any luck treating joint ill?

[newbie]

Just wondering if anyone has had any success treating joint ill in a five week old calf? She had navel ill that might not have been treated aggressively enough and has now developed joint ill. Had the vet out. The calf is just finished a course of 5cc of pen for five days and a half cc of banamine for three days. She still has swollen knees and is walking slow. Molly still is drinking her bottles of milk. We also just finished the five packs of electrolytes that the vet left behind.

 

[milkmaid]

Read the comments on the other post you made where you asked that question...

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=47829&p=541981#p541981

 

[hillsdown]

In all my years with calves I am amazed that I have only encountered one case and that was last year (touch wood). After a month and a half of treating him he developed septicemia meningitis. The day that I had decided to have him put down he died on his own.I tried everything I could possibly think of for over a month ,with no positive results. I have found that this is a very hard illness to win a battle against. I think the key is to catch it quickly and hit them fast and hard as well as long term care ( they say for up to a month). The fact that your calf is still willing to take a bottle and is walking should give you some hope, as I have saved them from other illnesses where I have had to tube them two to three times a day for a week or longer....

One thing to learn from this is to make sure all new babies have their navels iodined as soon as they arrive in this new world.

Also when you bring this up to most vets the first thing they do is lower their heads and give a little shake as they know that more will be lost than saved.

Good luck with your calf.

 

[fourstates]

I know what you are doing, cause I did the same thing by taking my calf "Mo" to 3 different vets. The first said "joint ill", the second said "nothing was wrong" and now the third told me "some type of autoimmune" Now I could keep taking this calf to different vets, until I find one that tells me what I want to hear, but the sad truth is sometimes you need to know when enough is enough. I could just kick myself for letting this animal go though painful, expensive continuous treatment.

Everytime an animal gets sick you learn something and you will save more than you won't.

Good Luck.