Administering liquid medication orally?

[canoetrpr]

My wife noticed one of our calves (11 month heifer) with bloody direaha. The vet happened to be in the area and dropped by and diagnosed it to be some sort of a parasite (don't have the paper she wrote it down on).

He gave the calf an injection and advised my wife to pickup some liquid medication at the farm store and mix it with the water for the rest of the calves and to give the one with the symptoms a undiluted dose.

Now here is for the newbie part. We got her in the chute after a bit of work (she hasn't been happy with the last few times she has gone in there). Vet said to hold her head up and administer it through a bottle of some sort. I can hold her head up by putting a halter on her but she isn't voluntarily opening her mount enough for me to put any kind of bottle in her mouth

I imagine the rest of you must have a more sensible way to administer liquid medication?? When I need to do so to my dogs I use a syringe and hold their heads up. I would need a large syringe for this I imagine. Any other ideas on how this should be done?

 

[Suzie Q]

For the horses I keep a used worming syringe and use that.

 

[djinwa]

I assume you are talking about coccidiosis.

Once an animal has bloody diarrhea, they are about done with the disease, as that is the last stage. That occurs 2 to 3 weeks after the animal was exposed, so it has been incubating for awhile. Treatment is more effective in early stages.

Most animals get better without any treatment. You can give medication in the water to the other cattle on the assumption that they were exposed the same as your steer and are incubating the illness. Preventive treatment may help them avoid illness.

In other words, I wouldn't bother trying to get undiluted stuff down this steer. I would isolate him somewhere away from where you'll have other calves, as his diarrhea contains thousands of the parasite and he's contaminating everywhere he's squirting.

Others know more, but the only good way I know to get liquid down is by passing a tube into the rumen.

http://www.thecattlesite.com/diseaseinf ... -in-cattle

Treatment
• Most cases will recover without treatment. Discuss the necessity of treatment in particular cases with your veterinary surgeon.
• If calves become dehydrated then electrolytes should be given.
• Once high numbers of oocysts are found, then treatment is unlikely to be of any benefit
• Treatment is better given to in-contact animals that have not yet started showing signs, or to combat secondary infection. A large number of products are available for treatment, but only two are licensed. Specific recommendations should be obtained from your veterinarian.
• All calves with diarrhoea should be separated from clinically normal calves, to reduce contamination of environment with oocysts.
• If possible, during an outbreak stressful procedures, such as dehorning, castration and weaning should be avoided

 

[canoetrpr]

Yes it is coccidiosis - just checked.

My wife asked the vet if the calf should be separated and the vet said no not at this point as the other calves have already probably been exposed and should simply be treated. This is a good reminder to me to get an area setup though were I can isolate an animal. I guess I can always take it into the horse barn and put it in a stall considering I have no horses and an unused building! I think I will separate this calf. Makes little sense to me to keep her with the other calves regardless of the fact that they probably have been exposed.

 

[canoetrpr]

Finally got a hold of my mentor who started me off with my herd. He does not believe I should be forcing a tube down at this point if she is looking good, eating etc. which she is and suggests I should just stick to the water based treatment.

We concluded that it is also better to keep the calves in the area where they are and not bring her out to walk her to another building as I would have to walk her past the rest of the barnyard where my other cows will soon be calving. Better to keep the contamination to the existing isolated environment which is separated from where my cows will be calving. Not moving her also keeps stress down.

 

[rockridgecattle]

Be really dilegent in keeping the contaimated animals separate from the calving herd. A boot wash would be a good thing between areas. As well, different waterers and watch out for the tractor tires if you are feeding. As well, a change in outer wear or wash on a definite basis. Codcidious (sp) is bad in baby calves if they get it. Hard to treat and heavy losses
If you have a hard time with this on a yearly basis, and if you feed grain or pellets or something of that nature, rumensin and another product like it have proven to reduce the parasite overload. Research shows that if the calving herd is started on it a minimum of 90 days pre calving it eliminated the risk.

 

[canoetrpr]

A boot wash is a great idea. I'm guessing a mix of water and some sanitizing agent like iodine or bleach? I'll set something up.

Any thoughts on what one could do for tractor tires? I guess the same thing. I could dump a bucket of bleach water on the tractor tires before leaving.

 

[regolith]

I use a 60ml syringe for baycox, but usually I've had to treat younger calves, the dose for yours might be two - three syringe-fulls. It's easier to handle a syringe than a bottle - no spillage risk.
Slip the syringe or neck of bottle under the lips *behind* the teeth (about halfway along her mouth). A bit of wiggling usually results in an open mouth and even if it doesn't, you've already got the spout inside the mouth.
You did say newb... I hope that wasn't too insulting. It's been a few months since I've drenched a cow with a bottle but I don't recall her unwillingness to open her mouth ever being much of an impediment. The head-tossing while trying to hang on to a slippery bottle is much more fun.

 

[VCC]

Get a drenching gun, always good to have around.

 

[canoetrpr]

regolith - I really am a newb so more detail the better. VCC thanks for the advice on a drenching gun. Sounds like something I should have around.

My wife decided that we were going to do exactly what the vet said. Today we used a 60 ml syringe (good to have around now that we picked a couple up). We needed two shots and all went well.

As per the advice here I have also put boot washing in place when moving from the calves area to the adults area.

Really nervous now about the beginning of calving around here (6 weeks or so from now at the earliest). If anyone has any other advice on prevention please do let me know.