Calf coughs: how to treat at home, drugs and folk remedies

Cough is a common symptom that indicates infectious, cold or bacterial diseases in animals. Cows of any age can get sick, but coughing is common in young calves under 5 months of age. Consider why a calf is coughing, how to treat it, how to correctly diagnose diseases, how to help an animal at home.

Main causes of cough

Coughing most often signals a cold or a respiratory infection. Contribute to this humidity, cold in the barn, drafts, dusty, dirty bedding.Causes of illness in a calf can be weakened immunity due to improper conditions and poor feeding. Deterioration of protective function can cause stress due to weaning, transportation to another household, eating unfamiliar foods, insufficient amount of physical activity.

What other accompanying symptoms can be

Cough in cows is accompanied by discharge from the nose and eyes, shortness of breath. The animal breathes heavily, with a strong development of the disease - wheezing. His temperature rises, the calf refuses to feed, lies down, moves little.

Diagnosing the problem

On the basis of such a symptom as a cough, it is impossible to determine what caused it. If the cough does not go away on its own, and the situation worsens, the help of a veterinarian will be required. Before visiting him, you need to isolate the bull or heifer from the herd.

Diagnosis is established on the basis of clinical symptoms and laboratory tests of blood tests, nasal discharge, as well as on the basis of lung biopsy and x-ray data.It is impossible to treat calves or adult cows for coughing on their own. Often this ends not in the recovery of the animal, but in even greater harm to it.

Treatment methods

Therapy, drugs used will differ depending on the diagnosis, because cough can be caused by various diseases that are in no way related.

Bronchitis

Cows and calves get sick with bronchitis, which are forced to live in rooms with poor hygiene standards, where it is cold and humid in winter, there are sharp temperature changes. Animals drink cold water, breathe air in which ammonia is dissolved, dust is present. Bronchitis in cows can be acute or chronic. The disease can be in the following forms: fibrous, catarrhal, purulent, hemorrhagic.

Cough with bronchitis in cattle is first dry, prolonged, then becomes wet and deaf. May be accompanied by wheezing. With timely treatment, the disease can be eliminated in 1-1.5 weeks without complications and consequences.

Therapy of the disease begins with the isolation of a sick cow in a separate room. It should be warm, dry and ventilated, with a constant temperature. You need to feed the animal with fresh grass or not dusty hay.

Medications that are needed for treatment: expectorants and antimicrobials, a course of about 5-7 days.

Means are given with liquid food. In the chronic form of the disease, the calf is given drugs that expand the bronchi, inhalations are made with eucalyptus oil, menthol. Folk remedies are also connected: the calf is rubbed with turpentine, warmed up with a lamp, given decoctions of thyme, coltsfoot, licorice.

Inflammation of the lungs

Pneumonia is a common cause of coughing.At home, dairy calves usually get sick in late autumn and winter. As with bronchitis, the cause of pneumonia is cold, dampness, humidity, drafts. In the warm season, pneumonia occurs against the background of a cold after overheating and subsequent hypothermia. Also, the disease develops if the feed is poor in retinol and calciferol.

In addition to coughing, inflammation can be determined by increased breathing, runny nose, runny nose, increased temperature. The state of the calf is depressed, the animal lies, eats little. Treatment consists in giving antibiotics of the tetracycline series and from the group of aminoglycosides, vitamin preparations to maintain immunity. You can fight inflammation with novocaine blockade. A comprehensive approach is required to completely cure the disease, therapy can take a long time.

Dictyocaulosis

A disease of a parasitic nature, the causative agent is nematodes parasitizing in the bronchi and lungs of livestock. Parasites are transmitted from a sick animal to a he althy one by eating food or drinking water contaminated with secretions. Most infections occur during the summer months.

Symptoms of dictyocaulosis in cattle: cough, shortness of breath, wheezing, nasal discharge, foaming at the mouth, diarrhea. The calf is depressed, refuses to eat, and has a fever.

Diagnosed by analysis of feces and nasal discharge. Treatment: taking antibiotics of various classes, specially designed to eradicate the disease: Ivomeca, Fenbendazole, Nilverma. You can help the calf if you inject a warm mixture of crystalline iodine and potassium iodide in a ratio of 1 to 1.5. The mixture is diluted with distilled water as 1500 to 1.

Folk remedies will not be able to help in this situation, it is not worth hoping that you can cure the calf on your own. If you suspect dictyocaulosis, you should contact your veterinarian as soon as possible. After a course of medication, the calf should be kept in quarantine before being released into the herd.

Tuberculosis

Like people, cows can get TB. Sources of pathogens are sick animals, sticks are transmitted to he althy individuals through contact with sick ones, and to calves through milk. Symptoms: cough, difficulty breathing, wheezing.

Diagnosis is based on tuberculin test data. Therapy is not carried out, treatment with drugs is considered ineffective, sick animals are subject to culling. The premises where sick individuals lived are cleaned and disinfected. New cattle are first kept in quarantine, then transferred to the general herd. Prevention of tuberculosis - vaccination of young calves.

Prevention measures

Since the cause of diseases, the symptom of which is cough, is non-observance of hygienic standards for livestock, the fault for the incidence of cows lies with the owner. To prevent cattle from becoming infected and sick, you need to keep them in clean stalls, monitor the humidity and temperature of the room, especially in autumn, winter and early spring.

Animals need to be fed with feed, the nutrients of which could fully provide livestock with the necessary components. Cows should always have clean fresh water freely available. When calves are born, you need to make sure that they drink colostrum, which will help the animals activate the immune system. Babies should receive at least 7 liters of milk per day. Milk from sick queens after milking is unsuitable for drinking, it can be given only after boiling. When the kids grow up, vaccinate against common diseases.

It is important that cattle stand on fresh bedding, which must be changed every day. Once a month, carry out disinfection, completely disinfect the calf house with lime - 2 times a year. Wash drinkers and feeders, make sure that there are no uneaten food leftovers, disinfect inventory with boiling water.

If the cows are kept in stalls, they should go for a walk every day, but it is better that the cattle spend the day on the pasture. This has a beneficial effect not only on the physical, but also on the mental state of animals.

Cough is a symptom of diseases of the respiratory system, which must be detected in time. If you identify the disease in the initial stage and treat the animal, recovery occurs in most cases. If the problem is ignored, the whole herd can become infected, and then the whole livestock will have to be treated.

Danger can threaten not only cows and calves, but also people working in the barn. Animals can transmit tuberculosis. Preventive measures help to avoid diseases, reduce spending on drugs and time for treatment. Animals with strong immunity rarely get sick. If precautions are taken, you can not worry about how you will need to treat your charges.

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