Yesterday morning, at the farm where I work, I found one of the cows down. The morning before she seemed withdrawn, off feed, and stood off by herself. The owner did not treat for anything at that point. She was 4-5 years old and had slipped her calf roughly 10 days prior (about 2 months premature).
When I found her, she was flat on her side with her legs out stiff, almost like she was paralyzed. When we tried to get her sitting up with the tractor, she would flail a bit, but had almost no fight in her. The vet diagnosed her with milk fever and gave her an IV, but she did not respond. Is it possible for them to be so far gone with milk fever that and IV would no longer be effective or could she have been misdiagnosed? She had some clear vaginal discharge with no smell, so I would not be inclined to say it was an infection having to do with her aborted calf or unpassed placenta.
Someone suggested (based on the presence of discharge) that she may have been pregnant with twins and was now shoulder locked (which would explain her paralyzed appearance) with a second calf. Could this be plausible given the time lapse between the aborted calf and her being down? He didn't palpate her to find out.
She died within 24 hours, I presume more due to the fact that we could not get her sitting up, rather than the condition itself. The owner said he couldn't find anybody with a rifle to put her down.
When I found her, she was flat on her side with her legs out stiff, almost like she was paralyzed. When we tried to get her sitting up with the tractor, she would flail a bit, but had almost no fight in her. The vet diagnosed her with milk fever and gave her an IV, but she did not respond. Is it possible for them to be so far gone with milk fever that and IV would no longer be effective or could she have been misdiagnosed? She had some clear vaginal discharge with no smell, so I would not be inclined to say it was an infection having to do with her aborted calf or unpassed placenta.
Someone suggested (based on the presence of discharge) that she may have been pregnant with twins and was now shoulder locked (which would explain her paralyzed appearance) with a second calf. Could this be plausible given the time lapse between the aborted calf and her being down? He didn't palpate her to find out.
She died within 24 hours, I presume more due to the fact that we could not get her sitting up, rather than the condition itself. The owner said he couldn't find anybody with a rifle to put her down.
