This is by no means a complete list. I'm going to start by listing the drug, labeled uses, and dosage. Note that the information I'm putting down is for withdrawals, etc, in the U.S. If you live in another country they may have different rules.
What are antibiotics? On a very basic level, they are substances secreted naturally by bacteria to kill or halt the growth of other bacteria. Over the years since penicillin was discovered in the early 1900s, pharmaceutical companies have found ways to synthesize some of these compounds or use other bacteria to produce the same antibiotics more efficiently.
What are they effective against? Antibiotics can be used to slow or halt disease caused by susceptible bacteria.
What are they not effective against? Antibiotics will not affect viruses (e.g. BVD), fungi (e.g. yeast), protozoa (e.g. coccidiosis), or resistant bacteria.
What are resistant bacteria? They may actually have genes that make them resistant to penetration by an antibiotic, or they may be structurally resistant. Certain antibiotics are only effective against certain types of bacteria - you can't just pick an antibiotic off the shelf and expect it to treat all diseases. Why not? For instance, some bacteria do not have a cell wall - so if the animal is treated with an antibiotic that targets the cell wall, it's not going to work. For those of you with microbiology training, remember terms like gram positive, gram negative? remember mycoplasma?
Will antibiotics successfully treat all animals with susceptible infections? No. A certain percentage of animals will not respond regardless of treatment.
Are antibiotics always necessary? No. A certain percentage of animals will recover regardless of what you do or do not do for them.
A certain percentage... wait, what? Yes - some animals will recover and some animals will die, and it doesn't matter what you do or do not do for them. When we treat with antibiotics, we are trying to change that percentage that we can actually affect; the animals whose outcome will be different when aided by antibiotics. How many recover vs die vs can be changed depends on the disease and the antibiotic.
Case fatality rate is the percent of animals that die out of the initial number treated. Typically this is around 5-15% depending on the disease. It may depend on the owner, how quickly the problem is recognized and treated, what treatment options are available, etc. For instance, just watching the forum you'll see threads where a poster has multiple calves with scours and s/he loses all of them - and then another poster never loses a calf. So CFRs do vary depending on person but across the nation most diseases run around 5-15%.
So you treat an animal with antibiotics and it doesn't get better. Why not? There's a couple basic reasons:
Routes of administration? There are three standard routes of administration we use in cattle - intramuscular, subcutaneous, and intravenous. Oral is not typically used in adult cattle due to inactivation of drugs in the rumen.
What is a withdrawal time? This is the time between antibiotic administration and when the animal can be slaughtered commercially or milk used for commercial human consumption. This is the point where the antibiotic in filtering organs (kidneys, liver, etc) is below a certain parts per million or parts per billion.
How are antibiotics eliminated? The usual routes are kidneys and/or liver, and sometimes milk and lungs are also routes of excretion. Antibiotics that are primarily (or only) eliminated through kidneys and not through milk generally have short or absent milk withdrawal times - for instance, Excenel.
Antibiotics
Drug: Oxytetracycline (standard cx 200mg/mL)
Brand name: Maxim200, Biomycin, LA200, Agrimycin, Tetradure (300mg/mL), etc.
Labeled uses: pneumonia, footrot
Dosage: 4.5mL/100lbs
Withdrawals: meat – 30 days, milk – 96 hours
Warnings: rapid IV administration can cause cardiac arrest
OTC (except Tetradure is Rx)
Drug: Penicillin
Brand name: Twin-Penn (long lasting formation), Pennicillin G (short acting)
Labeled uses: pneumonia, blackleg, various clostridial bacterial infections
Dosage: 1mL/100lbs or 2mL/150lbs depending on formation – note it is ineffective at these dosages. Most vets use it at ~5mL/100lbs.
