Understanding Ketosis

To understand ketosis risk levels on your farm, and identify 'pinch points' that may occur in your system, use the Healthy Start Checklist. Watch Owen Atkinson from Dairy Veterinary Consultancy Ltd explain how to use the Healthy Start Checklist:

Why do Body Condition Scoring?

Body Condition Scoring is an important management tool to help achieve a balance between economic feeding, milk production and good welfare. Cows with the correct condition score have a lower chance of developing ketosis, displaced abomasums and fatty liver around calving¹⁵.

What is Body Condition Scoring?

Body Condition Scoring provides a 'hands on' objective measure of the amount of fat cover on the cow. Since fat is an energy reserve, condition scoring helps to provide an indication of the cow's energy status. Most scoring systems use a 1-5 point scale, with increments of 0.25.

When to Body Condition Score?

Body Condition Scoring should be carried out regularly throughout the cow's production cycle, and especially at:

• Dry off
• 3-4 weeks pre-calving
• Calving
• 60 days post-calving

Watch Owen Atkinson from Dairy Veterinary Consultancy Ltd explain how to Body Condition Score:

All cows will drop their dry matter intake a few days before calving, but it has been shown that the cows that show the largest drop in intake, and are slowest to recover, are the cows most likely to get sick after calving¹⁶.

Rumen Fill Scoring gives an estimate of the daily dry matter intake for the individual cow, which gives an indication that the cow is able to access sufficient feed.

Watch Owen Atkinson from Dairy Veterinary Consultancy Ltd explain how to Rumen Fill Score:

While some cows are more obviously at risk, in every herd there are 'outliers' which may show less obvious signs of being at risk of subclinical ketosis:

Some high risk cows to consider initially could be SOFT cows:

Sick - any animals who have been lame or sick in their dry period

Old- with lactation 3 and above^17,18

Fat animals with Body Condition Score ≥3.5^19,20

Twin bearing²¹

Kexxtone™:

• contains monensin, with proven efficacy backed by >30 years of research
• favours the proprionate-producing gram negative bacteria in the rumen; proprionate is used by the cow to produce glucose, which is the main energy source required for various processes including milk production. Therefore, more proprionate = more glucose = decreased risk of ketosis.
• reduces the prevalence of ketosis by 74%22, benefiting herd health, cow welfare and milk production
• provides approximately 95 day coverage
• 0 days withdrawal in both meat and milk

A recent study²³ of over 1,100 spring calving cows in grazing dairy herds in Ireland indicated that ketosis was reduced by 76% in the group of cows treated with Kexxtone 3-4 weeks pre-calving. This translates to a return on investment of 7:1:

Kexxtone™ Mode of Action

Kexxtone™ is a prescription only medicine (POM-V) and must be prescribed by your vet.

As your vet has prescribed Kexxtone™ intraruminal bolus to reduce the incidence of ketosis in the peri-parturient dairy cow expected to develop ketosis, correct administration is essential.

How to administer Kexxtone™

A single intraruminal device is to be administered to a dairy cow/heifer 3-4 weeks prior to expected calving, using an appropriate administration tool. Kexxtone™ delivers an approximate average dose of 335 mg of monensin per day for approximately 95 days. Follow instructions carefully. Adequate animal restraint is required to properly administer this intraruminal device. Such restraint must limit forward/backward motion and allow the animal’s head to be held in the forward extended position and without pressure on the neck to prevent choking.

1. Each intraruminal device has an individual number along the device body. This should be recorded with the corresponding animal identification number so that, should an intraruminal device be regurgitated, the animal can be identified.
2. Fold wings down along the intraruminal device body and insert the device into an appropriate administration tool, orifice end first.
3. Restrain the animal with its head and neck stretched forward. Grasp the animal with one hand in the corner of the animal’s mouth. Introduce the administration tool into the mouth avoiding the front teeth. In order to avoid trauma and damage to the pharynx and oesophagus, do not use excessive force.
4. Insert the administration tool past the base of the tongue making sure to avoid the molar teeth. As the animal swallows, the administration tool will move easily over the base of the tongue. DO NOT USE EXCESSIVE FORCE. If resistance is encountered, withdraw the tool slightly and repeat the procedure.
5. Be sure the head of the administration tool is past the base of the tongue. When the animal swallows, eject the intraruminal device from the administration tool.

• Record the bolus number against a cow tag number
• Stand the bolus, wings facing down, in a very shallow bucket of warm water to soften wings; ensure the depth of water does not exceed the length of the bolus so the bolus is not immersed
• Allow treated cows to stand in the collection yard for an hour after administration

• Some boluses may be regurgitated and it is essential that they are dealt with correctly.
• If the bolus has tablets present and is undamaged, replace in the cow. Each bolus has a unique identification number on it so it can be recorded against a cow number at the time of administration.
• If the bolus is empty or damaged, dispose of it in the assigned medical waste bin.
• Prevent access to used or recovered boluses by other non-target species: dogs, horses, other equines and guinea fowl are particularly sensitive.
• Download the Kexxtone™ bolus disposal leaflet