Milk Fever with the Old Docs

I am told that from the time I was three the only thing I wanted to be was a veterinarian. I always tried to be at the barn when Dr. Nixon or Dr. Riggs were coming. The highlight of my day was to hold the IV bottle above the cow for them. Usually they would lean up aginst the manger or sit on a convient bale of straw. This was a common occarance as my father had a herd of Jersey cows and they are prone to having milk fever at calving. Milk fever is the common name for hypoclcemia or low calcium. Before they discovered that it was caused by too low of a calcium blood level they thought it was from a fever in the udder so they called it milk fever. Actually it is caused by a drop in blood calcium when the cow is ready to calve because she puts all of her calcium into the mik production. It is caused by not feeding them the proper ratio of calcium and phosperous during their dry period which is about 2 months long. They are not being milked and the udder needs rea rest period before they begin miliking again when they have the next calf. Or in the case of the Jersey breed, they seem to have a problem with it no matter what you feed. As the calcium level drops, the cow becomes slowly paralized and left untreated they will die as the muscles in the diaphram can no longer work. Once I went into practice, I found out the real reason for thrm letting me hold the bottle. They were resting and it is not easy to hold a 500 cc bottle for 10 minutes.

Calcium is needed for the nerves to fire to keep all mammals up and moving. Calcium is the messenger that tells the nerve to fire. If it is not there or is too low, the nerves no longer send messages to the muscles and the muscles slowly loose the ability to fire and the cow starts to wooble around, then go down and can't get up. As the calcium blood level continues to go down, the cow will no longer be able to sit up and goes to her side. Death follows soon after that happens.

In our Christian lives, we can become like that cow when we neglect God's Word.Our Christian life is slowly being paralyzed. Our Spirit is slowly getting weaker and weaker as we have lost the element that allows God to keep our spiritual life alive and moving. Just like an IV of calcium is needed to save the cow, an IV of the Word of God is needed to keep our spiritual lives up and going.