Post-Calving Problems
Cows & Buffaloes
Displaced Abomasum (LDA) — The Pinging Stomach of the Fresh Cow
Updated 08 Oct 2026 • By Falah Nutrition Desk, Animal Nutrition Advisor
In the first month after calving a cow's fourth stomach, the abomasum, can float up out of place and trap gas under the ribs on the left side. She goes off her concentrate, loses milk and condition, and no amount of tonic fixes her, because the problem is mechanical. It is called a displaced abomasum and it is a disease of the transition period.
Common Signs
- Fresh cow, usually within 4 weeks of calving, eating fodder but refusing concentrate
- Milk well below what she gave in her last lactation at this stage
- Dung scant and pasty, sometimes dark
- Sweet acetone smell on the breath (ketosis often rides along)
- A hollow, high-pitched ping when a finger is flicked on the left flank with an ear or stethoscope held against it
- Cow bright but slowly sinking over days
Possible Causes
- Rumen shrunk during the dry period on a small, bulky ration, leaving space for the abomasum to move
- Heavy concentrate immediately after calving before the rumen has adapted
- Milk fever, retained placenta or metritis reducing gut movement
- Over-fat dry cows with poor appetite at calving
- Long-cut fodder withheld around calving, so the rumen fills less
What the Farmer Should Check
- How many days since calving, and did she have milk fever, retained placenta or a difficult birth?
- Does she eat straw and green but walk away from the concentrate?
- Ask your vet to listen for the ping on the left, between the last ribs and the hip
- Any acetone smell, and is a ketone urine strip positive?
- Was she fed a transition ration before calving, or jumped straight to the milking ration?
Feed Guidance
Prevention lives in the three weeks before and after calving. GOKA Transition −21 from three weeks before the due date keeps the rumen full and adapted so the abomasum has no room to float; GOKA Transition +21 after calving builds up the concentrate in steps instead of a jump. Keep long fibre in front of the fresh cow at all times — a rumen full of chopped fodder is the best anchor the abomasum has. Increase the milking concentrate by about half a kilo every two days, never all at once. Fat dry cows are the highest-risk group, so manage dry-cow condition with GOKA Dry Feed rather than letting them gorge.
Relevant GOKA Products
Pregnant Cows & Buffaloes (Dry Stage)
Healthy dry period, trouble-free calving
Pregnant Cows & Buffaloes
20 days of feeding, 300 days of benefits
Fresh Lactating Cows & Buffaloes
Protects fresh animals from ketosis & weakness
When to Contact a Veterinary Doctor
A displaced abomasum is corrected by a veterinary doctor, often by rolling the cow or by a small operation. The earlier it is diagnosed the simpler the fix; a cow left for weeks loses the lactation.
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