Withdrawals: meat – 30 days @ labeled dosage
Warnings: do not give IV
OTC (except in CA)
Drug: Enrofloxacin
Brand name: Baytril
Labeled uses: pneumonia
Dosage: large variation based on multi or single day therapy; see label
Withdrawals: meat - 28 days
Warnings: not for use in dairy heifers >20 months of age
Prescription only
Drug: Tulathromycin
Brand name: Draxxin
Labeled uses: BRD
Dosage: 1.1mL/100lbs
Withdrawals: meat - 18 days
Warnings: not for use in dairy heifers >20 months of age
Prescription only
Drug: ceftiofur
Brand name: Excenel RTU, Naxcel, Excede (all different formations)
Labeled uses: footrot, BRD, uterine infections
Dosage: see label
Withdrawals: milk- none, meat- 0-13 days depending on formation
Warnings: none
Prescription only
Drug: Gentamicin/gentamycin
Brand name: Legacy, Gentaved
Labeled uses: uterine infections in equines
Dosage: none
Withdrawals: 24 months or more
Warnings: Due to the no-tolerance at slaughter and minimum slaughter withdrawal of 18 months it is strongly NOT recommended. Gentamicin can cause kidney failure in treated animals, especially dehydrated animals.
Prescription only
Drug: Tilmicosin
Brand name: Micotil
Labeled uses: BRD
Dosage: 1.5mL/100lbs
Withdrawals: meat- 28 days
Warnings: fatal to humans – use caution when administering
Prescription drug only
Drug: Florfenicol
Brand name: Nuflor
Labeled uses: pneumonia, footrot
Dosage: 3mL/100lbs IM every 48 hours, or one-time dose of 6mL/100lbs SC
Withdrawals: meat – 28 days IM, 38 days SC
Warnings: none
Prescription only
Anti-inflammatories/pain relievers
Drug: flunixin meglumine (non steroidal anti-inflammatory)
Brand name: Banamine, Flu-Nix, Flunixin
Labeled uses: pain relief, decreases inflammation due to injury
Dosage: 1-2mL/100lbs, IV
Withdrawals: meat – 4 days, milk – 72 hours
Warnings: none; safe for any age of cattle and any stage of pregnancy
Prescription only
Drug: dexamethasone (corticosteroid, steroidal anti-inflammatory)
Brand name: Dexamethasone
Labeled uses: reduced inflammation due to injury, infection, ketosis therapy (raises blood sugar levels)
Dosage: standard concentration 2mg/mL, dose 5-10mL
Withdrawals: none
Warnings: not for use in pregnant animals (can cause abortion), also can cause immune system suppression
Prescription only
Drug: isoflupredone (corticosteroid, steroidal anti-inflammatory)
Brand name: Predef 2X
Labled uses: reduced inflammation due to injury, infection, ketosis therapy (raises blood sugar levels), same properties as dexamethasone but lower amounts of cortiocosteriod
Dosage: 5-10mL
Withdrawals: meat – 7 days
Prescription only
Drug: furosomide
Brand name: Salix/Lasix
Labeled uses: treatment of edema, is a diuretic not an anti-inflammatory but is used on fresh cows for the same reasons as dexamethasone or predef
Dosage: 10mL 1x/day or 5mL 2x/day
Withdrawals: milk - 48 hours, meat - 48 hours
Warnings: overuse can put an animal into an electrolyte imbalance and/or dehydration; use with care
Prescription only
Hormones
Drug: oxytocin
Brand name: Oxytocin
Labeled uses: milk letdown and uterine contractions
Dosage: usually 1-5mL for milk letdown, 10mL for uterine contractions. Note it only works on the uterus in the presence of estrogen, and is ineffective after approx. 48 hours post partum.
Withdrawals: none
Warnings: none
Prescription only
Drug: prostaglandin
Brand name: Lutalyse, Estrumate
Labeled uses: regression of CL and smooth muscle contraction
Dosage: Lutalyse- 5mL
Withdrawals: none
Warnings: women and people with asthma use caution when handling these drugs
Prescription only
**NOTE** This is not meant to endorse any particular medication or imply any type of medical advice. Please use these medications in conjunction with recommendations from a licensed veterinarian.
What are antibiotics? On a very basic level, they are substances secreted naturally by bacteria to kill or halt the growth of other bacteria. Over the years since penicillin was discovered in the early 1900s, pharmaceutical companies have found ways to synthesize some of these compounds or use other bacteria to produce the same antibiotics more efficiently.
