- 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
First recorded in 1750–60
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for milk fever
To my sorrow and to the man's heavy loss the cow died of milk-fever.
The moment that milk-fever is observed the veterinary surgeon should be called in.
She was in Perche, with her mother, when I learned that serious complications were feared from the milk-fever.The Lesser Bourgeoisie
Honore de Balzac
The grass being generally luxuriant in warm weather, and many cows going off in milk-fever at that season, has led to this error.
Before calving, milk-fever, or dropping after calving, is to be guarded against.
- 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
- A slight elevation of temperature following childbirth, possibly due to the establishment of the secretion of milk.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.