9 month old steer treated for pneumonia still not back to health

[devonian]

I got the vet out for a steer that I suspected had pneumonia just before NY he was pretty sick runny nose coughing and also a watery stool. Antibiotics were given, steroids and metacam and the stool was tested for coccidia and came back clear. The steer recovered and ate some but seemed to go off his food again so I gave it another different antibiotic I had on advice from the vet a few days ago plus more metacam again improvement but now again I'm not so sure he is back to good health. Any ideas what else I can do? Is it just a case of monitor and recovery now?

 

[TCRanch]

He may be a "lunger" with permanent scarring/lung damage. Did you give probiotics, like Pro Bios? A lot of antibiotics can mess with their gut health and hinder recovery.

 

[devonian]

He may be a "lunger" with permanent scarring/lung damage. Did you give probiotics, like Pro Bios? A lot of antibiotics can mess with their gut health and hinder recovery.

I haven't but I do have some I can give, I assume its ok to give probiotics now and won't interfer with the antibiotics.

 

[TCRanch]

I haven't but I do have some I can give, I assume its ok to give probiotics now and won't interfer with the antibiotics.

If they're getting multiple doses of antibiotics, I make sure to also give probiotics.

 

[WFfarm]

Check his temperature, it may tell if he's elapsed with the pneumonia.

 

[tex452]

He may be a "lunger" with permanent scarring/lung damage. Did you give probiotics, like Pro Bios? A lot of antibiotics can mess with their gut health and hinder recovery.

We call these chronics.

 

[ClinchValley86]

If he got hit pretty hard by the initial round of pneumonia, he may have a chronic problem. He won't grow much and will be like this for the rest of his life...which is definitely shortened.

The one I had that developed a chronic issue died at about 14 months old. He was sluggish the last 9 months or so. The last week he went downhill fast. He weight all of about 550 pounds.

Next time I'm getting rid of the animal asap.

 

[MurraysMutts]

I had one we treated didn't make it to weaning. And he was a good stout calf up until he got pneumonia. Really sucked heinie ho

 

[devonian]

Check his temperature, it may tell if he's elapsed with the pneumonia.

This is what I did initially hence a re-administer of antibiotics. And I have since then given probiotics even though the bottle said for calves up to 12 weeks I gave it anyway. (probiotics seem to be getter harder and harder to get hold of in the UK I used to be able to buy in my local agriculatural store but not now). I have since checked his temp and it is ok, indeed he seems to be to the naked eye completely back to normal now which is good seeing as he was pretty sick. I am now checking each animal more thoroughly every day. Thanks for the help.