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Sick Cow

cutterone

Well-known member
We have a pregnant cow in her 8th month that all of a sudden developed a smell like infection. My first thought was that she had a dead calf inside her but after putting her into the chute the smell was coming from her mouth but she was pretty fussy so decided to wait a couple days when the vet was coming to have more help and have him have a look. Turned out she has a hole the size of a nickle way back in the roof of her mouth going into her sinus cavity and the hay/feed she eats gets lodged and creates the infection. He felt that antibotics would not help do to the fact that it would just be ongoing because of the food. I have put her on very soft grass hay and some corn and seperated her. She is very diarrheatic and loosing weight. Hoping to save her and the calf. Any suggestions?
 

Mrs.Greg

Well-known member
Well personally I'd give her a shot of penicillin and overrule the vet and give her the antibiotics,whats it going to hurt :???:
 

DJL

Well-known member
I'm with you Mrs. Greg. Antibiotics won't cure her, but might make her feel better and keep her going long enough for her to calve so it wouldn't be a total loss.
 

Cal

Well-known member
Agreed, some penicillin or LA200 wouldn't cost much. If it doesn't look good and you want to save the calf, you can have someone put a bullet in her head and have the calf cut out her side in a matter of seconds....I've done that more than once.
 

cutterone

Well-known member
We don't know how it happened. Maybe a stick in the hay??? I gave her LA200 the 1st time I got her in the chute but it did'nt seem to help. I'm more concerned with the diarhea - she's dehydrating. I mixed some beet pulp and even poured a bottle of Kaopectate on her grain to slow her down but so far nothing is helping.
We could do surgery but she is a commercial recip cow and it's not worth her value. If I can keep her healthy to term I would consider c-section or the last alterative to save the calf.
 

Denny

Well-known member
Well if she is indeed 8 months bred there's a good chance you could save the calf at any time if you needed.I would doctor her but to me she sounds more like she has Johnnes disease.
 

cutterone

Well-known member
We did a test for that but haven't gotten the results back yet and since the vet didn't get back quickly with the results have to assume that's not the case.
 

jkvikefan

Well-known member
Take her temp.. If she has no fever, antibiotics will do no good .If she has a depressed temp. try giving her 16 oz of brewed coffee with two shots of whiskey. What do you have to lose??
Maybe give some Bannimine ,Probiotics, whatever she'll eat and say a prayer.

Good luck to you
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
Depending on what test the vet ran for Johnes it can take a long time t get results.. Even the blood test that we did took a week or so before we got the results back from the lab.. Than there was the longer term test... That sucker took forever. I remember reading about a more rapid test that was suppossed to be a bit more accurate but I don't recall what happened with that.
 

Denny

Well-known member
IL Rancher said:
Depending on what test the vet ran for Johnes it can take a long time t get results.. Even the blood test that we did took a week or so before we got the results back from the lab.. Than there was the longer term test... That sucker took forever. I remember reading about a more rapid test that was suppossed to be a bit more accurate but I don't recall what happened with that.

Or the results are back sitting at the vet clinic waiting for you to call because they forgot to call you back,thats what happen's here.
 

IL Rancher

Well-known member
Yep.. I had one vet that was absoilutely anal about calling bac as soon as the results came in, good or bad news.. He would call at 8pm or anytime afyer 7am, it didn't matter.. I liked him, problem was he worked at an office with a vet I couldn't stand and you had no choice on who saw you so we switched..

Current vet.. Shoot, you need to call for everything usually but they are getting better... They call me now to set up appointments and orders for stuff.. I like these gals a lot... They do call on blood work that we have had done but if you have a surgery done on a dog you better be doing the calling...

The intermediate vet was the worst... He would get results back and look at them and you might hear from him or he might mail them to you in a week.
 
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