Treating Dexter for Milk fever

Gather App
Inventry
UnlistMe
D

DawgonitRanch

New member
Joined
Feb 6, 2014
Messages
2
Getting ready for calves and I want to have MPD on hand in case of milk fever. There are no supply houses close to me so better safe than sorry. My question is this. One a full size cow everything i've read indicates that a cow can have 2 500ml of MPD, one SubQ, with another available for IV. My girls weigh just over 650 lbs, so would the dosage be half? I know you can kill them with administering the IV too fast, but can they overdose?
 
DawgonitRanch":1eb906hl said:
Getting ready for calves and I want to have MPD on hand in case of milk fever. There are no supply houses close to me so better safe than sorry. My question is this. One a full size cow everything i've read indicates that a cow can have 2 500ml of MPD, one SubQ, with another available for IV. My girls weigh just over 650 lbs, so would the dosage be half? I know you can kill them with administering the IV too fast, but can they overdose?
Click to expand...
If you actually have to use the stuff go with the IV first, give a full 500 ml. and do it very slowly. I always replace the needly that comes with the IV kid with a 16 gauge needle. It will slow down the flow of the IV and it is much sharper and easier to use than the big needle. Follow that up with another bottle of dextrose solution. I personally never treated milk fever with anything subQ.
 
If the cows have not had any previous history of milk fever and you are not planning on milking them, just the calves on them, it is not very likely you will have trouble. If you did have problems and were wary about using the the full 500ml on the small cow then just give it SC and you would not have any problem. Yes in acute cases of genuine milk fever you do need the IV but it has to be given cautiously and I would judge the amount to the response you get.
Unless you are sure it is milk fever I would just give it SC. I find that cows that are down for any reason whatsoever are given calcium and most of these have completely normal calcium levels so it is easier to kill them with it IV.
 
The question was about treating milk fever. Give her an IV is she has it. SubQ is little better than squirting it on the ground.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top