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Mycoplasma Bovis

N

Nicky

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
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Location
N.E. Oregon
Have any of you dealt with it baby calves? We think that is what we have going on. We are doctoring 12 calves with swollen joints. They are getting lame at 10 days to 2 weeks old, not responding, have put one down and think we will have to put more down. Any advice is appreciated
 
Nicky said:
Have any of you dealt with it baby calves? We think that is what we have going on. We are doctoring 12 calves with swollen joints. They are getting lame at 10 days to 2 weeks old, not responding, have put one down and think we will have to put more down. Any advice is appreciated
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I've heard of it Nicky, some ranchers we know had a problem with that when they put their calves in a feedlot
about 4 years ago and lost a lot of calves from it. It's a bad one.

I did a search and found some information.
It looks like it can be treated with Draxxin and Resflor Gold are the are the only drugs approved for
treating it in cattle, but Nuflor and Batril can be used. The normal duration of the treatment is 10-14 days
by antibiotic therapy. Yikes! Does that mean they need treated every day for 10 to 14 days?

Then I found Protivity, the first modified live vaccine for Mycoplasma Bovis. I found information
at www.zoetis.com It the first modified live vaccine with USDA approval. The disease continues to be
a challenge in killed commercial vaccines. You can give it at one week of age.

I suggest calling your Zoetis rep because they have the vaccine.
Good luck! I hope this helps.
 
They say the vaccine is not very effective and can cause problems, also hard on the calves.
Mike is Washington State University with some of them. They will euthanize them and try to figure out what is going on. It may not be what is causing it but we sure need to figure out what is and how to treat it. We may have to put them all down :(
 
Nicky said:
They say the vaccine is not very effective and can cause problems, also hard on the calves.
Mike is Washington State University with some of them. They will euthanize them and try to figure out what is going on. It may not be what is causing it but we sure need to figure out what is and how to treat it. We may have to put them all down :(
Click to expand...
Hope this gets sorted out quickly.
 
Nicky said:
They say the vaccine is not very effective and can cause problems, also hard on the calves.
Mike is Washington State University with some of them. They will euthanize them and try to figure out what is going on. It may not be what is causing it but we sure need to figure out what is and how to treat it. We may have to put them all down :(
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Nicky, why would you have to put them all down? I can't imagine how you and Mike must feel.
We will pray that something is found out and you won't have to do drastic measures.
Do they know why it started or what started it?
 
Faster horses said:
Nicky, why would you have to put them all down? I can't imagine how you and Mike must feel.
We will pray that something is found out and you won't have to do drastic measures.
Do they know why it started or what started it?
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Because of the joint damage, they are all 3 legged. The youngest one he took, we saw her on tuesday and already they said she is probably bone on bone. Whatever is doing this seems to destroy the cartilage. If you want more reading google 'septic arthritis'. Any time something goes in the joints I guess it is almost impossible to treat.

It is heartbreaking. We appreciate the prayers.
 
Nicky said:
They say the vaccine is not very effective and can cause problems, also hard on the calves.
Mike is Washington State University with some of them. They will euthanize them and try to figure out what is going on. It may not be what is causing it but we sure need to figure out what is and how to treat it. We may have to put them all down :(
Click to expand...
Instead of taking someone's word about it, get some and try it on a couple calves instead of all of them.Maybe a couple that are really bad with it.What have you got to lose?
 
Nicky said:
Because of the joint damage, they are all 3 legged. The youngest one he took, we saw her on tuesday and already they said she is probably bone on bone. Whatever is doing this seems to destroy the cartilage. If you want more reading google 'septic arthritis'. Any time something goes in the joints I guess it is almost impossible to treat.

It is heartbreaking. We appreciate the prayers.
Click to expand...
Before we were on a mineral program, we experienced a lot of navel ill. I hate that disease. It causes
calves to be crippled. We treated it but we were just guessing.
Our mineral company veterinarian explained that the bacteria goes to the joints because the circulation is poor there and the bacteria is safe. You MUST doctor navel ill with 10 cc of penicillin for 5 days then
5 cc for 5 days. (that was years ago, I think Nuflor works now, but we didn't have that drug then).
That is the only way we saved them. It worked 100%. It's so discouraging to watch a calf
try to walk when his joints are swelled or even when they are hurting. I don't know if this procedure would
help or not, Nicky, but probably not since cartilage is involved with what you are dealing with.
I'll talk to our company vet (not the same one that explained joint ill in the first place, he
has retired) and see what he has to say. I am so sorry you are going through this.
 
