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Mycoplasma

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4Diamond

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I talked to a friend this morning that has taken in around 125 head of 5 wts and currently he has lost 20+ to mycoplasma. He had the vet out and did tests. I am not very educated on this but I've been told there isn't much you can do to vaccinate for it? Any and all help and suggestions would be helpful. Thanks
 
Trust me I am no expert but do have some limited experience with mycoplasma. There are some commercial vaccines available. Here in SD there are a few vets that have done some work trying to isolate the strains we have here. Mycoplasma is a complex disease and I encourage you to try and work with a vet to tailor a vaccination program for your situation!
 
Here is a really good link 4diamond
http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/400/400-304/400-304.html

Treatment for mycoplasma is not very effective ,sorry .
Mycoplasma is very difficult to treat because many commonly used antibiotics do not work well. Penicillin, Polyflex®, Naxcel®, Excenel®, and Excede® kill bacteria by destroying the cell wall. Since Mycolplasma does not have a normal cell wall, these antibiotics are ineffective in treating it. Micotil® shows little or no activity against Mycoplasma as well.

Oxytetracycline (the active ingredient in LA-200®, Biomycin 200®, Tetradure 200®, and other generics) has produced mixed results in treating Mycoplasma. In one study 50 percent of M. bovis isolates were resistant to oxytetracycline. Tulathromycin (Draxxin®) is the only drug approved for Mycoplasma, and in one study, was the drug most likely to be effective (Godinho, et al., 2005). Draxxin® provides the most convenient treatment of Mycoplasmosis because one dose provides seven to 14 days of therapeutic blood concentrations against Mycoplasma and Mannheimia haemolytica, Pasturella multocida, and Histophilus somni, all causes of BRDC. Other drugs that show good results are Nuflor® and Adspec®. Baytril® and A180® can also be effective in treating Mycoplasma when there is a mixed infection with M. haemolytica and Mycoplasma.
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The vaccines currently available against M. bovis have not been shown to be effective in beef cattle.
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4Diamond said:
I talked to a friend this morning that has taken in around 125 head of 5 wts and currently he has lost 20+ to mycoplasma. He had the vet out and did tests. I am not very educated on this but I've been told there isn't much you can do to vaccinate for it? Any and all help and suggestions would be helpful. Thanks
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If he's already lost that many, he needs to mass treat everything else with Draxxin. I hope he's already done so. A lot of these calves with Myco that you think you've got straightened out will end up as repulls two or three weeks later. The Draxxin will take care of most of that.

With what I've learned about Myco over the last couple of years, you can't fool around. Some of the early symptoms are so benign that you just can't waste any time. You've really got to be on top of things and spend a LOT of time with those cattle. You'll be way behind and it'll be too late if you don't get to know them and let them get to know you so that they're comfortable telling you when they don't feel good. Things like a calf having one ear down, or just having the neck stretched out a little more than normal, or walking a little stiff are things that you need to be watching for and at least pull to temp. Get to know those cattle and let them be comfortable with you, so they don't see you as a threat and fake feeling good when you're around.

If I can only treat once, my first choice for treatment of an active case would be 3ml/cwt of Baytril, plus 1.1ml/cwt of Draxxin, plus 2ml/cwt Banamine, plus a Probios bolus. The Baytril will start working faster than the Draxxin, but the Draxxin will give you longer protection.

If you want to try to save a little money and have the time to keep messing with them, I've had some success with LA300 at 3ml/cwt given every other day for three treatments. I give the first day in the muscle and the next two SQ. That has worked on about 60% of the ones that I've tried it on, but I'm not sure that a person isn't better off to go ahead and spend the extra money and get them back to work quicker.

If the calf is already crippled or has a severe head-tilt, I wouldn't spend much on him. Probably the best thing to do is to go ahead and shoot those, but I really have a hard time doing that without trying something. In the case of those, I'd just give a big dose of LA300 and hope for the best. If you see some improvement the next day, you might hit them again, but most of the ones that I've had like that usually end up in the dead pile anyway.

I've not seen anything about the vaccine that makes me think it would be worth it. Especially on calves that are shipped-in and that are most likely already exposed. I'd spend that money on a round of Draxxin instead.
 
I don't think Draxin will touch Mycoplasma. From what I understand Oxyteracycline is about the only thing that works, anyway in sheep. We used AS700 plus Biomyicine 200 to clean ours up, but we still lost nearly 40%.
 
