Therapy In Practice

Abstract

In the early days of World War II a general of marines named Smedley Butler said to the President, “Give me a dollar and I will produce a dollar and ten cents worth of soldier.” Such is the kind of accountability that is the challenge of food animal practice and in no place do we cut it finer than in the prevention and treatment of the calf diarrhea complex.

By way of attempted prevention we can balance the ration of the cow. We can immunize against the clostridial entities that are part of the problem. We can insure that the calf gets a healthy dose of colostrum shortly after birth and we can provide some welfare precedures at times of difficult birth and inclement weather. But in spite of what we do, the results remain disappointing and frustrating. The best hope would seem to lie in long-time selection of breeding stock that have not even shown symptoms of the disease, as suggested by Mr. Lasater.

This presentation is directed towards therapy, particularly in advanced cases of calf diarrhea.