Dipthieria

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tamarack

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I have a month old calf started off with a wheez and I treated with Resflor got a little better but got worse a week later treated again with no luck now you can hear him wheezing from 100yrd vet says it is calf diptheria and no treatment will reverse it he will either die when the weather gets hot or he will have wheez till growen any one have any thing similar or better treatment?
 
No idea... I have one heifer calf that 'snores' when she's perfectly awake... She's really active and playful and has no mucus in her nose. Perhaps one of our vets around here can give you more insight?
 
http://www.merckmanuals.com/vet/respira ... attle.html

I'm a bit skeptical of the diagnosis and the prognosis. But... I've not seen the calf - has your vet, or are they just rendering an opinion based on what you've told them?
In a 1-month old calf, you've also got to consider congenital cardiovascular anomalies - they often present with clinical signs that would make you think the calf had a respiratory problem.
 
My vet looked the calf over she said that the throat was closed up that you could cut his air off with two fingers to the throat overall the calf looks good and still good condition but runs out of air quickly still sucking well. I treated him at the first sign as I had one 3yrs ago with the same thing and he died half way through the summer. Didn't know if there was any thing I could do different sure hate to loose them @ 1000$ thanks. Vet said calf dipthieria
 
I'll certainly defer to the vet with boots on the ground who's actually had hands on the calf.
Have never treated a calf with it, but have seen them at necropsy from time to time.
The literature suggests that most - if you treat early and appropriately - recover and do fine.
 
What is the treatment? I treated with 5cc of resflor and 5cc a week later did I treat ok or should I have treated 3 days apart. Vet never really said if that was right treatment just said that he would not likely recover.
 
tamarack":1648b1yu said:
What is the treatment? I treated with 5cc of resflor and 5cc a week later did I treat ok or should I have treated 3 days apart. Vet never really said if that was right treatment just said that he would not likely recover.
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Take a look at the literature that Lucky_P posted above. I believe it was LA 200 every 72 hours. But double check.
 
This calf is still alive and doing well but still whezzes very loud didn't think he would make the summer but looks like nothing wrong only problem is the noise he makes,is this how calf dipthieria works?
 
We usually treat one or two every year for diphtheria. Some we save, and some don't make the summer.

Diphtheria is the same bug that causes footrot, from what I have learned. From the treatment protocols we have been given in the past you can use basically any antibiotic that is effective for footrot. We have used, Resflor, Nuflor, Excenel and Oxytetracycline. And DEXAMETHASONE. Dex takes the swelling down which helps them to breathe.

Generally the idea is to treat for a minimum of 10 days. The one I had the most success with was to give Nuflor and Dex every 48 hours for 10 days. Then to switch to Oxytetracyline (LA) every 72 hours for another 10 days. Excenel seems to work about as well, but the downside is that you have to treat them every 24 hours.

We have used the above protocol and not only saved, but the animals had no discernible after effects and we kept them in the herd as replacements. OTOH, we just lost our only case from this spring the other day. Lost last year's only case as well. The earlier you catch it the better the chance of saving them is. And, some just don't seem to respond.
 

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