Cows are your everyday livestock which are common in any villages. Compared to chicken and goats, many people raise cows due to its valuable end product although buying a cow is not so cheap, either.
You need to know the correct steps in raising a cow to maintain its growth and development, aside only from feed it every day. A healthy and fat cow can result in a huge profit when sold. Other things that you need to do is as follow:
- Provide a balanced nutrition and multi-vitamin
- Give additional feed
- Good treatment
- Clean environment
- Provide natural probiotics
However sometimes you may find your cow loses weight. There is no need to panic, as you need a clear mind to know the causes and how to treat it correctly.
Reasons your cow loses weight and treatment measures
1. Depression
The first reason is your cow is under depression. Just like a depressed human, it has many thoughts and starting to lose appetite. In a long period, this will prevent a cow’s growth and development. There are many factors which can cause depression, such as dirty stable, unchanged feed and water, or many other factors.
You should just put the feed and water enough for a day, and routinely change it every day. Also clean the stable from piled up dungs.
2. Sexually Active
You also may not know this before, but a cow’s appetite can also decrease when it has a high sexual desire. A male cow tends to think about its female and is ready to be mated.
You should consider to mate it until it feels enough. If after the mating process your cow starts to get calmer, then it means it is done. However if it still show the same behavior as before, then consider to mate it again another time.
3. Temperature
A cow’s appetite can also affected by the temperature condition. A hot stable can decrease its appetite and eventually lead to weight loss. You can provide its daily water in a big container. Also consider to move your cow to a colder place, for example under the trees (do not forget to shelter it).
4. Intestinal Worm
Your cow’s digestion system may get infested by intestinal worms and lead to the weight loss. However you need to know the degree of severity of this condition. You should give an injection to your cow for this one.
5. Damaged Liver
The worse cause of its weight loss is due to damaged liver. Its liver is damaged and in this sickness condition it lost all of its appetite. Many of cows with damaged liver die. You should contact a vet to give it with injection or surgery if still possible.
6. Sickness
Sickness is a general word representing a bad condition. It should be similar to the damaged liver case, however the sickness in this context is an unstable stomach condition which lead to fever, and weight loss eventually. You can give your cow with vitamin or probiotics (only one, not both at the same time).
7. Dislike of Feed
One last possible reason is maybe your cow does not really like the type of feed that you provided. You should consider to change the feed type regularly. For example if today you give it with grass, then change it to hays for the next day.
All 7 points as described above may cause weight loss for your cow and now that you know the treatment procedure, you are one step closer to be a successful cow farmer. Knowing your cow’s condition is important to recover its appetite which will lead to weight gain.