An older Jersey-a lady in waiting!

[thequeensblessing]

We have an older Jersey, about 10 years old, who is due to calve in the next 3 weeks. She easily delivered a large jersey bull calf last August. This year, she is due September 14th, and she is huge and oh, so uncomfortable! She stands around inside the barn in front of the fan, or in the loafing shed and breathes hard, panting and drooling. She is starting to bag up and her vulva is very swollen and jiggly, for lack of a better word.
I don't worry about her having a large calf and not being able to deliver it as I've seen her calve a few times and she does amazingly well, delivers quickly and easily. I am worried about milk fever with her size, breed, age, and the extent of her suffering in this heat. She only eats at night, when its cool. We've cut out grain for her, but she gets mineral free choice and she eats a lot of mineral!
What are the signs of milk fever so I can treat this girl early enough if she does exhibit signs of it. I bought the tube of calcium drench, just in case. Should I keep her in the barn and just offer her hay and mineral there or is leaving her out in her small pasture with the other cows sufficient? How close to calving does milk fever present itself? Thanks for all responses!

[springvalley]

I bumped up the thread about milk fever, you can check that out. > Thanks Marc

[Chixarecute]

I'll chime in with what I remember - milk fever is caused by an imbalance in the ...calcium/potassium ratio in the blood - brought on generally by an sudden increase in milk production and a diet that doesn't support the transition.

Symptoms will be lethargy, muscle weakness (laying down, unable to stand, disinterested, droopy ears), drop in body temperature.

It could present within a week of calving, however I have had a cow or two go down with milk fever a couple of weeks later.

As cows are herd animals, I wouldn't separate unless you need to do so for either diet or treatment.

Are the minerals you're feeding the "trace" minerals? If so, she is probably consuming to keep up with the loss of minerals via sweating and panting.

Milk fever is one they can rebound up, then down again. You might want to be sure you have access to a second tube of calcium drench. We used to treat with subq drip/injections, it allowed for slower absorption, and less rebound. I'm not sure if the subq is standard treatment anymore (it's been 21 years).

[CreamyHills]

Through several years of milking Jerseys and the trial and errors that come with learning about such things, we have adopted the following protocol that has resulted in only one mild case of milk fever in the last 8 years. This case was easily rectified by a double dose of CMPK gel.

We have fed a free choice mixture of 50% Kelp meal and 50% salt for our sole source of mineral supplementation at all ages and stages of lactation. We also tube every cow beyond her third lactaton as well as a few younger ones as soon as they calve with a single tube of CMPK gel. If we recognize that a likely candidate for milk fever is going to calve and we can get to her in time, we will tube pre- calving as well.

Prior to this plan, milk fever and IV's were a way of life. I attribute our success now primarily to the use of Kelp and recognize that we probably put some CMPK down many cows that would be fine without it, but it gives them a good start on a stressful time in their life, thus seems very much worthwhile.

[thequeensblessing]

Thank you Marc. Very helpful!