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The BHBCheck Plus Blood Ketone & Glucose Monitoring System is an accurate, affordable test that detects subclinical ketosis in bovine blood. The test uses one drop of blood to provide quantitative results in seconds (five seconds for BHB, seven for glucose). This test was validated by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Ketone strips sold in two varieties (25 and 50 strips per vial).
PortaCheck’s BHBCheck system detects beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) in bovine blood for the gold standard for ketosis detection!
DID YOU KNOW? Studies show that subclinical ketosis is associated with decreased milk production, impaired fertility, and increased of incidence of displaced abomasum and metritis!
The award-winning BHBCheck Plus meter offers the fastest read time for BHB in bovine blood. This amazing little meter can read BHB and glucose in blood. Five seconds for BHB results, seven seconds for glucose.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison validated our meter, and they use it for all of their herd work.
This vial contains 25 BHB blood ketone test strips. The box also comes with a calibration strip to let the meter know which test strip lot is being used.
You asked and we delivered! This vial contains 50 test strips. A calibration strip also comes with the vial.
This vial contains 50 blood glucose test strips. In just seven seconds, users can have quantitative results for the glucose level in a cow’s blood. Glucose can be monitored in a herd and in ketotic cows to help determine an appropriate treatment.
The ultimate package! This starter kit contains a BHBCheck Plus meter, a 25-count vial of BHB strips, a hard carry case for the readers and vials, and a user manual. This is a great introductory item.
Sold separately from the BHBCheck Plus Meter. Use it to download your meter data to our free software.
The latest version of the BHBCheck Plus software.
FREE. Download Here.
Data from older versions should be exported to a .csv or .xlsx file before deleting the older version. This must be done before installing the new version of the software.
In this video, Dave, a PortaCheck consultant, uses the BHBCheck Plus meter on the farm to detect BHB and glucose in a cow’s fresh blood sample.
Short answer: A sneaky metabolic disease that often affects dairy cows.
Dairy cows often encounter ketosis during the early postpartum period. In this time, milk production increases dramatically. A cow’s energy intake may be insufficient, and it can be difficult to keep up with the energy requirement. When this happens, cows have to metabolize body fat to meet their high energy needs, resulting in a production of ketones. This condition is known as subclinical ketosis. If left unchecked, the condition can worsen and turn clinical (Duffield, 2001).
Clinical ketosis is when you would most often see cows with a lack of appetite, depression, droopy ears, and sweet or fruity scented breath.
Short answer: It’s more prevalent than you may realize!
Subclinical ketosis can hide right under your nose. Don’t wait until you can “smell the ketosis!”
During the first three weeks of lactation, the incidence of subclinical ketosis in most herds is estimated to be 40–60% (Oetzel, 2013)! Yes, you read that correctly. The issue with subclinical ketosis is in its definition: “subclinical” means “before clinical symptoms appear.”
Monitoring your herd for subclinical ketosis can allow for early intervention and peace of mind. Detecting subclinical ketosis allows producers to treat the issue before it turns clinical, helping to reduce the costs associated with clinical disease treatment.
Ketones can be monitored in blood, milk, or urine. Several ketones are circulating in a cow’s body when she is in ketosis. The gold standard for subclinical ketosis detection is beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) in blood. BHB is the most prevalent ketone body in circulation. Another ketone that is not as prominent is acetoacetate.
The best on-farm test for detecting subclinical ketosis is a blood BHB test like BHBCheck Plus. Another option is a milk dipstick test for BHB such as PortaBHB. Lesser-used options are milk powders or urine dipsticks. These measure acetoacetate and are not good indicators for subclinical ketosis.
