As a quick warning, this week’s blog discusses some difficult practices required to help cows with milk fever try to survive and recover.

Like humans, dairy cows are susceptible to a variety of metabolic diseases. One common one farmers worry about at calving is milk fever, or hypocalcemia. This disease occurs when the cow has low levels of calcium requiring their body to use calcium from their bones. As a result, the cows are unable to stand up and experience a variety of other symptoms such as a lower body temperature. The disease most commonly occurs within 72 hours after calving since the process of giving birth is very strenuous on the body. Most commonly milk fever may effect older cows and cows dairy cows that carry too much weight, and is more likely to happen in Jerseys.

Cows that cannot stand for extended periods of time, known as down cows, are in major trouble. Sitting for too long can lead to other problems such as loss of appetite, mastitis, and a displaced abomasum. The most major part of a down cow is that if they do not stand quickly enough they WILL die. This is why farmers may resort to practices that may not look the best to the public eye. They are putting in every ounce of effort into getting the cow up.

The first step in helping a down cow due to milk fever is fixing the cause of the problem: her blood calcium levels. On our farm, our veterinarian has instructed us to give the cows bottles containing a calcium gl

An example of a calcium bottle // Source

uconate solution. We give the bottles intravenously through their milk vein located on the bottom of their stomach connected to their udder. Giving cows a bottle is just like giving humans an IV.

The next step is not so simple. This is every farmer’s least favorite part of a difficult process which is making the cow stand up. In the situation, the cow is tired and sick and refuses to stand, but the farmer knows that if she does not stand she will get sicker and die. This conflict requires the farmer to force the cows to stand. Minor cases of milk fever may only require shocking from a cattle prod to make them stand. However, if the case is worse farmers must lift the cows up themselves. Since cows weigh over 1000 pounds, this requires the use of equipment to help them stand.

On our dairy farm, we use a hip lift to lift our down cows up. If you want to see the process, you can watch this video. In summary, the hip lift attaches to the cow’s hips and a chain is attached to the loader on a tractor. Then, the operator of the tractor lifts the loader which in turn lifts the cow. This gives the cow a chance to attempt to hold some of her own weight on her own without having to lift herself up. This practice is usually a last ditch effort and if they do not recover from being manually lifted, they are sadly put down.

Hip Lifts // Source

Milk fever and down cows are many times the cause of bad publicity for farmers. I have seen numerous animal welfare organizations send death threats to farmers for trying to save their cow’s lives. It is not a great situation but I wanted to provide people a different perspective on some of the practices that farmers must perform at the advisory of their veterinarians. I hope this week allowed you to learn something new and I look forward to reading your comments.