Overview of Milk Fever and Subclinical Hypocalcemia in Daily Cows

The monitoring, prevention, and treatment of milk fever and subclinical hypocalcemia in dairy cows.

The periparturient cow undergoes a transition from non-lactating to lactating at calving. The animal is tremendously challenged to maintain calcium homeostasis. Those that fail can develop milk fever, a clinical disorder that is life threatening to the cow and predisposes the animal to a variety of other disorders. Guidelines for monitoring the incidence of hypocalcemia and methods for treating...

Subclinical Hypocalcemia in Dairy Cows: Pathophysiology, Consequences and Monitoring

Milk fever and subclinical hypocalcemia are the most important macro-mineral metabolic disorders that affect transition dairy cows. Many studies have shown that cows with subclinical hypocalcemia are also prone to many diseases and disorders. The drain of Calcium (Ca) during early lactation represents a significant increase in Ca demand over that for late fetal growth and physiological maintena...

Effects of daily exogenous oxytocin injections on milk production and fat yield in holstein cows

Diet-induced pseudohypoparathyroidism: A hypocalcemia and milk fever risk factor.

Subclinical hypocalcemia may affect half of all multiparous cows, and clinical hypocalcemia or milk fever affects approximately 5% of dairy cows each year. This disorder of calcium homeostasis can be induced by several dietary factors. Recent studies implicate high dietary potassium and high dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) with increased risk of milk fever. The hypothesis tested in this ...

The effect of subclinical mastitis on milk composition in dairy cows

Milk samples were collected from quarters of 35 cows with subclinical mastitis (California mastitis test [CMT] positive and somatic cell counts [SCC] >500,000 cells/ml in individual quarter foremilk), as well as from 37 healthy controls. Compared to the levels observed in milk from healthy quarters, milk from quarters with subclinical mastitis showed elevated sodium (91.97 vs 52.93 mg/dl), chlo...