What are they effective against? Antibiotics can be used to slow or halt disease caused by susceptible bacteria.
What are they not effective against? Antibiotics will not affect viruses (e.g. BVD), fungi (e.g. yeast), protozoa (e.g. coccidiosis), or resistant bacteria.
What are resistant bacteria? They may actually have genes that make them resistant to penetration by an antibiotic, or they may be structurally resistant. Certain antibiotics are only effective against certain types of bacteria - you can't just pick an antibiotic off the shelf and expect it to treat all diseases. Why not? For instance, some bacteria do not have a cell wall - so if the animal is treated with an antibiotic that targets the cell wall, it's not going to work. For those of you with microbiology training, remember terms like gram positive, gram negative? remember mycoplasma?
Will antibiotics successfully treat all animals with susceptible infections? No. A certain percentage of animals will not respond regardless of treatment.
Are antibiotics always necessary? No. A certain percentage of animals will recover regardless of what you do or do not do for them.
A certain percentage... wait, what? Yes - some animals will recover and some animals will die, and it doesn't matter what you do or do not do for them. When we treat with antibiotics, we are trying to change that percentage that we can actually affect; the animals whose outcome will be different when aided by antibiotics. How many recover vs die vs can be changed depends on the disease and the antibiotic.
Case fatality rate is the percent of animals that die out of the initial number treated. Typically this is around 5-15% depending on the disease. It may depend on the owner, how quickly the problem is recognized and treated, what treatment options are available, etc. For instance, just watching the forum you'll see threads where a poster has multiple calves with scours and s/he loses all of them - and then another poster never loses a calf. So CFRs do vary depending on person but across the nation most diseases run around 5-15%.
So you treat an animal with antibiotics and it doesn't get better. Why not? There's a couple basic reasons:
- 1) You're using the wrong antibiotic for the problem (or attempting to treat a viral/fungal/protozoal disease with antibiotics).
2) You're using the wrong dosage - read the label, figure out what the animal weighs, and treat accordingly (for everything except penicillin, which is dosed around 5-10 mL/100 lbs).
3) You didn't treat long enough - the animal either needs enough days of treatment or an antibiotic with a long enough duration.
4) You're treating a disease that's difficult to cure (e.g. joint infections, staph aureus mastitis).
5) The bacteria has genes that make it resistant to the antibiotic you're using (although this happens far less frequently than anti-antibiotic groups tend to think - I'd rule out 1-4 first before considering this one).
Routes of administration? There are three standard routes of administration we use in cattle - intramuscular, subcutaneous, and intravenous. Oral is not typically used in adult cattle due to inactivation of drugs in the rumen.
What is a withdrawal time? This is the time between antibiotic administration and when the animal can be slaughtered commercially or milk used for commercial human consumption. This is the point where the antibiotic in filtering organs (kidneys, liver, etc) is below a certain parts per million or parts per billion.
How are antibiotics eliminated? The usual routes are kidneys and/or liver, and sometimes milk and lungs are also routes of excretion. Antibiotics that are primarily (or only) eliminated through kidneys and not through milk generally have short or absent milk withdrawal times - for instance, Excenel.
Antibiotics
Drug: Oxytetracycline (standard cx 200mg/mL)
Brand name: Maxim200, Biomycin, LA200, Agrimycin, Tetradure (300mg/mL), etc.
Labeled uses: pneumonia, footrot
Dosage: 4.5mL/100lbs
Withdrawals: meat – 30 days, milk – 96 hours
Warnings: rapid IV administration can cause cardiac arrest
OTC (except Tetradure is Rx)
Drug: Penicillin
Brand name: Twin-Penn (long lasting formation), Pennicillin G (short acting)
Labeled uses: pneumonia, blackleg, various clostridial bacterial infections
Dosage: 1mL/100lbs or 2mL/150lbs depending on formation – note it is ineffective at these dosages. Most vets use it at ~5mL/100lbs.
