milk fever

American  

noun

1. Pathology.  fever coinciding with the beginning of lactation, formerly believed to be due to lactation but really due to infection.

2. Veterinary Pathology.  an acute disorder of calcium metabolism affecting dairy cows shortly after calving, causing somnolence and paralysis of the hind legs.

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milk fever British  

noun

1. 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

2. 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

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Etymology

Origin of milk fever

First recorded in 1750–60

Example Sentences

But what of Mr. Handshaw’s cow, which was first believed to have milk fever, then a broken pelvis — and then recommended for humane slaughter?

From New York Times

A young veterinary surgeon begins to practice in the remote Yorkshire Dales in 1937, treating abscesses in horses’ hooves and milk fever in cows and prescribing diets for overfed lap dogs.

From New York Times

One of the cows at the farm had Milk Fever, so the vet came over and fixed that problem, but will she reveal that she has Montezuma, and is he dead or alive?

From The Guardian

At first the temperature tables indicate the prevalence of milk fever; next follow cases closely resembling those of mild paludal poisoning; and, finally, if these warnings are unheeded and reliance is placed upon antiperiodic remedies rather than upon prompt closure of the threatened ward, the pestilence develops.

From Project Gutenberg

In the autumn, so soon as it became necessary to close the windows partially on account of the cool nights, it was not uncommon for the more trivial disturbances, such as so-called milk fever, the hospital pulse, and catarrhal affections of the genitalia, to manifest themselves.

From Project Gutenberg