What are the key points of postpartum management measures for dairy cows?
1. Because the cow loses a relatively large amount of water after giving birth, after the calf is delivered she should be fed about 15 kg of warm thin gruel made by boiling wheat bran, salt, and calcium carbonate (1 kg to 2 kg of wheat bran, 100 g to 150 g of table salt, 50 g of calcium carbonate). This can warm the abdomen, satisfy hunger, and increase abdominal pressure, which helps with the expulsion of the afterbirth. However, note that the amount of salt fed must not be too much, otherwise it will cause udder edema. At the same time, feed the cow 1 kg to 2 kg of high-quality, soft, tender hay.
2. After calving, the cow should be urged to stand up as early as possible to reduce bleeding, and this also helps the reproductive organs return to position. To prevent uterine prolapse, the cow can be led to walk slowly for about 15 minutes.
3. Within 8 hours after the cow gives birth, the afterbirth can generally come away on its own. If it still has not come away after more than 24 hours, pay attention to the discharge of lochia. If there is lochial blockage, that is, within a few days after calving only dense transparent secretions are seen and no dark red liquid lochia appears, it should be treated promptly to prevent diseases such as septicemia or metritis.
4. In the first few days after calving, the blood circulation in the cow's udder and the control and regulation of the activity of the mammary alveoli have not yet reached a normal state, the udder is severely swollen, and the internal pressure is also very high. Therefore, if it is a high-yielding dairy cow, at this time the milk in the udder absolutely must not be completely milked out, otherwise the significant drop in internal udder pressure will cause the leakage of fine blood vessels to worsen, with large losses of blood calcium and blood glucose, further aggravating udder edema, thereby causing postpartum paralysis in high-yielding dairy cows, and in severe cases it can cause death.
5. For cows with severe postpartum udder edema, the udder should be fully massaged after each milking, and the udder should be hot-compressed for 5 minutes to 10 minutes (using a warm saturated solution of magnesium sulfate or sodium sulfate is best) to promote the early disappearance of udder edema.
6. If after giving birth the cow is also fed and given warm motherwort and brown sugar water to drink (500 g of motherwort, add 10 kg of water, boil it down into a liquid and then add 500 g of brown sugar), 1 time to 2 times per day, for 2 days to 3 days in a row, it will have a fairly good promoting effect on the complete discharge of lochia and postpartum uterine recovery in the cow.