TREATING MILK FEVER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 370, 13 September 1930, Page 22 (Supplement)

TREATING MILK FEVER

A new method of treating milk fever in cows is referred to in the first annus,! report of the Hannah Dairy Research Institute. The first definite evidence of the cause of milk fever in cows was obtained, it. is stated, by Little and Wright in 1925. They were able to show that, in cases of milk fever, the level of calcium in the blood was reduced by as much as 50 per cent. This work was repeated and confirmed by other investigators. On the establishment of the Hannah Institute the Development Commissioners provided a Special Research Grant to enable the work to be continued and extended by joint investigations between the Institute and the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College. These investigations have now been in progress for a little over a year. As a result of the new work, the ini tiative and development of which is largely due to Professor J. Russel Greig, a new method of treatment has been devised and tested, with extremely successful results. The treatment consists of the injection of massive doses of a 10 per cent, solution of calcium gluconate, the injection being made either intraneously or subcutaneously. In most cases, one injection is sufficient, and recovery proceeds rapidly. While the greater part of the work has been carried out on cows, it has been shown that the method of treatment is equally applicable to milk fever (lambing sickness) in ewes. Investigations are now being directed towards ascertaining the primary cause of the lowered calcium content of the blood, and the means by which the fall in blood calcium can be prevented.