Withdrawals: meat – 30 days @ labeled dosage
Warnings: do not give IV
OTC (except in CA)
Drug: Enrofloxacin
Brand name: Baytril
Labeled uses: pneumonia
Dosage: large variation based on multi or single day therapy; see label
Withdrawals: meat - 28 days
Warnings: not for use in dairy heifers >20 months of age
Prescription only
Drug: Tulathromycin
Brand name: Draxxin
Labeled uses: BRD
Dosage: 1.1mL/100lbs
Withdrawals: meat - 18 days
Warnings: not for use in dairy heifers >20 months of age
Prescription only
Drug: ceftiofur
Brand name: Excenel RTU, Naxcel, Excede (all different formations)
Labeled uses: footrot, BRD, uterine infections
Dosage: see label
Withdrawals: milk- none, meat- 0-13 days depending on formation
Warnings: none
Prescription only
Drug: Gentamicin/gentamycin
Brand name: Legacy, Gentaved
Labeled uses: uterine infections in equines
Dosage: none
Withdrawals: 24 months or more
Warnings: Due to the no-tolerance at slaughter and minimum slaughter withdrawal of 18 months it is strongly NOT recommended. Gentamicin can cause kidney failure in treated animals, especially dehydrated animals.
Prescription only
Drug: Tilmicosin
Brand name: Micotil
Labeled uses: BRD
Dosage: 1.5mL/100lbs
Withdrawals: meat- 28 days
Warnings: fatal to humans – use caution when administering
Prescription drug only
Drug: Florfenicol
Brand name: Nuflor
Labeled uses: pneumonia, footrot
Dosage: 3mL/100lbs IM every 48 hours, or one-time dose of 6mL/100lbs SC
Withdrawals: meat – 28 days IM, 38 days SC
Warnings: none
Prescription only
Anti-inflammatories/pain relievers
Drug: flunixin meglumine (non steroidal anti-inflammatory)
Brand name: Banamine, Flu-Nix, Flunixin
Labeled uses: pain relief, decreases inflammation due to injury
Dosage: 1-2mL/100lbs, IV
Withdrawals: meat – 4 days, milk – 72 hours
Warnings: none; safe for any age of cattle and any stage of pregnancy
Prescription only
Drug: dexamethasone (corticosteroid, steroidal anti-inflammatory)
Brand name: Dexamethasone
Labeled uses: reduced inflammation due to injury, infection, ketosis therapy (raises blood sugar levels)
Dosage: standard concentration 2mg/mL, dose 5-10mL
Withdrawals: none
Warnings: not for use in pregnant animals (can cause abortion), also can cause immune system suppression
Prescription only
Drug: isoflupredone (corticosteroid, steroidal anti-inflammatory)
Brand name: Predef 2X
Labled uses: reduced inflammation due to injury, infection, ketosis therapy (raises blood sugar levels), same properties as dexamethasone but lower amounts of cortiocosteriod
Dosage: 5-10mL
Withdrawals: meat – 7 days
Prescription only
Drug: furosomide
Brand name: Salix/Lasix
Labeled uses: treatment of edema, is a diuretic not an anti-inflammatory but is used on fresh cows for the same reasons as dexamethasone or predef
Dosage: 10mL 1x/day or 5mL 2x/day
Withdrawals: milk - 48 hours, meat - 48 hours
Warnings: overuse can put an animal into an electrolyte imbalance and/or dehydration; use with care
Prescription only
Hormones
Drug: oxytocin
Brand name: Oxytocin
Labeled uses: milk letdown and uterine contractions
Dosage: usually 1-5mL for milk letdown, 10mL for uterine contractions. Note it only works on the uterus in the presence of estrogen, and is ineffective after approx. 48 hours post partum.
Withdrawals: none
Warnings: none
Prescription only
Drug: prostaglandin
Brand name: Lutalyse, Estrumate
Labeled uses: regression of CL and smooth muscle contraction
Dosage: Lutalyse- 5mL
Withdrawals: none
Warnings: women and people with asthma use caution when handling these drugs
Prescription only
**NOTE** This is not meant to endorse any particular medication or imply any type of medical advice. Please use these medications in conjunction with recommendations from a licensed veterinarian.
