Pneumonia???

[Luv4whippets]

We have had our calf for 2 wks now last Saturday. He has had on and off again runny eyes since the day we brought him home. Last Friday I went out for his morning feeding and the once clear drainage had turned green and was mattering his eyes shut. I immediately thought pink eye at that point. Before I left for work I went back out to clean up his eyes and put some artificial tears in them til I could bring something home from work. At that time I noticed he had not eaten all of his milk and he had a soft cough and discharge from both nostrils. Not clear, just kinda greyish. Knowing calves go down hill quickly I went on the search for some antibiotics. I came home at lunch and took his temp. It was 104.5. The vets I work with thought NuFlor and Banamine would be in order. So he has had 2 injections of Nuflor IM 48 hrs apart, and has had 1 injection of Banamine IV. Friday night I thought for sure I would find a dead calf saturday morning. His temp has remained normal since Saturday. He is eating well again, and wants to do burn outs when turned out. He's just going out long enough for me to clean his stall. He has an ever so slight cough again but not constant like it was. He's swishing his tail and acting like a butt again. The only thing is he still has the greyish discharge (but less) from his nose. Should I be prepared with more antibiotics? Can I use more Nuflor or would a change be in order? Or is this normal progress for what I've described.

 

[larryshoat]

In calves that size Draxin is my first choice for these kinds of problems and I would reccomend a shot of that now.

Larry

 

[Luv4whippets]

Thanks Larry. We see only small animals and horses at work so we are not familiar with what's out there. I'll check into Draxxin tomorrow.

 

[IluvABbeef]

Don't stop with what you already have going for you, nor do I think switching meds might do any good either. If you read the label on Nuflor it should say how long to keep injecting the calf with the stuff. I had experience with stopping the meds as soon as a calf was showing signs of improvement and let me tell you it wasn't pretty when the calf relapsed on us with worse symptoms that couldn't be fixed.

I think you're doing great. Like I said, keep going with what you already have until the prescribed ending point.