Fresh cow best treatment practices

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Sara Davis wants dairy farmers to know the most up-to-date, evidence-based treatments for common fresh cow ailments.

“There’s a lot of ways to treat fresh cows,” Davis said. “Some historical (treatments) have been hanging around for a while. … If you’re going to take time to treat the cows, hopefully you’re doing ones that give the most benefit.”

Davis, who has a doctorate in veterinary medicine, is a faculty member at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota. Davis presented “Fresh Cow Care 2.0: En-gaging Strategies for Effective Treatment and Management” at the Form-A-Feed Dairy Conference Jan. 16 at the Mayo Civic Center in Rochester.

Davis presented about four common ailments: retained placenta, metritis, milk fever and ketosis. For each problem, Davis shared about what is “in” for treatment and what is “out” for treatment based on current research data.

Starting with retained placentas, Davis said an “out” for treatment is manual removal. This can cause damage, open the space for worse infections and decrease fertility.

“People like to do it because it’s out of sight, out of mind,” Davis said. “It might feel better to us that we took the retained placenta out, but we’re actually probably making it worse for future outcomes for that cow.”

Davis also said she discourages against putting anything inside the uterus such as uterine flushes or boluses.

“We’re feeling good that we’re doing something, but (there is) little evidence to show that it’s actually changing any of the outcomes,” she said.

She also said she suggests not to blanket treat retained placentas with antibiotics. Instead, reserve antibiotics for high-risk cases, such as cows with a fever or that had a difficult calving.

Additionally, she discouraged the use of prostaglandin or oxytocin for retained placentas. The receptors in the uterus for oxytocin or corpus luteum for prostaglandin are gone by the time a retained placenta is identified, so there is nothing for the drugs to act on.

Often, she said leaving the retained placentas alone and monitoring is best. She said it is optimal to wait to treat retained placenta until there is metritis.

“In general, a lot of these cases resolve on their own with time and benign neglect,” Davis said.

Davis said metritis can be challenging to screen because symptoms vary. Some producers look at discharge, but she said the most reliable indicator is smelliness.

“Metritis is one of those hard conditions that can be this elusive thing to train new employees on,” Davis said. “If it’s smelly and the cow appears generally sick, (that is) one that’s going to benefit from treatment.”

She said basing treatment solely off fever misses some cases of metritis that do not present a fever.

“Definitely treat those cases that are having fever, but don’t only rely on that,” she said.

This is because not all cows with fetid discharge have a fever.

She said proven antibiotics for metritis include: ceftiofurs, ampicillin and penicillin. She said to pair with pain meds for cow comfort and to make sure to follow the label when using ceftiofur products.

For milk fever, Davis emphasized being careful on the amount and method of giving calcium. She said farmers should not treat cows with more than one form of intravenous calcium in a single treatment and not treat cows with more than one bottle of calcium at a time. She also said to only IV cows that are already down or about to go down.

“Too much calcium can cause the heart problems,” Davis said. “The other issue is, we’re probably actually going to create a rebound hypocalcemia. So, what we do is we give a bunch of calcium and their calcium levels rise. The body says, ‘Oh, I don’t need to make calcium available anymore.’ It stops, and then it plummets … (and) our cows go back down.”

She said down cows should receive one half bottle up to one bottle of calcium and then use a calcium bolus or subcutaneous calcium 12–24 hours later as a follow up if needed.

When it comes to ketosis, Davis said farmers should not treat all cows that are positive based off beta-hydroxybutyrate levels, because sometimes high BHB levels are actually just associated with the cow’s rise in milk. She also said it is not necessary to screen all cows for ketosis, instead she said farmers should only screen those cows that appear to be sick.

She said looking at other signs besides BHB, like low milk production or low rumination, could identify cows that could benefit from treatment.

Farmers should not use dexamethasone for ketosis treatment, she said. Data shows this is not an effective drug, she said, and that cows could be harmed by receiving too much steroids.

The best treatment of ketosis for cows with BHB levels between 1.2-3 is propylene glycol for 3–5 days, she said. For cows with BHB levels over three, she said to use dextrose IV, but to follow up this treatment with propylene glycol.

Overall, Davis’ presentation helped farmers to determine whether their protocols follow current best practices. She said she encourages producers to consult with their veterinarian to determine what is most appropriate for their farm.

“It’s still good to rethink maybe what you (have) historically done,” Davis said. “Make sure that what you’re doing to the cow actually helps the cow, not just something that we’re doing because we think we’re doing something.”