LazyWP said:
I don't think Draxin will touch Mycoplasma. From what I understand Oxyteracycline is about the only thing that works, anyway in sheep. We used AS700 plus Biomyicine 200 to clean ours up, but we still lost nearly 40%.
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Counting sheep has long been recognized as a good way to bring on sleep. With forty percent less sheep to count, and knowing that these sheep would never be around to ever count again, the lack of sheep could bring on lack of sleep. :(
 
4Diamond said:
He mass treated all calves with Draxxin and Nuflur when they got off the bus.
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That's an interesting combination - as well as expensive. Are you saying that each calf got Draxxin and Nuflor? Or that some of the calves got Draxxin and the others got Nuflor?

Also, do you know how much Draxxin he gave them?

Did he find out anything new from the vet work?
 
Soapweed said:
LazyWP said:
I don't think Draxin will touch Mycoplasma. From what I understand Oxyteracycline is about the only thing that works, anyway in sheep. We used AS700 plus Biomyicine 200 to clean ours up, but we still lost nearly 40%.
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Counting sheep has long been recognized as a good way to bring on sleep. With forty percent less sheep to count, and knowing that these sheep would never be around to ever count again, the lack of sheep could bring on lack of sleep. :(
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Definitely brought a lack of sleep for both me and my employer. If you aren't doing anything the 14th of October, you could come help me work my sheep, then I could get some peaceful sleep.
 
The vet we work with has a protocol on big cutting bulls to mass treat with Oxytet 200 on arrival. He cuts, vaccinates, and gives oxytet at the same time. He then comes back 4 days later and mass treats the whole group again with 2 cc/cwt of micotil. He says that this has completely stopped his micoplas problem, and has excellent success with this. Death loss will run around 1/2% on 6wt #2 cutting bulls coming from Joplin Regional. Watching the cattle like a hawk and being on top of them will work better than anything though.
 
Texan said:
4Diamond said:
He mass treated all calves with Draxxin and Nuflur when they got off the bus.
Click to expand...
That's an interesting combination - as well as expensive. Are you saying that each calf got Draxxin and Nuflor? Or that some of the calves got Draxxin and the others got Nuflor?

Also, do you know how much Draxxin he gave them?

Did he find out anything new from the vet work?
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I don't know if they got both or not. I need to speak with him again and get better details. I also am not sure of the amounts given. All I know on the vet work was that it was diagnosed as Mycoplasma.
 
cleland said:
The vet we work with has a protocol on big cutting bulls to mass treat with Oxytet 200 on arrival. He cuts, vaccinates, and gives oxytet at the same time. He then comes back 4 days later and mass treats the whole group again with 2 cc/cwt of micotil. He says that this has completely stopped his micoplas problem, and has excellent success with this. Death loss will run around 1/2% on 6wt #2 cutting bulls coming from Joplin Regional. Watching the cattle like a hawk and being on top of them will work better than anything though.
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Can you help me understand what a #2 is? I know they quote em in 1's and 2's and I have a hard time figuring out what is what. Thanks. Are you close to JRS?
 
We live about an hour from JRS. A numner one is a choice calf, #2 is not necessarily choice. #1 would be a good black or char weaned, 2 rounds. #2 would be not weaned, no vaccs, plainer cattle
 
Has anybody seen Mycoplasma problems in cow/calf herds? I have a friend who had a HORRID wreck with it in their cattle, affecting mostly young calves, but some cows as well :? . Their herd is very well managed (good feed, mineral, vaccination program).
 
cleland said:
We live about an hour from JRS. A numner one is a choice calf, #2 is not necessarily choice. #1 would be a good black or char weaned, 2 rounds. #2 would be not weaned, no vaccs, plainer cattle
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Thanks for the clarification.
 
WyomingRancher said:
Has anybody seen Mycoplasma problems in cow/calf herds? I have a friend who had a HORRID wreck with it in their cattle, affecting mostly young calves, but some cows as well :? . Their herd is very well managed (good feed, mineral, vaccination program).
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WR I think because it can be viral ,you can have a train wreck in any herd at some point, even if it is well managed and everything has it's vacc's up to date . :?

Here is another interesting link, it is a little old but has some great info about mycoplasma

http://www.ivis.org/proceedings/wbc/wbc2004/wbc2004-Nicholasssimple1.pdf
 
hillsdown said:
WyomingRancher said:
Has anybody seen Mycoplasma problems in cow/calf herds? I have a friend who had a HORRID wreck with it in their cattle, affecting mostly young calves, but some cows as well :? . Their herd is very well managed (good feed, mineral, vaccination program).
Click to expand...

WR I think because it can be viral ,you can have a train wreck in any herd at some point, even if it is well managed and everything has it's vacc's up to date . :?

Here is another interesting link, it is a little old but has some great info about mycoplasma

http://www.ivis.org/proceedings/wbc/wbc2004/wbc2004-Nicholasssimple1.pdf
Click to expand...

Thanks HD for the information :) .
 

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