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Grass Tetany / Milk Fever

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George

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Do you guys with lots of range have problems with milk fever?

I always switch to "Spring Mineral" with double the magnesium about a month prior to calving - - - if not the first or second calf cows will get grass tetany and if not treated quickly will die. I always keep hay in front of them even though they start eating the watery grass that does not have the normal minerals in it yet.

Many of the hobby farmers will lose several head until they learn proper management for this area.
 
We get our protein cubes fortified with extra magnesium this time of year. The cows like the cake better than they do magnesium mineral, which has a somewhat bitter taste.
 
Big Muddy rancher said:
We would need green grass for that to happen. :( :cowboy:
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And usually feed that is at least 20% protein, like crested wheat (in our area). Normally if there is old feed mixed with new high protein grass and a producer is on a year-round mineral program, there are no issues.

But good point, George.
 
This one is right in fh's wheelhouse. In Kansas where we'd have really washy forage like wheat pasture, that legacy of good mineral management would really payoff. Just like the legacy of poor mineral management was hard to overcome when you wanted to turnout on wheat pasture.
 
I have never seen a case of grass tetany and only one case of milk fever when I was a kid. Dad and Granpa fixed that cow up in no time with the use of a lantern pump and some twine.
 
What would a lantern pump and twine do?

I've seen it several times - some call it ketosis, or metabolic imbalance, or milk fever. Find it in very productive cows (not real thin but thinner) on washy high protein winter annuals and wide temp swings. You'll see like an s curve in the cows neck. Easily cured with 1000ml cal dextrose iv. If you see one, you're gonna see some more. If you live through this once, fh doesn't have to do much mineral preaching.
 
Happens frequently in this part of the country when fescue greens up. Generally we switch to high mag mineral in February.
 
Brad S said:
What would a lantern pump and twine do?

I've seen it several times - some call it ketosis, or metabolic imbalance, or milk fever. Find it in very productive cows (not real thin but thinner) on washy high protein winter annuals and wide temp swings. You'll see like an s curve in the cows neck. Easily cured with 1000ml cal dextrose iv. If you see one, you're gonna see some more. If you live through this once, fh doesn't have to do much mineral preaching.
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Insert the lantern pump into a teat, pump it up good, tie it off and move to the next. I guess it pushes the milk back up into the blood stream, giving the cow a much needed shot of calcium. Worked scary fast. I can't remember if they even had the second teat pumped up before she was getting up.
 
Vets used to love treating milk fever. That shot of dextrose made them look like they could perform miracles.

I have to relate this story as it might help someone.
Customer had cows going down before they calved. Vet said it was milk fever...but they hadn't calved. :? The customer called us, I did some research and found they had winter tetnany. (not to imply I know more than the vet. We only had one vet in our area at that time and he was extremely busy. I had more time to research it and could consult with our company nutritionists.)
When the customer was quizzed on what he was feeding, they were feeding all wheat hay, nothing else. These fellows took really good care of their cows, so they fed plenty of it. They had noticed the cows had backed off the mineral when they went to the wheat hay. Wheat hay has a lot of phos, and phos is a limiter, so they weren't consuming enough mineral--it was 7% phos mineral at the time. We got them some 3.5% phos mineral, cows ate it, they added some grass hay to the diet, and their problem was solved. That was a learning experience for me. Moral of the story: you are far better off feeding a mix of forage if at all possible. Grass hay is usually very safe and is good to mix with anything else.
 
There is a good IV solution called CalPhos that you can give. The bottles have hangers on the bottom so you can hang it on the fence and run it into the cow.

Contains:
Calcium (Equivalent to 26.68% w/v calcium gluconate) 12.42 grams
Magnesium (Obtained from 23.07 grs. magnesium chloride) 2.76 grams
Phosphorus (Obtained from 19.46 grs. calcium hypophosphite) 7.09 grams
Dextrose 75.00 grams

Can be given in the muscle or under the skin, just massage the area after to help with absorption
 
This article claims it's mostly a salt deficiency issue:
http://www.growersmineral.com/livestock/indepth-articles/nitrate-toxicity-and-sodium-deficiency-associated
 
DejaVu said:
This article claims it's mostly a salt deficiency issue:
http://www.growersmineral.com/livestock/indepth-articles/nitrate-toxicity-and-sodium-deficiency-associated
Click to expand...

First I have ever heard of that. Grass Tetnany is known to be a calcium/magnesium imbalance. We have very little problem with it
in our area so I don't have a lot of experience with it. It seems if you have old grass left in the pasture that helps so the cattle are not grazing just fresh new grass. This is where the importance of dry matter comes in. But salt? I'd have to see more research to believe that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_tetany
 
We used to have problems with Milk Fever in the dairy cows. Especially when turning them in on lush, green grazing and they are milking 25-75 lbs. of milk per day. Hard to keep the minerals balanced.
 
Mike, if you put some old hay out on that lush green grass I think that would help. I know it sounds crazy, but it does work. It is dry matter and they need dry matter. It is the most overlooked nutrient. When we first learned about it, we laughed and said the cows wouldn't eat old hay or straw when they had green grass. But we tried it and it worked. When we used to say "cows are chasing green grass" they were actually chasing dry matter. We put a couple of big round bales out, didn't matter what it was. Old hay, straw, whatever. They don't eat it like when on full feed hay, but they do eat it a mouthful at a time. A side benefit was it helped breed back. Anyway, FWIW.
 
Faster horses said:
Mike, if you put some old hay out on that lush green grass I think that would help. I know it sounds crazy, but it does work. It is dry matter and they need dry matter. It is the most overlooked nutrient. When we first learned about it, we laughed and said the cows wouldn't eat old hay or straw when they had green grass. But we tried it and it worked. When we used to say "cows are chasing green grass" they were actually chasing dry matter. We put a couple of big round bales out, didn't matter what it was. Old hay, straw, whatever. They don't eat it like when on full feed hay, but they do eat it a mouthful at a time. A side benefit was it helped breed back. Anyway, FWIW.
Click to expand...

Same with bloat, amazing how they will regulate themselves if they have available what they need.
 

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