milk fever
Pathology. fever coinciding with the beginning of lactation, formerly believed to be due to lactation but really due to infection.
Veterinary Pathology. an acute disorder of calcium metabolism affecting dairy cows shortly after calving, causing somnolence and paralysis of the hind legs.
Origin of milk fever
1Words Nearby milk fever
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use milk fever in a sentence
Occasionally the milk fever is preceded by a slight chill, or by a furred tongue, or sick stomach, but not very frequently.
In most cases it ceases naturally during the milk fever, and of course its disappearance then need not excite alarm.
Some persons prefer to let the child wait till the milk fever is established, before they let it nurse, but this is very improper.
One of his cows having died from milk fever, it was found necessary to replace it.
The Silver Lining | John RousselBefore calving, milk-fever, or dropping after calving, is to be guarded against.
Cattle and Cattle-breeders | William M'Combie
British Dictionary definitions for milk fever
a fever that sometimes occurs shortly after childbirth, once thought to result from engorgement of the breasts with milk but now thought to be caused by infection
Also called: parturient fever, eclampsia vet science a disease of cows, goats, etc, occurring shortly after parturition, characterized by low blood calcium levels, paralysis, and loss of consciousness
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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