I'd like to hear some comments here, just out of interest. I have a six week old black angus calf with joint ill. He is very well in himself, drinking and eating, full of beans. His offside front knee is the worst and is chronically swollen. The condition was caught early in the piece but, despite every care, it has not resolved. He did not receive colostrum and we had no access to the frozen or powdered form, so were on the lookout for navel ill and joint ill straight away - of course, it did occur and, as I said, despite courses of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory injections, it is still bad. The vet had no more ideas and said it was the end of the road, which was fine. However, he had not been prescribed any dex so I decided to inject a couple of ml into the bad knee last night. Not expecting any change, I was amazed to see him flying about this morning at the gallop, about 90% sound. I had to call and see the vet today about another matter and mentioned, as an afterthought, that I had given the calf a dex shot in the knee.....I didn't even get to tell him the outcome before he began berating me, saying that "Dex breeds infection!" and was lectured on using drugs indiscriminately. Now I don't expect for a minute this is a miracle cure but the calf was still strutting about well when I got home. Does dex breed infection??