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| Monitor cows after calving |
Monitor cows after calving.
Author: Lukasz M. Stechnij
This is a very serious issue. You working on a dairy farm, everything is ok. Sometimes it is hard time with some cows but world is never perfect. But when you look at the data, you see that culling rate is around 40%. This is too much. You need to understand when you lose those cows. When you are good with dairy production, then you are sending to the slaughterhouse heavy animals, those that ended with milking and they are not pregnant. When you are poor with dairy production, then you are selling weak, mostly down cows, usually fresh ones. But when your farm sold weak animals, then what to do with heavy and not pregnant cows? You can't sell so many animals. Soon yor herd will disappeared. So, if you want to make your boss happy, then you should start to analyze when the cows leave the herd. And I am sure that you will find that the animals leave the herd in period just after calving. Then you should start to monitor cows after calving. This method can change everything, therefore focus on cows in this sensitive time, which is few weeks after calving and two weeks before calving.
Each day came to the barn with a list of fresh cows. Spend a few minutes to observe every fresh animal. Question No.1 : is she eating end chewing? If answer is yes, then you have 90 % that everything with her is ok. A very good signal is when a cow is aggresive with eating.
Fresh cows eating TMR. This is a very positive after calving!
If she is only sniffing, not eating, this can mean trouble. But sometimes cows just don't want to consume feed. You need to check those animals several times. What if a fresh cow really doesn't want to eat? She is standing far away from feed bunk, with head close to the ground. Then comes question No 2: why she don't want to eat? You need to check then a few things.
First: is she strong enough to stand up, how old is she, can she walk normally, are her ears cold, is she throwing head on her back? If this cow is old, have cold ears and difficult time to stand up, then we have Milk Fever disease (Hypocalcemia). In this situation a cow has very low calcium level. In heavy cases you need to give her drip to the blood stream. In light cases she should receive a special liquid (with calcium) injection under the skin, calcium paste or liquids orally. With good treatment she should be ok in a few days.
Attention: If you see that cow has Milk Fever and is weak, don't push her to stand up. Ok, maybe she can stand up, but after few seconds she can fall down without strenght. Then this cow may breake some ligaments and will be lost. Give her time to recover.
Second: she is not hungry, because she has Ketosis. You need to check her urine or milk for ketone bodies. Ketosis is a very danger disease for cows. She doesn't want to eat and is loosing weight quickly. You can help her with "energy stuff". It can be drip directly to the blood stream. It may be glycol or glycerin given orally. Some farmers are giving glycol a few days before calving and they do this couple of days after calving.This procedure guarantees that the cow doesn't become ill with Ketosis.
Attention: sometimes you begin with giving glycol and the cow starts to eat also. Don't think that you can stop with giving glycol. She will be sick again. When she starts to eat, give her glycol few more days.
Third: Displaced Abomasum (DA). For many farmers those two words means a nightmare. In some countries it is difficult to find a vet who can fix DA. Right side DA is rare, left side DA is more common. Sometimes abomasum returns to proper place without treatment. If you want to help a fresh cow with DA, you can roll her or push her to run. How to recognize this disease: on examination with stethoscope (I do without) the presence of a pinging noise (put your ear on basketball ball and start to knock - metallic noise) is indicative of a gas-filled organ. Right place for the abomasum is the bottom of the belly.
Fourth: there are more reasons why a cow doesn't want to eat after calving. For example you can find a serious hoof problem. When she is in big pain in the hoof, then she will prefer to lie than stand and eat. Another reason could be heavy mastitis. Bacteria E. coli can quickly attack animal, toxins can make cow weaker. In this case you need to pump fluids into a vein (drip), so she can fight with toxins.
End: Start today with fresh cow monitoring. Do it at least until two - three weeks after calving. A cow that is aggresive with eating at the beginning of the lactation, should not make any problems in the future. You have to monitor cows that made problems until they will start to eat normally.
Last advice: just after calving you should give to the cow plenty of lukewarm water. Some cows can drink around 100 liters. This helps to catch quickly appetite and fill stomach, so there is less room for abomasum to move around. Water is very important.
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Posted by Lukasz_Stechnij
on 06/07/2009
983 Reads ·
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