Milk fever is a common disease that occurs in dairy cattle, usually close to parturition. Milk fever causes the animal to not have the strength to stand and if not treated as soon as the disease is noticed, it will result in unconsciousness and death. Although milk fever is commonly known, many people don’t understand the different forms, causes, and stages of the disease. They might not fully understand how to take preventative action or how to treat an animal with milk fever either.
There are different forms of milk fever such as typical, tremors and refractory milk fever. The most common is typical milk fever which occurs mostly in cattle within a couple days after calving. Although it is less common, typical milk fever can also occur in …show more content…
This usually takes place within a day or so of the cow giving birth. Dairy cattle can also develop milk fever from poor or excessive supplementation of vitamins and minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D, magnesium and potassium. Reproductive tract infection, coliform mastitis and lower gastrointestinal tract stasis are causes that are specific to toxemia (Adams, Moore & Ishler). If you know that the animal is susceptible to milk fever due to one of these causes, you should try to take preventative action to reduce the chances of the …show more content…
To prevent typical milk fever, the easiest thing to do is to decrease the amount of green feed during the last few weeks of the animal’s pregnancy (dairyaustrailia) however you can also test your forages for the necessary vitamins and minerals, restrict that amount of grain eaten to about 0.5%-0.8% of the animal’s body weight, restrict legumes to 30% - 50% of dry matter intake and restrict corn silage to 50% of dry matter intake and remove. Removing spoiled feed will also help prevent milk fever and help ensure the health of the animal (Adams, Moore & Ishler). If these preventative actions are taken, the chance of the animals developing milk fever will go down drastically. Preventative actions such as the ones just outlined, will help reduce the chance of cattle developing the
There are different forms of milk fever such as typical, tremors and refractory milk fever. The most common is typical milk fever which occurs mostly in cattle within a couple days after calving. Although it is less common, typical milk fever can also occur in …show more content…
This usually takes place within a day or so of the cow giving birth. Dairy cattle can also develop milk fever from poor or excessive supplementation of vitamins and minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, vitamin D, magnesium and potassium. Reproductive tract infection, coliform mastitis and lower gastrointestinal tract stasis are causes that are specific to toxemia (Adams, Moore & Ishler). If you know that the animal is susceptible to milk fever due to one of these causes, you should try to take preventative action to reduce the chances of the …show more content…
To prevent typical milk fever, the easiest thing to do is to decrease the amount of green feed during the last few weeks of the animal’s pregnancy (dairyaustrailia) however you can also test your forages for the necessary vitamins and minerals, restrict that amount of grain eaten to about 0.5%-0.8% of the animal’s body weight, restrict legumes to 30% - 50% of dry matter intake and restrict corn silage to 50% of dry matter intake and remove. Removing spoiled feed will also help prevent milk fever and help ensure the health of the animal (Adams, Moore & Ishler). If these preventative actions are taken, the chance of the animals developing milk fever will go down drastically. Preventative actions such as the ones just outlined, will help reduce the chance of cattle developing the