We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Policy.
Hospital pens are supposed to help cows recover, not contribute to additional health problems and longer downtime. Unfortunately, a 2,000-cow Pennsylvania dairy operation we recently visited had an alarming number of repeat visitors and prolonged recovery times in their hospital pen.
This dairy normally averages about 50 cows in the hospital barn. During our visit, that number approached almost 200 cows, and a majority of them had mastitis.
Subacute ruminal acidosis (SARA) is a common problem for many North American dairy herds, affecting 20 to 30 percent of cows in high-producing dairy herds.
Field studies have indicated that fresh and high-producing cows affected by SARA produce on average 5 to 6 lbs per day less than their unaffected herdmates.
This can be a tough ailment to overcome as dairy producers and nutritionists are trying to balance high concentrate feeding to meet the high energy demands of these cows.
Optimizing fresh cow health and performance in our modern dairies is one of the most challenging and, at the same time, one of the most rewarding tasks for veterinarians, nutritionists and dairymen.
The economic value of a cow is maximized when she has an easy calving and encounters no obstacles to realizing her genetic milk production potential. Unfortunately, the time around calving can be hazardous to a cow’s health.
Management of the dry cow is critical to avoiding diseases around calving that affect the lactation and thus have a major economic impact.
Getting cows and heifers off to a good start at the beginning of lactation is critical for the profitability of the dairy. Even with all the advances in nutrition and veterinary care, freshening and the onset of lactation are very stressful for dairy cows.
Fresh cows are susceptible to a number of infections and metabolic disorders due to stress, low immunity and reduced dry matter intake. Two of the most common metabolic disorders in fresh cows are milk fever and ketosis.
Etiology of fatty liver and ketosis
Fatty liver syndrome and ketosis are metabolic disorders that result from intense fat mobilization during hormonal changes and negative energy balance associated with the transition period. The liver is an extremely important metabolic organ in transition dairy cows.
What level of ketones defines ketosis?
Defining an exact level at which ketones are too high has been something of an enigma. Ketosis is a threshold disease, meaning cows will be affected only after a certain level has been reached. The mean level of ketone bodies for a population of animals in a herd means little.
Furthermore, because some of the manifestations of ketosis occur later, it is more difficult to study. Most research studies are based on blood betahydroxybutyrate (BHB), which is considered the “gold standard” in testing.
In a previous article, we reviewed the fact that hypocalcemia (milk fever) and ketosis are by far the two most important diseases to consider for early-lactation cows.
I consider these to be “iceberg diseases,” meaning that we only see the tip of the iceberg (typically about 2 to 5 percent of all dairy cows that calve exhibit clinical symptoms for each disease). See Figure 1 below left.
On the other hand, various research studies show, on average, the subclinical rates of these two diseases may average about 40 percent each in today’s dairy cows.
Keeping your fresh cows healthy is critical for both a profitable lactation and for timely rebreeding. To achieve this, some forward planning and proactive interventions will be required and should start as early as during the last third of a cow’s previous lactation.
This is when the pregnant cow’s body score needs to be assessed and action taken accordingly. On a scale of 1 (extremely thin) to 5 (extremely fat), your aim is to dry her off at an ideal body score of around 3.5.
RSS
