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Julianne Maldonado
Hi Doc Jones,
Hoping for some veterinary help here. The situation is sort of involved, but I’ll try to keep it short. We had to move our dairy cow out of her pasture about a week and a half ago and now just have her in a corral with a big round bale. She is in milk and has a 1 month old calf on her. The quality of the hay is not the greatest, so we upped her grain ration to about 12 lbs per day (and switched to a mixed pellet) to keep her milk up. She was doing great until a couple of days ago, when she stopped finishing her feed. The past 2 days, she has had no milk in the evenings (we were previously getting 1 gallon per day even with the calf on her full time). She seems mildly dehydrated even though she has constant access to clean water. She also looks kind of sad and droopy, and kicks at her stomach, and has a bit of a dry cough. Her poop looks normal and she doesn’t have a fever.
We are guessing this is some sort of digestive issue and not an infection, but not really sure where to go with it. Any input would be great. Thanks!
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Dr. Patrick Jones
Hi Julianne,
Have a vet look at her. Could be ketosis, a displaced abomasum (twisted stomach), rumen acidosis or any number of things. Most of them are fixable.
Abrupt, high-energy feed changes can cause real problems in ruminants and other critters that depend on gut bugs for all of their digestion needs.
Don't use herbs or combine herbs with medications or use them during lactation or pregnancy without talking with your healthcare provider.
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I know that it’s been some time, but I forgot to get update on this case. We couldn’t get a vet to come out same day or next, but through some further research and talking with a vet on the phone, we determined it was a displaced abomasum. Thankfully, my husband and I were able to roll her and the problem sorted out. We then moved her to a pasture and we didn’t have any more issues! Sadly, a few months later, she was gored by a hog and we lost her.
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