Navel Infection

[mnmtranching]

My premature calf is doing fine. Other than a navel infection I noticed a couple days ago. I've rubbed in iodine. I have some medicated milk replacer with antibiotics. Will this help?

 

[rockridgecattle]

uhmmm no, sorry to be rude. Navel ill can get real serious real fast. It depends on how big the navel is depends on the course of treatment.
Just starting...
Liquidmycin daily and predef or anafin daily...follow directions. good five days treatment and then re assess. If it has gone down mid treatment still continue for 5 days...why...nasty nasty nasty thing to get rid of. If after a couple of days no visible results re evaluate treatment.
Swollen and warm calf active....
Nuflor + a round of anti inlfamitories. Same as above. When you think it's gone give once last shot of nuflor sub Q and keep an eye on for a couple of days for relapse.
This is optional and we have had good success. Drop the calf on it's side, gloves iodine in hand and pick at the scab on the navel. Squeeze out the puss. Iodine in allot and so again in 12- 24 hours. Make sure your hands are clean don't want to agrivate the situtation.
Swollen warm/hot, calf joints swollen, calf not active...
same as abouve but make sure to open and drain and clean the navel.
Navel ill needs prompt attention. Seen a new born calf get it and joints swollen in 12 hours. Calf did not make it after several rounds of treatments because we did not catch it early enough.
Because the joints swelled so fast we thought they were swollen from a hard birth and delayed treatment for 24 hours.
Navel ill his hard to treat and requires daily dedication to get rid of.
Somethings to prevent, clean bedding, clean puller and chains, clean us when we assist. good amount of colostrum.
Good luck and keep posted

 

[milkmaid]

There isn't enough antibiotic in medicated milk replacer to do a lick of good, especially not on navel ill. Load that calf up with antibiotics and treat the infection very aggressively. It's not something to mess around with.

 

[jlahc]

We had our first case of navel ill this year. Took the advice given on this forum, Hit hard ASAP with Nuflor (2 strong doses) in combination with Penn. I picked the scab off (gloves) and squeezed some pus out. It was real hard and not a lot came out, but it seemed to help. Also, calf got scours and had to treat that at the same time (vet said scours go hand in hand with Navel ill). Calf was better within a week to week and a half.

 

[Vicky the vet]

Liquidmycin daily and predef or anafin daily...follow directions. good five days treatment and then re assess.

Well, I hate to disagree with a fellow Canuck, but giving steroids, which is what predef is, is contraindicated. By knocking the immune system, you're allowing the bacteria to worsen the infection. Liquamycin is near useless for navel infections, is bacteriostatic vs bacteriocidal--meaning it stops their reproduction but doesn't kill them--so you'd really be making things worse. And one thing nobody mentions, is that tetracyclines (which liquamycin is) when used in a young animal, will cause failure of enamel on developing teeth and weakness, leading to broken mouth later in life.

I prefer penicillins OR nuflor myself.

Also, soaking the navel in warm salt water will draw the infection. Do it twice a day for 5-10 minutes.

Also, this thread has been done several times already. Please do a search, and find out the information which I'm not bothering to type, such as joint ill etc as sequelae.

Good Luck
V

 

[Ohio2]

We also recently had a calf with similar symptoms. Favoring back leg, then overnight all joints swollen. Treated quickly (NuFlor) and all seems well.

Never had this problem before in the herd so to speak, however looking back, this one particular cow has had problem calves three out of the last four. (She is getting culled after weaning)

My question is, can the cow be a "carrier" of bacterial infection and while showing no symptoms herself, be passing it on to the calf in utero? How about through her milk to the nursing calf?

Thanks for any insight.

 

[msscamp]

Other than a navel infection I noticed a couple days ago. I've rubbed in iodine. I have some medicated milk replacer with antibiotics. Will this help?

No, the calf needs some good system antibiotics to beat the naval ill - even then it's iffy, depending on how far the infection has progressed. You might want to do a search, milkmaid has a thread or two on here regarding naval ill in her calves, and how she treated it.

 

[mnmtranching]

Other than a navel infection I noticed a couple days ago. I've rubbed in iodine. I have some medicated milk replacer with antibiotics. Will this help?

No, the calf needs some good system antibiotics to beat the naval ill - even then it's iffy, depending on how far the infection has progressed. You might want to do a search, milkmaid has a thread or two on here regarding naval ill in her calves, and how she treated it.

I rubbed in Iodine a few times, and fed it this medicated milk replacer, thought it couldn't hurt. And figured it would help the calf fight off other problems. The medicated milk replacer I used has much more medication in it than the large bags with medication. I also gave it a Terramycine bollus. Anyway the calf is doing great. He's gone from 30 some pounds to about 60 and just became a steer. When I first saw this calf, I was about to put it down, thought maybe 10% chance of saving it.

 

[mnmtranching]

Pic from today.

 

[Beefy]

is that calf in a box?