pneumonia, scours, navel ill

[barrelracergirl]

Does anyone have any experience using tylan for pneumonia in calves? I had a calf come down with pneumonia and didn't have nuflor or baytril on hand so I gave tylan. Has it been effective for anyone or should I switch to nuflor once I can get some? Also, for calves with navel ill I give penicilian and and iodine dip. Is there anything else that you guys have used effectively? I've heard of people giving calves raw eggs for scours, does anyone know how, why, or if that helps?

[sv.maple]

Dont really know the answers to the other questions but the raw egg for scours is what i do. Put a raw egg in the milk for two or three feedings works good for basic scours. No answer on why it helps one of those old time farmer things

[haypoint]

I'm not very good at deviating from proven methods or following wives' tails.
Navel ill can result in failure to treat the navel with iodine in the first place, not as a treatment for navel ill.
Scours is treated with a scours tablet. Dehydration is the killer, so electrolytes are essential. Some add Pepto-Bismol to stiffen the stool. Eggs won't hurt them, but personally, I don't bother. To me just seems like a new set of bacteria.
Read the discussion at the upper part of this section on Cattle, where there is a ton of information on Sale Barn calves. Lots of help there.

[msscamp]

Penicillin isn't going to knock out Navel Ill unless you caught it very, very early. You need something like Nuflor, Baytril, Excenel, or Draxxin. Talk to your vet and get it under control as it can kill them. Be very careful should you decide to go with Baytril because it has been shown to destroy joint cartilage in young animals.

As far as eggs 'curing' scours - I don't think so. Aside from bacterial or viral infections, the main cause of scours is too much milk that is too rich(too much protein and/or fat). Eggs are pure protein. Think about it. Something else to think about is that any time you add raw eggs to a bottle, you run the risk of introducing salmonella.

ETA: Depending on the type of pneumonia, and how early you caught it, Tylan can be effective. If he were mine, I would switch to the bigger guns if I haven't seen improvement in a few days.

[Pat-wcWI]

To prevent navel ill, the navel has to be dipped in iodine before it touches anything.

[CIW]

We calve out in January. Those problems aren't very prevelant then. Early calves don't carry an umbilical string more than about 3 days as it freezes off and seals up nicely. Being in a dirty enclosure is probably causing more problems than anything.
I'm not saying that you aren't keeping up with the housekeeping. The problem is that when a large animal is kept confined in an exclusive area, disease begins to build up in that enviroment.
We calve out in the snow with great results.
Preventative measures bring far better results than any medicine.
We do things like giving an anti-scour shot to the momma cows about 5 weeks before calving. The 1 or 2 that do scour I give a bolus and some electrolites to.
Scour bacteria is individualized to a geographic area. Speak with your vet or other cattlemen about what works best in your area.

[AnnaK]

Hi,
we currently use Tylan, so far I would say it works well as long as you caught the problem right away.. so after you saw pre signs of pneumonia, treat it!

Scours: we tried a lot of different stuff, but stuck to "Scour Solution" (liquid clear solution in white/greenish bottle, Vet) it does wonders, one two treatments, done!