Antibiotic of choice

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mom to 4

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For a lethargic calf with runny nose, coughing, breathing a little hard... what's the antibiotic of choice? combination antibiotic or LA-200? or is there something better?

We've generally had better response from combiotic, but the problem can be catching them again 2 days later. We don't have any pens in the pasture where they winter. Would be nice to keep mom and calf up for a couple days, but that would mean moving them a ways.
 
mom to 4":1kt7ibwy said:
For a lethargic calf with runny nose, coughing, breathing a little hard... what's the antibiotic of choice? combination antibiotic or LA-200? or is there something better?

We've generally had better response from combiotic, but the problem can be catching them again 2 days later. We don't have any pens in the pasture where they winter. Would be nice to keep mom and calf up for a couple days, but that would mean moving them a ways.

Nuflor or Baytril, starting to believe the latter is better. Both need a prescription. Add a shot of banamine for inflammation and you're in business.

cfpinz
 
I know that you can give Nuflor double dose subQ so that you don't have to catch them up everyother day to give them the round of shots required for whatever the ailment is. We use mainly Nuflor and we use Draxxin, when all else fails. Nuflor is pricey...Draxxin is outta site!

For some reason, we just don't have much luck with Baytril. I don't know why....

Alice
 
Since the few health problems we've had are footrot, we have a bottle of Excenel on hand. I was too lazy a couple of months ago to go get any Nuflor and gave a shot of the Excenel to a lungy cow. She cleared up and haven;t had a problem since.
When people think about drug costs they frequently don;t look at the entire picture. It needs to be looked at as total treatment cost, not just the cost per cc or even the cost per dose. If a particular drug costs 3 times as much as another and you only have to use 1/3 the dosage, that makes it a wash. If you need to retreat somthing because one does doesn;t totally knock it out, the cost per total treatment may very well be much higher with the less expensive (per cc) drug

dun
 
I totally agree with Dun- additionally, one needs to look at the additional gain you get with quicker response medications.
A sick calf is not a gaining calf, respiratory problems if not treated effictively and quickly can lead to permanent lung damage or mortality, and a dead calf...well thats a lot more expensive than a dose of draxxin.

ROB
 
ROB":1hdsakwc said:
I totally agree with Dun- additionally, one needs to look at the additional gain you get with quicker response medications.
A sick calf is not a gaining calf, respiratory problems if not treated effictively and quickly can lead to permanent lung damage or mortality, and a dead calf...well thats a lot more expensive than a dose of draxxin.

ROB

I guess I didn't state what I wrote very well :oops: ...this is the way we look at it here.

We don't fool with LA200 or Tylosin. Nuflor is what we use almost totally, and if it doesn't knock it out pretty quickly, then it's the draxxin. And, it depends on the calf and how sick it is. We've used draxxin first, then nuflor if that doesn't work pretty quickly.

The guys from the feedlots tell us that they always start with the high end medicine first, and work their way down...and sometimes it's the stuff like Tylosin that makes the difference.

I'm glad we have healthy animals right now...

Alice
 
Thanks for all the input. We found a little heifer calf yesterday that needed a shot and had to use what we had on hand. She wasn't too bad off. I think we caught it early. But I'll talk to our vet about getting the other meds you all mentioned.

Thanks again!!!
 
mom to 4":5updknlk said:
Thanks for all the input. We found a little heifer calf yesterday that needed a shot and had to use what we had on hand. She wasn't too bad off. I think we caught it early. But I'll talk to our vet about getting the other meds you all mentioned.

Thanks again!!!

If you had Combiotic on hand, it must be 10 years old because it has been off of the market for years.
We used it for years and were forced to go to LA-200 because Pfizer quit making Combiotic
 
Sorry, my mistake. That name just stuck in my head. It wasn't Combiotic. It was a combination of 2 forms of pennicillin. The bottle's in the basement, so I'll do my best from memory -- Pennicillin G Procaine and Pennicillin ? Benzathine (sp).
Didn't mean to be confusing. Anyway, the calf's looking well.
 

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