What are the treatments for coughing in cattle?

Answer 1

Treat the disease, not the symptoms. As such, there are several things that may cause coughing in cattle, some less serious than others:

1. Pneumonia

2. Shipping Fever

3. Lungworms

4. Choking on a piece of hay or grain that went down the wrong pipe

5. Consuming dusty or moldy feed

For pneumonia/shipping fever (collectively called BRD or Bovine Respiratory Disease), coughing is mainly the initial signs of the onset of BRD. Typical symptoms of BRD include runny, snotty noses, laying down when they're not chewing cud, acting lethargic, standing away from the herd or nor engaging in the herd's activities. Flourofenicol drugs like Resflor, Nuflor, Draxxin, Excel RTU, Borgal, Micotil, or Excenel can be used to treat BRD in your cattle. Be sure to follow the right dosage on the box and instruction paper before use, as dosage depends on the type (young, mature, lactating or dry) and weight (in 100's of pounds) of your cattle. But before that, it's best to choose which drug you think will be more effective according to the type of cattle you have. For instance, if you have feeder/stocker calves you may have more than one bacterial species giving them pneumonia, so Nuflor, Resflor, Draxxin or Borgal might be more effective than, say, Micotil. But if you have lactating cows, you will have to choose a safer drug to use that doesn't affect milk production or milk quality (if being used and sold for human consumption) as much; Excel RTU might be your better choice than the other drugs. Also note the withdrawal periods of each drug if you are wanting to butcher your cattle or use your dairy cows for milk, as there's nothing worse than health concerns for antibiotic traces in meat or milk! Your local veterinarian will have information on what is best to use on which cattle.

Lungworms are a serious parasite to deal with, so treatment with drugs that deal with these parasites that are found and sold in your area by your vet is the best way to go. Some of these include Cylence, Ivomec, Ivermectin, etc.

If you have an animal that is coughing or choking on a piece of hay or grain, it will be okay. Just let it cough it out, but keep an eye on it just the same in case you may need to intervene and get the vet out to help the animal out.

Dusty feed is not healthy for any livestock. Sometimes dusty feed has mold in it which can cause pneumonia in your cattle if they breathe it in (which is a very high chance they will). Pouring molasses or simply not using it (which is probably not a good idea since you will have to buy some more feed somewhere else, but something you'll have to consider anyway if you're really concerned about your animals' health) is one of two things you can do to prevent any more coughing from dusty feeds.