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Hello friends, welcome to another beautiful day of learning a thing or two about our beloved animals, let me give you a brief introduction on what you will find on this page just in-case you would like to follow me, I am highly passionate about pets, as much as the health of pet owners, so I share certain health issues that may arise with our pets/animals which could come in a zoonotic or non-zoonotic form, and how pet owners can protect themselves from all these happenings.

During the course of my research and study on animal disease, I got to read on Milk fever, which really caught my attention a great deal, I already knew at the corner of my mind that, it would be related to cows, but then again only with proper and adequate knowledge on the subject matter will I be able to tell if it is about cows or not, are you as curious as I am, then let's see what this milk fever thing is entirely about.

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Milk fever is a metabolic disorder that is caused by the insufficiency of calcium, usually occurring around calving. Another name for milk fever is hypocalcaemia, it happens when the diary cow has lowered levels of blood calcium, milk fever is common within the first 24 hours of post-calving, but can still happen even after 2-3 days of post-calving and this could be either clinical or sub-clinical.

Usually, diary cow obtains calcium from her diet or from the stores in her bones, although there is a great amount of calcium coming from these sources, absorption from the intestine or resorption from the bone is under a tight hormonal control and it is affected by other minerals and vitamins. When lactation occurs, together with the production of colostrum, there is a substantial requirement for calcium's increase and in order to meet these calcium requirements, it means the cow has to increase in both absorption and re-absorption process. Factors that interfere with this process will automatically mean the cow cannot meet the increased demand for calcium, this goes further to lower blood calcium concentration and milk fever.

The major cause of milk fever is the lack of sufficient calcium in the blood serum also known as hypocalcemia, the diary cow then suddenly changes its metabolism at the end of the dry period, moving from a resting phase to a high-performing phase, during the time we consider dry season over here, cows naturally have a low need for calcium, but when lactation begins, the need for calcium increases so much that it almost doubles.

Lots of factors are responsible for the influence of milk fever, some of the factors includes the nutritional and management factors, as well as some other factors that are beyond the control of the farmer like an unfavorable weather condition.

Milk fever is in different stages;

We have the first stage as the initial phase of milk fever with signs such as; restlessness, stiff gait, little high temperature and muscle tremors.

The second stage of milk fever is when the cows gets to lie on the stomach with an extended neck or with the head lying flank, the early symptoms of paralysis include; cold body surface, dilated pupils, a fast flat pulse, and flatulence.

The third stage of milk fever is the last phase, at this point the cow lies on its side, it looses consciousness and falls into coma, this third phase results in death.
The second phase of milk fever is easy to recognize as it comes with very clear symptoms, the consequences of slight calcium deficiency, which is the first stage is highly underestimated. Proper feed intake rules over the negative energy and increases protein balance and the cow finds it difficult to move, muscle impairment can create problems in the udder or in the gastrointestinal tract.

Hypocalcemia come in two forms; which is the clinical and the sub-clinical form. The clinical form is when the cow is struck by clinical fever showing signs of severe calcium deficiency, the cow will not be able to stand and will cold at sight of touch.

Sub-clinical form are usually underestimated, an affected cow will be able to stand and function normally. While obvious symptoms are not available, sub-clinical cases of milk fever can be the gate way to the increase in mastitis, endometritis, uterine infections and other diseases that can come up as a result of a weak immune system.

Cases of milk fever is preventable, it is highly advisable not to breed cows with a previous history of milk fever, animals should also be prevented from getting over fat as they need to be provided with the chance of constant exercising.
The diets of cows in the late pregnancy phase should also be highly sufficient in magnesium to help maintain plasma magnesium concentrations higher in 0.85mmol/litre.
Make sure that the dietary calcium is available over the risk period, also try to avoid diets that are high in strong cations like sodium and potassium.

Milk fever has to be treated as soon as possible, the solution should be used to warm body temperature in cold weather. The cow should be sit up in a sternal recumbency position and turned in a way that the cow is lying on the side opposite to the other side and this should be done every 2 hours, massage the legs, remove the calf in a severe case.