Rough night

As my hubby (Mark) always says, when you raise cattle expect the unexpected! Last night after the vet said to give my heifer 20cc of penicillin for her skin condition, we did. we then went to bed the cows down & brought back a large bale of straw for the heifers. When I walked in the barn my heifer was in obvious distress. She was breathing ( panting ) very hard & foaming at the mouth. She proceded to stagger & collapsed. She was completely soaked in sweat. Needless to say I was panic stricken. We called the vet & he said to give her Banimine. I was cradling her head on my lap as our nephew gave her the shots. It relieved some of the discomfort but she was still unable to walk without staggering. :'( She was also still breathing very heavy. We called the vet back & he came.
He gave her a shot of Epinephrine, because she was having an allergic reaction to the penicillin. She seemed better after that. When I asked what to give her give her instead of PCN for the skin bacteria, he recommend Exceed. He said it was a longer lasting antibiotic. He gave in the fleshy part behind her ears.
As of this morning she is OK, just acting wrung out. I guess I learned that after giving a shot you need to observe them for a while in case of a reaction. I'm just thankful we have a vet that will make emergency calls in the night.
Question for DL- will the Exceed still be effective even after the Epinephrine? ???
It was a rough night to say the least!
Red

Hey Red - you have had a rotten time! The epinephrine counteracts the allergic reaction doesn't do anything re the ability of the antibiotic to fight the infection - so that should not be an issue. Just as a word of caution (and not to ruin your day) PNC and the cephalosporins ( Exceed, Excenel, Naxcel are bovine approved cephalosporins, Keflex, Keflin etc human approved) are chemically related to PNC and there is a 5-10% cross allergic reaction to cephalosporins in people allergic to penicillin. Put another way up to 10 % of peoplel allergic to PNC are also allergic to cephalosporins. I don't think anyone has looked at cattle in this way, but you might want to keep an eye out! ALso probably not a bad idea to have epi on hand for all cattle farmers.......Good luck, DL

Thanks DL! as fast as the PCN reacted to her, I think she is fine w/ the Exceed. We usually do have the epinephrine on hand but as usual out of it.
Learned an important lesson though!
Question- can cattle wear medical alert braclets like humans?  ??? I have one for PCN allergy amoung other issues. Sure need to make sure whoever buys her knows about it!!!

Red

Red I am glad it worked out good for you.  I have seen what you described a couple of times myself and it is a scary deal.  I keep two bottles of epi all the time due to one losed before.  I have save two others.  The one I lost was from a shot of Tetnus antitoxin.  I had nothing to give after castrating and dehorning a calf.  I cried...  GOOD LUDK.

red said:

Thanks DL! as fast as the PCN reacted to her, I think she is fine w/ the Exceed. We usually do have the epinephrine on hand but as usual out of it.
Learned an important lesson though!
Question- can cattle wear medical alert braclets like humans?  ??? I have one for PCN allergy amoung other issues. Sure need to make sure whoever buys her knows about it!!!

Red

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Red,
What you wittnessed was an anta phalatic reaction to the PCN. I would in this heifers case keep PCN on hand for future reference. THAT IS SCAREY! It is crazy when it happens in humans, and even crazy if you ever have it happen to yourself. Poor heifer. She has had it tough going. :-\
DL
I am assuming Bantamine is similar to Benadryl as far as counter acting the allergen. IE H2 Blocker?
Too bad they don't make Pepcid for cows you could have given her a healthy dose of pepcid with benadryl and it would have subsided.