Cough is a common symptom that indicates infectious, cold or bacterial diseases in animals. Cows of any age can get sick, but coughing often occurs in young calves under 5 months of age. Let's look at why a calf coughs, what needs to be treated, how to correctly diagnose diseases, and how to help the animal at home.
Main causes of cough
A cough most often signals a cold or respiratory tract infection. Humidity, cold in the barn, drafts, dusty, dirty bedding contribute to this.Causes of calf illness may be weakened immunity due to improper conditions and poor feeding. Deterioration of the protective function can cause stress due to weaning from the mother, transportation to another household, eating unusual foods, and insufficient physical activity.
What other accompanying symptoms may there be?
Coughing in cows is accompanied by discharge from the nose and eyes, and shortness of breath. The animal breathes heavily, and when the disease progresses, it wheezes. His temperature rises, the calf refuses to feed, lies down, and moves little.
Diagnosis of the problem
Just based on a symptom such 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, you will need help from a veterinarian. Before visiting, you need to isolate the bull or heifer from the herd.
The diagnosis is established on the basis of clinical symptoms and laboratory tests of blood tests, nasal discharge, as well as on the basis of pulmonary biopsy and x-ray data. You cannot treat calves or adult cows for cough on your own. Often this ends not in the recovery of the animal, but in even greater harm to it.
Treatment methods
Therapy and medications used will differ depending on the diagnosis, because cough can be caused by various diseases that are in no way related to each other.
Bronchitis
Bronchitis affects calves and cows that are forced to live in premises with poor hygiene standards, where it is cold and humid in winter, and there are sudden temperature changes. Animals drink cold water, breathe air in which ammonia is dissolved, and dust is present. Bronchitis in cows can be acute or chronic. The disease can be in the following forms: fibrous, catarrhal, purulent, hemorrhagic.
The cough of bronchitis in cattle is initially dry and prolonged, then becomes wet and muffled. May be accompanied by wheezing. With timely treatment, the disease can be eliminated in 1-1.5 weeks without complications or consequences.
Treatment of the disease begins with isolating the sick cow in a separate room. It should be warm, dry and ventilated, with a constant temperature. The animal should be fed fresh grass or non-dusty hay.
Medicines needed for treatment: expectorants and antimicrobial drugs for a course of approximately 5-7 days.
The medication is given with liquid food. In the chronic form of the disease, the calf is given medications that dilate the bronchi, and inhalations are made with eucalyptus oil and menthol. Folk remedies are also used: the calf’s chest is rubbed with turpentine, heated with a lamp, and decoctions of thyme, coltsfoot, and licorice are given.
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is a common cause of cough. At home, dairy calves usually get sick in late autumn and winter. As with bronchitis, the cause of pneumonia is cold, dampness, humidity, and drafts. In the warm season, pneumonia occurs against the background of a cold after overheating and subsequent hypothermia. The disease also develops if food is poor in retinol and calciferol.
In addition to coughing, inflammation can be determined by increased breathing, runny nose, nasal discharge, and increased temperature. The calf's condition is depressed, the animal lies down and eats little. Treatment consists of administering tetracycline and aminoglycoside antibiotics and vitamin supplements to maintain immunity. You can fight inflammation with novocaine blockade.To completely cure the disease, an integrated approach is required; therapy can take a long time.
Dictyocaulosis
The disease is parasitic in nature, the causative agent is nematodes that parasitize the bronchi and lungs of livestock. Parasites are transmitted from a sick animal to a healthy one by eating food or drinking water contaminated with secretions. Most cases of infection occur in the summer months.
Symptoms dictyocaulosis in cattle: cough, increased breathing, wheezing, nasal discharge, foam at the mouth, diarrhea. The calf is depressed, refuses to eat, and has an elevated temperature.
Diagnosis is made by analyzing stool and nasal discharge. Treatment: taking antibiotics of various classes, specially designed to eradicate the disease: Ivomeca, Fenbendazole, Nilverma. You can help the calf by injecting a warm mixture of crystalline iodine and potassium iodide in a ratio of 1 to 1.5. The mixture is diluted with distilled water at a ratio of 1500 to 1.
Folk remedies will not be able to help in this situation; there is no point in hoping that you can cure the calf on your own. If you suspect dictyocaulosis, you should contact a veterinarian as quickly as possible. After a course of medication, the calf should be kept in quarantine before being released into the herd.
Tuberculosis
Just like people, cows can get tuberculosis. The sources of pathogens are sick animals; the bacilli are transmitted to healthy individuals through contact with sick animals, and to calves through milk. Symptoms: cough, difficulty breathing, wheezing.
The diagnosis is made based on tuberculin test data. No therapy is carried out, drug treatment 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.
Preventive actions
Since the cause of diseases, the symptom of which is cough, is non-compliance with hygienic standards for keeping livestock, the blame for the incidence of cows lies with the owner. To prevent livestock from becoming infected and sick, you need to keep them in clean stalls and monitor the humidity and temperature of the room, especially in autumn, winter and early spring.
Animals need to be fed with feed whose nutrients could fully provide the livestock with the necessary components. Cows should always have clean, fresh water freely available. When calves are born, make sure they drink colostrum, which will help the animal activate its immune system. Babies should receive at least 7 liters of milk per day. Milk from sick queens after milking is not suitable for drinking; it can only be given after boiling. When kids grow up, vaccinate against common diseases.
If cows are kept in stalls, they should go for a walk every day, but it is better for the cattle to spend the day in 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 that must be detected in time. If the disease is detected in the initial stage and the animal is treated, recovery occurs in most cases.If the problem is ignored, the entire herd may become infected, and then the entire herd will have to be treated.
The danger can threaten not only cows and calves, but also people working in the barn. You can get tuberculosis from animals. 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 don’t have to worry about how your patients will need to be treated.
