Investigation of the plasma digitoxin concentration in cattle at different dosages

Abstract

The stated dosages of digitoxin for treatment of myocardial insufficiency of cattle, as published in the available literature, are few and vary widely from one another. Some of these date back to very old sources (the uncovering of which would require an intensive study of veterinary history), and the others appear to be derived from dosage recommendations for other domestic animals and then have been cautiously set at much lower levels. As it has now become possible to measure even very low glycoside concentrations in plasma with radioimmunoassay, it seemed desirable to evaluate the previous empirical digitoxin dosage by measuring the plasma levels.