I don’t know what I was thinking. During my veterinary training, I believed it was important to purchase most of my textbooks. Having a modest library in my home’s den would surely inspire some late evening reading on treatment protocols and thoughts of bovine disease.

Boy, was I wrong! Jane and I were newly married at the time, and family expenses were mounting. My bride would often chirp comments at me like, “Perhaps you shouldn’t have bought a library of expensive textbooks. I rarely see you studying late at night!” She was right!

Fast forward 40-plus years and my favorite book, “Current Therapy in Bovine Theriogenology” by David Morrow, sits in my den gathering dust. Doc Morrow was one of my valued mentors. I’ve spent family funds on worse investments, I suppose. Surely many readers of this publication have procured a collection of old Hoard’s Dairyman magazines and, like myself, occasionally take a look back at our dairy history.

It’s fun to reflect on the changes and advancements within our farming industry. Time waits for no one, that’s for sure. Let’s ponder the recent trends we promote in dairy cow care with respect to treating disease.

The need for calcium

Much has been learned in respect to the development and treatment of fresh cow metabolic diseases. Plenty of attention has especially been given to hypocalcemia (milk fever) over the last 20 years.

Research and experience on the farm continues to emphasize the importance of dry cow/prefresh nutrition as a major player in preventing disease. Clinical milk fever incidence has been lowered with these interventions, such as dietary cation-anion difference (DCAD) diets, appropriate intakes of macrominerals calcium, magnesium, potassium, and chloride, and most recently, the role of phosphorus.

On-farm treatments must be tailored to the right cow at the right time. Hopefully, long gone are the days that every fresh cow receives a bottle or two of CMPK intravenously (IV). Science and clinical experience have demonstrated the cow’s biological need for a modest decline in blood calcium level over several hours. This transient dip jump-starts the cow’s homeostatic mechanisms for calcium regulation.

I certainly failed at times by providing inappropriate therapy, including too much IV calcium too often. This “overdose” may exasperate wild swings in blood calcium levels, often causing relapses in milk fever. Targeted administration of oral calcium salt boluses has been successful in providing the “Goldilocks” dosage.

We will no doubt continue to learn additional excessive inflammatory triggers that may exasperate clinical disease. Our husbandry practices play a huge role in metabolic disease. Everything matters!

Watch body condition

Ketosis therapy has evolved over recent years as well. We all have dialed back on IV dextrose administration, now only providing it to the severely ketotic cow. Remember, similar to the cow with clinical milk fever, too much dextrose may inadvertently hamper appetite and rumination. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

In our experience, a nervous ketosis cow requires a more aggressive approach to therapy than a cow 10 days fresh with mild to moderate ketosis and otherwise normal clinical exam parameters. Ask yourself how the fresh cow looks. Evaluate manure, rumen fill, and activity. Perhaps a three-day duration of propylene glycol once a day will be more effective than IV dextrose. Above all, do no harm!

Excessive body condition (above 4) at dry-off may well predict issues such as ketosis, metritis, fatty liver, and a displaced abomasum (DA) postcalving that snowball into bad outcomes. Today’s beef prices may encourage a voluntary removal from the herd before the cow becomes an involuntary cull as a broken fresh cow. Think about choices and opportunities rather than protocols for “saving” fat cows entering the next lactation.

A shift in antibiotics

Metritis therapy is another area that has changed over the last 20 years. We gave up uterine infusions of antibiotics way back. Hopefully, we learned from our past that healthy fresh cows return to be fertile cows that conceive in a timely manner. Prostaglandins are effective in resolving metritis and pyometra cases. Once again, the management and husbandry of the dry, prefresh, calving, and fresh pens trumps any antimicrobial I am aware of.

Mastitis therapy is perhaps the area where I have seen the most change in treatments. We have witnessed many advanced dairy farms reducing and/or eliminating the use of tube antimicrobials for mastitis in the lactating herd. The majority of the herds I work with have not infused intramammary antibiotics in their milking herd for well over 10 years! Obviously, these herds are generally on a high plane of husbandry, with most bedded with virgin sand.

We have all learned over the last several years (and read in this publication) the wide range of antibiotic usage on our dairy farms. We, as an industry, are making huge strides in antimicrobial stewardship. Astute dairy producers are demonstrating great success in this effort. We can do this!

Do I feel that a place remains for judicious antibiotic usage? Absolutely. We all have a strong desire to provide the best care that allows for minimal disease. However, as stewards of our herds, we need to provide current therapy to the best of our knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. This, in turn, reflects our commitment as an industry to excellent dairy care standards.

Blessings on your harvest season! God is faithful.