Milk fever is a disorder every dairy producer is familiar with. Just about everyone has had a cow down with milk fever. Milk fever is the metabolic disorder caused by the temporary upset in the balance of calcium in the cow s blood. The imbalance is triggered when the cow s calcium demand exceeds her available resources. That can lead to milk fever.
Milk fever affects a cow s health, milk production and rebreeding.
In these diagrams we illustrate what happens relative to the input and output of calcium. The box represents the calcium pool in a cow s blood available to support nerve and muscle function. The amount of calcium in the pool must be maintained to keep the cow healthy. In a normal dry cow, the fetus drains calcium, but enough is supplied through the feed to offset this. At the onset of lactation the drain of calcium depletes the cow s pool of calcium in her blood faster than it can be offset by either resorption from the bone or intestinal absorption of calcium from feedstuffs.