18 Month heifer with viral infection, need advice

[Triple B Ranch]

I've been a lurker on the site for years now, but haven't had a reason to post. On looking for some advice regarding recovery probability of a sick heifer. I'll try to keep it quick but it's been a long 4 days. Heifer is 18 month old angus/Maine cross.
Saturday
9am got a call from breeder that Geiger was sick. I immediately went over. Heifer was foaming at the mouth, head down, temp of 105.6.and labored breathing. I gave resflor gold, vitamin b, probiotic and brought her home. Its only a mile and a half away.

9Pm temp down to 102.1 she ate half a slab of Hay and was drinking water.
She was still breathing labored and developed a rasp, what my grandpa called the death rattle.


Sunday
9Am temp 101.1
No feed intake all day, still drinking
9pm temp 102.6

Sunday
9am temp 103.6
Gave 6cc banamine
No feed intake over night
1Pm temp 104.8
Called vet

Get gave excede, said lungs still had air movement. Gave dex. Took blood sample.
Results of blood said viral. Temp this morning was 102, gave haha mine and dex this am as instructed by the Vet.

Question- heifer is still breathing labored with the rasp, grinding her teeth. She is now refusing water and hay. I've tried alfalfa and Bermuda. Is She likely to recover? Is there anything else I can do for her ? Thanks for any advice.

 

[fnfarms1]

Sounds to me like you've done all you can at this point. I'd keep doing what you are, careful to not over medicate and trash her kidneys or liver with to much meds. I'm afraid she won't make it, especially with lack of feed intake or much for energy. Might try a dose of electrolytes mixed with some egg and shot of whiskey for energy. Have to drench her with that. That's my cocktail for baby calves, typically using milk replacer or electrolytes.

 

[Son of Butch]

I'm afraid your Grandpa is right, once a lunger always a lunger. Even if she recovers from this round she'll be a poor doer and at some point she'll have an early death. Best case scenario: her immune system is strong enough to fight it off and once drugs clear out of her system, that she is still in good enough condition to make it to slaughter or butcher for hamburger. Good Luck.

P.S. Antibiotics can't knockout a virus, they can only knockout bacteria to give her chance to recover from virus on her own.
Unsolicited advice: Make sure your vaccinations are up to date on your other cattle.

 

[Nesikep]

I agree (it's a fact) that if it is indeed viral, the antibiotics aren't going to do any good... perhaps other drugs like banamine (Did you get autocorrected when you typed "haha mine"?) will help with the inflammation and make her feel better, though it's up to her immune system to do the work of actually getting better.

I'm not certain dexamethasone is a good thing at this point, it suppresses the immune system to an extent, but again would help with the inflammation
(This is what I remember from Mercks.. I'm not the vet though)

I agree with the probable outcome.. even if she pulls through this she's probably got serious lung damage.. we had (years ago) trouble with a summer pneumonia, lost many good cows, most dead in 5 days, very few got over it, and had chronic coughs until we got rid of them... Lungs were all lumpy from the damage.

If you can add some molasses to her drinking water that may help with her energy as well

Welcome to CT, wish it were better circumstances.

 

[Triple B Ranch]

Thanks for responding. Sorry I haven't responded, but it's been a crazy week. She got better on Thursday and then ranked on Friday. Temps back up to 105.6. We've just about tried everything you could possibly think of. Today her temp is 102.4 and she's actually taken in some water and loose mineral. All of our calves or vaccinated with bovishield gold and yes auto correct got me on the banamine. Yesterday I heard coughing coming from the kids show calf pen and pulled all 4. My daughter's 9month old dairy replacement heifer was the only one with a temp. 105.8! IGave a shot of banamine and nuflor gold. She is not off feed or acting poorly. She was first at the feed bunk this morning, so hopefully we caught it early enough.

Quick question. The first heifer to come down sick hasn't chewed cud for 9 days, has anyone seen an animal digestive system recover after that long? Thanks again

 

[dun]

Quick question. The first heifer to come down sick hasn't chewed cud for 9 days, has anyone seen an animal digestive system recover after that long? Thanks again

In the old days we would steal cud from another animal and get it into the one that wasn't chewing her cud. Now we just squirt probiotics in their moths a couple of times.

 

[MVHERF]

I stumbled upon this forum googling info about how many days cattle can successfully recover from not chewing their cud and your whole case sounds really similar to what we are dealing with in a 10 month old show heifer. After NuFlor, Draxxin, Banamine, Vit B, Dexo (several repeatedly) we got respiratory symptoms and fever under control and then she started bloating on us. Temp now down, bloating better, but she's only nibbling on Bermuda hay and haven't seen her chew her cud for 7 or 8 days. What wound up happening with your heifer?

 

[Triple B Ranch]

I should have come back and let everyone know. Sorry. We ended up losing her on Thanksgiving day. After 11 days of treating her and the banamine No longer controlling the temp, she still wasn't eating much more than a handful of hay a day and drinking a couple of gallons of water. We made the decision to stop treatment, I just couldn't torture her anymore. She made it 4 more days and Thanksgiving morning I heard all the other cows mooing, so I went out to check. She was bleeding from the nose and mouth, so I knew it was time. We had to put her down. I wish I had an answer for you, dairy friend of mine thought she had gotten hardware from the breeders we had her at. I did have another one like yours a couple of years ago, but only 5 months old. Pretty much the same as your situation. Once he bloated, he never seemed to recover, worked with him 20 days because he was my daughter's show calf. Bloat meds, tubing, mineral oil, grass hay. He continued to bloat every other day to gigantic size. Vet thought it had a damaged vagel (sp) nerve. Had to put that one down also. I wish you luck.