“Producers should use fewer antibiotics than they did traditionally,’ said veterinarian David R. Smith.
“Our knowledge about antibiotics has improved, and perspectives have changed,” he added.
“Twenty years ago, we relied on antibiotics to treat uterine infections, but today we don’t give a cow antibiotic unless she is clinically ill with a fever and enough clinical signs that suggest there is a need,” Smith said.
Some infections don’t need treatment. The body’s immune system usually takes care of them, sometimes better than with medical intervention.
“Most cows with a uterine discharge are normal, and most uterine infections clear up on their own without antibiotics. Putting antibiotics into the uterus usually does more harm than good,” said Smith.
“If a producer is having problems with uterus infections (more than a sporadic case), have a veterinarian help figure out why. It shouldn’t be happening, so if you are needing to use antibiotics for a seriously sick cow, we need to find the reason and solve it,” Smith said.
“To prevent infections, choose a clean, dry, comfortable place for calving, and if you must assist with a birth, take the time to be clean, wash your arms with soap and water, wash the cow with soap and water, and use lots of lubricant. We can do a lot to prevent infections just by sanitation,” Smith said.
“One thing I tell producers to always have on hand in the fridge is oxytocin,” said veterinarian Mark Hilton. “If you pull a calf, give the cow oxytocin IM. This will help her clean, get rid of the placenta, and shrink the uterus faster.
“This will reduce the chances of her prolapsing or retaining the placenta,” Hilton said. Though oxytocin is not an antibiotic, it may reduce the risk for problems in which you might need antibiotics.
Even a retained placenta is usually not a worry. The cow sheds it eventually and doesn’t need antibiotics unless it’s the odd case where she gets a more serious infection that goes systemic, and she goes off feed and has a fever.
With a C-section, the decision whether or not to use antibiotics would depend on what the veterinarian suggests. He knows whether there was contamination. Did the cow lie down halfway through the procedure?
“It’s sad when people have unnecessary medications in their refrigerator, and they go bad. That’s wasted money,” Hilton said.
“If everything goes perfectly, there is no need for antibiotics,” Hilton said.
But sometimes not everything is perfect. Veterinarian James England said the most common time he uses antibiotics during calving season is following C-section surgery. “Sometimes you’ll need to treat a cow for mastitis, but this is uncommon in beef cows,” England said.
Hilton points out that if a cow has E. coli mastitis and you give her penicillin three days in a row, you are not helping her.
“You need a diagnosis first; the treatment should come second,” Hilton said. Infection in the udder can be caused by a variety of pathogens, some more deadly than others; you want to make sure you use the proper antibiotic.
We also need to evaluate antibiotic use in calves, Smith said. “Most of the pathogens that cause diarrhea in young calves are viruses or protozoa and don’t respond to antibiotics,” Smith explained.
The main times you’d use them is when calves become septic or develop a secondary bacterial infection.
“When we use antibiotics on scouring calves, we often make it worse. Normal flora in the gut is already disrupted by whatever is causing diarrhea, and then we disrupt it more by wiping out more of the good bacteria with antibiotics,” Smith said.
This may result in taking longer to recover or the calf ending up with a fungal infection, which is worse than the original infection.
“When we do necropsies on calves that died from scours, we often find fungal infections that we probably made worse, or we set up the conditions for those fungal infections because we used antibiotics. Fluid therapy is more important for most cases of scours than antibiotics,” Smith said.
“There are some exceptions, such as the septic calf. But if you have very many calves with septicemia, you need to figure out why. So, this is another reason to have a veterinarian involved,” said Smith. And you’d want your veterinarian to prescribe the most effective drug for each situation.
Hilton said that if you follow best management practices to keep the calving environment clean, you greatly minimize the potential for calf disease. “If you routinely have calves that get diarrhea or pneumonia, you need to find out why. This is not normal.”
Disease is often the result of errors that happen during that calf’s life. “Usually, two or three little things add up, and now we have a sick calf. My goal is to find those two or three things and prevent them next year,” Hilton said.
Preventing scours can be more challenging in some operations, especially if a rancher is locked into calving season that puts newborns in bad weather and bad environmental conditions.
This happens when seedstock producers must calve in January or February to have yearling bulls old enough to sell.
If a case of scours occurs, get help from the veterinarian to know whether to treat it with antibiotics. “When you call your vet, you need to know exactly how old that calf is. If it’s under five days old, it probably requires a systemic antibiotic.”
The veterinarian can recommend one he has used with good success in treating scours in young calves.
If the calf is 10 to 18 days old, the chances it needs antibiotics are slim.
“Most of the time, if you get one calf with scours, there will be more getting sick because it’s highly contagious. There is value in having the veterinarian on the farm to not only suggest proper treatment for that first one. He might be able to help prevent the next 20 or 30 or 100 calves from having scours,” Hilton explained.
For young calves, England said the most important thing is supportive treatment especially fluid and electrolytes for scouring calves. “I generally do not use antibiotics unless the calf has a fever that can’t seem to resolve,” he said.
He sees ranchers who treat with antibiotics if a young calf is breathing fast, thinking it has pneumonia.
“Often, it turns out that the calf was getting ready to break with scours and is breathing hard just from the associated acidosis. What that calf really needed was fluids,” Hilton explained.
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