calved on 5/3. The cow will not get up and graze. She will get up to eat grain. Do you think this is milk fever or something else. She appears depressed. I will let you know what her temp. is later tonight.
 
If she gets up at all I wouldn't guess milk fever.
Is she feeding the calf?

Check her temp. Then give a dose of Vit B12. Have you had this problem with any other cows?
 
Confirm this animal has been down since the fourth of May?

Post partum cow?

Never heard of it.

Sounds like a physical injury that she is prepared to suffer through for the grain.

Fix her / ship her or shoot her - only three possibilities.

Long distance and internet provide for poor diagnosis.

Seems a veterinarian visit might be in order.

Good luck,

Bez>
 
I'm sorry for my confusing statements. To clarify, the cow is not technically down. She just feels rotten enough to only wants to lay around. You can make her get up. I took her temperature and it was 104.5 F. The calf must be nursing because his urine is clear and he is up walking around. Her milk is white without chunk or blood and her utter doesn't feel unusally warm. The only cow we have had that acted like this retained her placenta (twin curse.) This one appears to have cleaned out.

The vet did call back shortly afterI have I made my initial post.
He wants me to give her 15 cc banamine and 55 cc Nuflor. He is expecting a follow up with a phone call in the morning.

We do have B12. I guess a shot of that couldn't hurt.

Thank you for your input.
 
Sounds like a systemic infection. Just because they expelled all the afterbirth doesn't mean there isn't an infection in there. I'd give the antibiotics and pain relief as your vet prescribed, and also give Lutalyse 2x/day for 2 days to help her clean out.
 
ffamom":13ykz6sa said:
My son's heifer calved on 5/3. The cow will not get up and graze. She will get up to eat grain. Do you think this is milk fever or something else. She appears depressed. I will let you know what her temp. is later tonight.

eating grass and grain arent exactly optimal nutrition for a 4 day old calf. is the cow that had her doing anything?

**a few minutes later, i thought you were expecting the calf to do those things. apparently i should read a little more closely. sorry. :roll:
 
Has anyone done an internal repro exam on her ? That would certainly be on my "must do" list for a post calving problem.

Milk fever??? In a heifer - on this side of the world that is as rare as hens teeth (never see it). You'd have to be doing something pretty weird to be getting primary milk fever in a heifer.
 
i think she probably has some sort of infection from calving too. or possibly a little tear she is repairing if the calf was big or she had a hard time delivering.
 

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