Fresh Cow Recovery

Phase 1: Pre-Freshening

When cows freshen, their feed intake drops up to 25% in the first 24-48 hours after calving. However, research shows that feed intake drops significantly in close-up cows. Combined, this reduction in feed intake puts the cow at a significant post-freshening nutritional disadvantage heading into lactation where her nutritional demands are great.

Due to the large amount of physical and nutritional stress put on the fresh cow, there are many physical and metabolic challenges that can be triggered. The most common challenges may include the following: hypocalcemia, metritis, dehydration, ketosis, retained placenta, milk fever and displaced abomasum.

Blood calcium is required for normal muscle and nerve function – especially as it relates to strength and gastrointestinal motility. Cows that do not have adequate amounts of calcium can readily be challenged with hypocalcemia. According to research 10-20% of multiparous cows are clinically hypocalcemic at freshening; another 50% can be considered subclinical.

The physiology of hypocalcemia
The beginning of lactation challenges the calcium balance in the cow. Due to colostrum and milk being very high in calcium the cow’s body pulls milk from those sources to compensate. This activity causes a negative calcium balance within the cow that continues for roughly the first 90 days of lactation. 

Subclinical hypocalcemia means a cow has low blood calcium levels without the symptoms of clinical milk fever. Due to the symptoms being undetected, the economic losses of subclinical hypocalcemia far exceed the costs associated with milk fever. 

Negative Energy Balance
When energy intake is less than energy used for milk production and cow maintenance, a cow can fall into a negative energy state. There are many factors that affect cow’s energy levels; hormonal changes, and low dry matter intake are a few that increase negative energy.

Severely challenged cattle can dehydrate in excess of 10% of their body weight. This degree of dehydration is potentially life threatening and clinical signs include the following:

• Eyes sunken into orbits
• Skin remains tented indefinitely
• Mucus membranes are dry
• Depressed attitude is evident

Cattle with dehydration 5-10% of their body weight will exhibit: 

• Partial sunken eyes into the orbit
• Skin tenting that is 4 to 8 seconds in duration
• Tacky mucus membranes
• Reduced dry matter intake
• Decreased productivity

It should be noted that university studies indicate cattle with 7-8% dehydration levels show impaired immune response.

Cattle with 2 – 4 percent dehydration or less will have minimal observable clinical signs but physiological and performance efficiency can be reduced.

Water loss during heat stress can be quite evident by observing the cows body condition. But even in periods when heat stress is not a factor maintaining proper hydration is important as cows continually lose water via:

• Milk production (25-35% of total water intake)
• Freshening (fluid loss equal in weight to the calf)
• Fecal (30-35% of total water intake)
• Urine (15-21% of total water intake)
• Vapor loss from the lungs
• Digestion
• Disease, diarrhea, malabsorption

The transition period should be the pinnacle of a dairyman’s focus, because any miscalculation here can cost thousands in either health related issues or long-term production losses. In fact, 70-80% of veterinary costs are incurred 1-3 weeks post-freshening. With proper understanding of the relationship between fresh cow physiology and proper nutrition, a dairy farmer can save significantly on treatment interventions, culling or lost production. The table below, highlights some of the key post-freshening challenges and associated treatment costs.

The above chart references monetary value in U.S. dollars.

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11 “The Value of Uterine Health: the diseases, the causes, and the financial implications.” Dairy Cattle Reproduction Council article.

12 Guard, C., 1999. Retained Placenta: Causes and Treatments. Advances in Dairy Technology (1999) Vol. 11, page 81.

13 Zwald, N.R., K.A. Weigel, Y.M. Chang, R.D. Welper and J.S. Clay. 2004. Genetic selection of Health Traits using Producer-Recorded Data. I. Incidence Rates, Heritability Estimates and Sire  Breeding Values. J. of Dairy Sci., 87:4287-4294.