Post by nutmeg on Jan 3, 2009 19:44:27 GMT -5
Hi,
Yesterday one of our cows got out, knocked over a garden rake and then stepped on it. It bled and she was limping. I called the vet. He is very busy and on his way out of town for 2 weeks. He would have come out if I wanted, but I thought we could take care of it ourselves.
The vet's advice was to clean it the best we could, rinse with Betadine and see where the wound was. If it was in the horn we would need to have someone come out because there it would tend to heal too quickly and not be able to drain. He said give both tetanus antitoxin and tetanus vaccine and then tetracycline (Oxybiotic 200) every 48 hours for 3 doses. He left the drugs and complete instructions in a cooler on his porch for me to pick up.
I gave her both the tetanus shots. We could not find where the wound was on the foot. Today she is not limping, maybe just favoring it a little. I hesitate to give antibiotics unnecessarily but do not want to take risks with her. There is a 96 hour milk withdrawal, but that is not a problem since we can leave her calf on her and give anything the calf doesn't take to the pigs. It is pretty muddy around here lately, so her hoof is going to be dirty.
I hesitate because I dislike giving antibiotics if not really needed and because it is going to be hard on her and me to give the shots. They need to be sub q and no more than 10 ml in each site, so that means 5 sites each time.
What would you do? Give the antibiotics or wait and see ?
Thanks in advance.
Jean
Yesterday one of our cows got out, knocked over a garden rake and then stepped on it. It bled and she was limping. I called the vet. He is very busy and on his way out of town for 2 weeks. He would have come out if I wanted, but I thought we could take care of it ourselves.
The vet's advice was to clean it the best we could, rinse with Betadine and see where the wound was. If it was in the horn we would need to have someone come out because there it would tend to heal too quickly and not be able to drain. He said give both tetanus antitoxin and tetanus vaccine and then tetracycline (Oxybiotic 200) every 48 hours for 3 doses. He left the drugs and complete instructions in a cooler on his porch for me to pick up.
I gave her both the tetanus shots. We could not find where the wound was on the foot. Today she is not limping, maybe just favoring it a little. I hesitate to give antibiotics unnecessarily but do not want to take risks with her. There is a 96 hour milk withdrawal, but that is not a problem since we can leave her calf on her and give anything the calf doesn't take to the pigs. It is pretty muddy around here lately, so her hoof is going to be dirty.
I hesitate because I dislike giving antibiotics if not really needed and because it is going to be hard on her and me to give the shots. They need to be sub q and no more than 10 ml in each site, so that means 5 sites each time.
What would you do? Give the antibiotics or wait and see ?
Thanks in advance.
Jean