Hypocalcaemia, or milk fever, is a metabolic disease affecting dairy cows around calving, causing recumbency, muscle weakness, and death if untreated — and is largely preventable through nutritional management.
Milk fever causes acute suffering — cows that are unable to rise experience fear, muscle pain, and progressive organ failure if untreated. Even subclinical hypocalcaemia impairs immune function, increases disease susceptibility, and reduces fertility, representing significant chronic welfare impairment across entire herds. Prevention through DCAD management, vitamin D supplementation, and avoiding overconditioned cows at calving is both more humane and more economically effective than relying on treatment. Farms with high milk fever incidence should treat it as a herd welfare indicator requiring nutritional investigation.