6 minute read

Herd Health

from February 2021 Charolais Connection

by Charolais Banner

from February 2021 Charolais Connection, page 54

Article from: February 2021 Charolais Connection

Industry Info

The Downer Cow Just Before Calving

Roy Lewis DVM

It seems like I hear of more cases of cows going down in the last month before calving, many times just before calving. These cattle may or may not have been processed, and if processed, given everything from clostridial vaccine, to scours vaccine, to vitamin ADE, to Selenium. What to do to treat and prevent this is the real issue that concerns us all.

Many of those that go down very close to calving are low in Calcium, or Phosphorus, or both, and Magnesium may be incriminated as well. When colostrum is being formed there is a large draw of Calcium into the udder and this becomes the main cause of the deficiency tied in with the fact that some cows don’t eat free choice minerals to any degree. There is an increased need for Calcium of around 20 percent before calving and 40% after calving. The low calcium could make her prone to prolapsing her uterus after calving, like we see in dairy cattle. Forage based diets don’t have a lot of Phosphorus so that may be deficient as well. Every producer should have a couple bottles of calcium in his pharmaceutical supply. Have your herd veterinarian recommend which formulation he would like you to have on hand? Then if you have a large animal infusion set at least you can get a bottle of Cal/Phos into her under the skin or into the peritoneum if the product is formulated for that. Keep in mind if given intraperitoneally, it must be administered through a new needle as we don’t want to introduce any infection in the abdomen. If given under the skin, we split the amount up over several locations.

There is also an injectable form called Thera calcium and calcium boluses can often be used as well. The quicker we treat them the better the recovery rate.

The above treatments work if the cow was identified early enough, otherwise only a large calcium surge by giving the product intravenously will work. Often your veterinarian will deliver this while at the same time listening to the heart to detect any irregularities and checking the cow for other causes such as mastitis injury, twins pulling her down and making her thin. They often will take blood to check to make sure the calcium or other macrominerals are low and what the prognosis is.

Most larger clinics can run the diagnostic tests in house. Your veterinarian may even suggest sampling a couple normal cows in the herd to see where the herd is at, as far as macrominerals go. The down cow could also be very old and lacking teeth making mastication and hence digestion difficult. That is why cows with bad udders with pendulous teats, cows getting over ten years or temperament problems are good ones to cull to avoid issues at, or near calving.

We can often get these cows to get up. Some we may need to induce to calve if close enough to getting a viable calf. This gets more weight out of the cow’s belly.

Keep her in a well bedded spot relatively flat and give her time. If more than one cow, always examine your mineral program and check with your nutritionist to make sure the macro minerals will be available in sufficient numbers. This is where your nutritionist will become invaluable to do tweaking to the overall balance of the ration. The use of chelated minerals may also be started but again, check with the nutritionist. With all these downer cows one must be cognizant; are they quite old, do they have twins in them, etc. All of these other reasons are potentials for going down but not necessarily pointing to a so called “milk fever” situation.

There have also been several instances I hear about where cows go down with almost the same condition where they have been run through and essentially processed very close to calving. It appears the stress of processing and also being close to calving makes them more likely to go down. Processing may have consisted of scour vaccines and selenium shots in some cases, or clostridial vaccines in others.

They may have been given singly or in combination. Most of these cows will also get up with a Calcium/Phos /Magnesium product. Also watch this as this whole process may seem to induce some cows and have them calve early. One double strength selenium product even has it on the label that if given in the last month of pregnancy may induce early calving, so I would avoid giving selenium too far along in gestation cows.

For the reasons above, I think we should all attempt to not put the heavily pregnant cows through the chute. In the last months of pregnancy there are tremendous demands on their bodies with the rapidly growing calf inside and producing colostrum. If you must, do so as stress free and gently as possible. Think about what you are giving or doing and is there the potential for some negative consequences. The scour vaccines are all given in the five weeks or so before calving. Make sure your trace minerals, both micro and macro, are where they need to be especially from a few months before calving and carry on right into the breeding season. Remember the one downer cow may be the tip of the iceberg and the rest of the herd could be teetering on the edge of a trace mineral deficiency. There is a reason downers at calving happen and we need to correct the problem to prevent other cases developing. If you have treated a downer, make sure to run it by your veterinarian and/or nutritionist as tweaking the ration and supplements may prevent further cases.