Pneumonia question...

[Wisteria Farms]

I hate if this sounds stupid...but how DOES a calf recover from pneumonia...I mean what is the process??

Does it cough the crap out to clear the lungs?
or
Do the lungs "dry out" when respiration returns to normal?

I've found ALL KINDS of articles on what causes it/treatments/etc. but I haven't seen anywhere that they tell you the process of recovery...
I know in severe cases, there are lesions in the lungs that decrease function and IF the calf survives there is permanent scarring but WHAT actually clears the lungs??

 

[milkmaid]

I'm going to assume fluid in the lungs is absorbed, inflammation of tissue decreases with time, and the offending pathogen is "eaten" and destroyed by the immune system - making it a multistep process that involves time. But, I don't know for sure; give me a day or so and I'll have an answer from a real vet. ;-)

 

[Wisteria Farms]

WOW!!! In the words of my oldest daughter... MILKMAID YOU ARE THE BOMB DIGGITY!!
Thanks! Its just one of those things that bugs me because I don't know the answer... I keep seeing her cough, thinking its a bad thing but found a rather firm piece of phlem in the water tank...can only assume she was drinking and "hacked" it up... but it got me thinking about albuterol in children which loosens the nasty stuff and I thought, "well, maybe she's clearing it out of her system"... She's not coughing NEAR as much as she was but when she does its like she's bringing something up.

In only one article I read that they will cough up phlem and then swallow it which sometimes causes a secondary bacterial infection in their gut. So, in trying not to miss a step I gave her some neomycin for her gut...

but again, thanks!