My first thought was naval ill. Which basically can entail a lot of different types of bacteria/germs that can get into the body via the naval or a break in the skin. Have been very lucky not to have had problems with calves.

Lambs, yes. In a large herd there were a lot of problems with it some years. The vet at that time did a mix of LA-Tylan-Prednizone that if given at first signs of lameness was very effective. If a lamb even stepped wrong it got a shot. They amputated a few front legs, the leg healed fine, the lamb grew well, but as they got heavier the weight was to much for one front leg. Lambs become even more vulnerable at tail docking.

I do hope they do find a solution. It is difficult to say the least to have problems like this emerge.
 
Faster horses said:
Before we were on a mineral program, we experienced a lot of navel ill. I hate that disease. It causes
calves to be crippled. We treated it but we were just guessing.
Our mineral company veterinarian explained that the bacteria goes to the joints because the circulation is poor there and the bacteria is safe. You MUST doctor navel ill with 10 cc of penicillin for 5 days then
5 cc for 5 days. (that was years ago, I think Nuflor works now, but we didn't have that drug then).
That is the only way we saved them. It worked 100%. It's so discouraging to watch a calf
try to walk when his joints are swelled or even when they are hurting. I don't know if this procedure would
help or not, Nicky, but probably not since cartilage is involved with what you are dealing with.
I'll talk to our company vet (not the same one that explained joint ill in the first place, he
has retired) and see what he has to say. I am so sorry you are going through this.
Click to expand...
They have had alot of Nuflor and Pen.
 
Puzzled said:
My first thought was naval ill. Which basically can entail a lot of different types of bacteria/germs that can get into the body via the naval or a break in the skin. Have been very lucky not to have had problems with calves.

Lambs, yes. In a large herd there were a lot of problems with it some years. The vet at that time did a mix of LA-Tylan-Prednizone that if given at first signs of lameness was very effective. If a lamb even stepped wrong it got a shot. They amputated a few front legs, the leg healed fine, the lamb grew well, but as they got heavier the weight was to much for one front leg. Lambs become even more vulnerable at tail docking.

I do hope they do find a solution. It is difficult to say the least to have problems like this emerge.
Click to expand...
Amputation...yikes. All we know from WSU so far is that the navels were fine.
 
The amputation was extreme, more experimental on a few lambs that wound up with severe joint infection.
Even after docking a tail, one lamb looked really healthy, but couldn't stand, the tail showed no infection, no joints
were swollen. The vet said the infection had settled in the spine.

Seems like a lot of unknowns and that makes it so difficult to isolate where the problem is coming from.


This looks a bit extreme, but it should take you to an article you may not have seen.
 
Puzzled said:
The amputation was extreme, more experimental on a few lambs that wound up with severe joint infection.
Even after docking a tail, one lamb looked really healthy, but couldn't stand, the tail showed no infection, no joints
were swollen. The vet said the infection had settled in the spine.

Seems like a lot of unknowns and that makes it so difficult to isolate where the problem is coming from.


This looks a bit extreme, but it should take you to an article you may not have seen.
Click to expand...
I have seen this one. Thank you for looking up that old thread , it led me back to Wyoming Rancher who doesn't post here anymore but is a good friend of mine. She has had it in her herd so is a wealth of information
.
 
WSU confirmed it is Mycoplasma, no navel infection, no respiratory signs.
We put 8 down yesterday which just about killed us.
None of the vets, including ones at Zoetis recommend the vaccine while we are in an outbreak.
We are trying a different treatment protocol suggested by a dairy vet, so we'll see if we have any luck
Oh, and we are giving anything we can catch a shot of Draxxin.
 
Nicky said:
WSU confirmed it is Mycoplasma, no navel infection, no respiratory signs.
We put 8 down yesterday which just about killed us.
None of the vets, including ones at Zoetis recommend the vaccine while we are in an outbreak.
We are trying a different treatment protocol suggested by a dairy vet, so we'll see if we have any luck
Oh, and we are giving anything we can catch a shot of Draxxin.
Click to expand...
Any idea how your herd contacted this disease? Heart breaking and again shows how ranching has no warranties. Do you have to destroy the ones you put down?
 

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