Nessie is our largest cow, weighing in at about 1800 pounds, and is also a high producer of milk. She usually makes at least 100 pounds a day during most of her lactation which is about 12 gallons! Cows that produce more milk can have an issue with their blood calcium levels when they calve. Their bodies aren’t used to the sudden production of so much milk which causes their calcium to drop dramatically within the body. This is called hypocalcaemia or, as we dairy farmers call it, “milk fever”.
Milk fever can be a scary thing, not only for the cow but for the farmer. Right now Nessie is showing signs of milk fever which include her body and ears feeling cold, her inability to stand without assistance, not eating or drinking and overall seeming depressed. We all love Nessie (we love all the girls, but Nessie is extra special because she is so sweet) and we have been giving her the best care we can give her. She gets an IV of calcium gluconate solution as needed to help keep her blood calcium levels up. She also receives lots of love and attention to help keep her spirits high. There are points when Nessie decides not to eat and drink enough, and in those times we have to tube feed her. This involves putting a tube down through her mouth to her rumen and pumping in alfalfa feed and water. Although Nessie doesn’t enjoy it much, she knows it will keep her healthy!
There are ways to help prevent milk fever which we use on all of our ladies. The best treatment is always prevention. When a Witter lady calves in, we give them a pill called Bovikalc. Bovikalc is a huge pill which holds two types of calcium. One is calcium chloride, which is fast-acting and will give the cow an immediate dose of calcium. The other is calcium sulfate, which is slow-acting and will give the cow a more sustained dose of calcium. (Holy cow, that’s a lot of calcium!) This helps even out the cow’s blood calcium levels during her transition into lactation.
Hi all! Lizz here: We have a nutritionist balance our rations to help prevent most “fresh cow problems”. Sometimes, even with the balanced ration and the Bovikalc it still isn’t enough of a boost to get an older gal over the milking transition hump, and we end up with a lady that needs some extra help, like Nessie.
Nessie is a big and strong girl and we know she’ll pull out of this milk fever funk very soon, so for now she will continue with her calcium therapy and be given lots of love!
Thank you all for reading and come back again for next week’s post! Have an udderly fantastic rest of the day! – Dairy Perry