Passing on some information on ketosis!

[willow_girl]

We've been having problems with ketosis at the dairy farm where I work. Most of the cows have been pretty much textbook cases -- primiparous (2nd lactation or older) with a tendency toward overconditioning (although not all were fat). The farmer was administering the standard therapies, dextrose and dexamethasone, but we were losing too many cows, and the ones who survived were taking a long time to bounce back, with lower milk production throughout the lactation.

The farmer had the state college dairy specialist out to do a comprehensive evaluation last week. In addition to tweaking our dry cow feed program, he recommended trying a new therapy -- insulin injections for cows symptomatic in the first 1-2 weeks after freshening. I guess a nother local dairy has been having a similar problem, but is getting good results with insulin. It's referenced in the Merck Veterinary Manual as an off-label use:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/in...900.htm&hide=1

Just thought I would pass this along in case anyone finds it helpful!

[travlnusa]

Great tip. THANKS!

[willow_girl]

You're welcome!

I only wish we'd found this sooner ... we lost my favorite cow in the herd last month.

[DaleK]

Just keep in mind that this is something you want to do ONCE, at most. Unless something has changed drastically, insulin is VERY addictive to cows.

[willow_girl]

Now I'm picturing a bunch of junkie cows begging for their next "fix"! LOL

[DaleK]

Dad was at a sale years back (maybe 20 years?) where he made friends with one of the farm workers. Big production herd, set a bunch of records at the time. The employee told him to stick to bidding on the heifers, the cows were all getting insulin so they'd give more milk..
More than half of the cows were dead within a week of the sale from withdrawal. That was from multiple doses though, think doing it once every year or two would be ok.

[Farm 36]

This is nothing new to give bgh to cows and to fresh cows it just jump starts or kicks the putuitary gland in gear . If you have fresh cow problems it is related to the prefresh ration something is not right and you need to talk to or change nutritiuonist.Giving insulin is masking a problem but is a management tool to help the cow

[willow_girl]

They did tweak the ration, too.
For the record, this herd doesn't use BGH (BST).