The disease known as milk fever can strike lactating female animals under certain conditions. What are these conditions? How does milk fever affect muscle function?
What will be an ideal response?
Milk fever, also known as parturient paresis, is a disease seen typically in older milking cows caused by low levels of calcium in the blood. Milk fever occurs within a few days of calving and is more likely to occur when dry cows are fed high amounts of calcium and phosphorus during the dry period.
The process of producing milk pulls large amounts of calcium from the cow. The signs of milk fever include anorexia followed by muscle weakness and paralysis of the hind limbs; hence the affected animals may be referred to as downer cows. The muscle weakness occurs because calcium is needed for muscle contraction; however, calcium
is being used for milk production. Without adequate calcium levels in the body, the muscle cannot contract as it normally does. Milk fever is treated with an IV solution of calcium gluconate. It may be prevented by feeding a preparturition diet low in calcium. Such diets are believed to increase the activity of parathyroid hormone, which helps regulate blood calcium levels along with calcitonin from the thyroid gland.
Postparturient hypocalcemia in dogs and cats is known as eclampsia or puerperal tetany. Less is known about the pathogenesis of this disease than milk fever in cattle, but
is believed to be a result of interference in parathyroid hormone secretion. Severe hypocalcemia and hypophosphatemia
develop near the time of peak lactation (one to three weeks postpartum) probably due to an imbalance of extracellular calcium. Signs of hypocalcemia in dogs and cats include tetany, restlessness, panting, excitable behavior, increased body temperatures, and seizures. Treatment includes slow
IV administration of calcium. To prevent puerperal tetany, care is taken to avoid oversupplementation of calcium before parturition. Then the amounts of calcium are gradually increased to peak lactation (approximately three weeks postpartum).
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