"nick" > wrote in message
news
> "Downer Cow Syndrome is described thus in "Black's Veterinary Dictionary"
:
> "Sometimes in cases of 'milk fever' (parturient paresis, hypo-calcaemia) a
> cow goes down and never gets up again; even though the 'milk fever' itself
> is treated successfully". The typically erudite article which gives
details
> of treatments and various suggested causes of the syndrome, concludes : "A
> proportion of 'downer' cows are, in fact, cases of BOVINE SPONGIFORM
> ENCEPHALOPATHY (BSE).""

You wouldn't be able to sell a cow with milk fever for human consumption.
And, milk fever is only one illness that can make a cow go down. Cows can
go down from phyiscal trauma, ie. broken leg. They can get coliform
mastitis. They can get something called a DA. When the cow calves, there's
obviously some empty space in there. In the time that it takes for
everything to get back into place, one of the cows stomachs can get twisted
around... There are so, so many reasons a cow can go down besides milk
fever. Defining Downer cow syndrom as just being caused by milk fever is
kind of narrow minded...

From my personal experiences with milk fever... A sucessfully treated animal
is going to be up and walking around again--at least by my definition of
successful treatment. Until my cow is up, I don't consider the treatment
sucessful. I don't think giving a cow with bse a tube of calcium is going to
make it better and appear to be sucessfully treated.. It may very well be
that some cows who were thought to have milk fever and did not recover had
bse, but I think it would be highly unlikely that a cow *sucessfully*
treated for milk fever really had bse.

What country is the book published in? England or US? I have never been
around a cow with bse, but I have been around a few with milk fever. To my
knowledge, milk fever onset is at calving and most often occurs in very high
producing dairy cattle, while bse can present at anytime in lactation or
even when the cow is dry. Also, the cows of ours that have had milk fever,
while very sick, have never acted like the cows in videos that I have seen
with bse. The cows on the newsfeeds with bse looked like litterally their
back legs were giving out from behind them while they were trying to walk.
They've lost neurological control A cow with milk fever just kind of sets
down and doesn't get back up. These cows are weak, but they have not lost
neurological control.

I would say if a vet confused bse with milk fever, I wouldn't want him or
her treating my cows.