Holstein cows (n = 51) that had been diagnosed with toxic puerperal metritis were used to determine the treatment efficacy of various antibiotics. On the day of diagnosis, cows affected with toxic puerperal metritis were assigned randomly to three treatment groups. Cows in groups 1 and 2 received 22,000 IU/kg of procaine penicillin G i.m. for 5 d. In addition, cows in group 2 received an intrauterine infusion of 6 g of oxytetracycline on d 1, 3, and 5. Cows in group 3 received 2.2 mg/kg of ceftiofur sodium i.m. for 5 d. Dependent variables used to determine antibiotic efficacy included milk yield on d 1 through 12, rectal temperature on d 1 through 5, and serum haptoglobin concentration on d 1, 3, and 5. No difference was observed among groups for milk yield on d 1 and 12 or for temperature on d 1 and 5. Serum haptoglobin was elevated to > 10 mg/dl for cows in all groups; however, no difference was observed among groups on d 1 and 5. Because all groups showed a favorable response, this study suggests that there is no difference in treatment efficacy among antibiotics used to treat cows affected with toxic puerperal metritis.

The serum concentration of haptoglobin was measured in 51 cows with toxic puerperal metritis which were being treated with one of three different antimicrobial regimens. The mean concentration of haptoglobin was 19.0 mg/dl on the day that the treatments began and declined steadily during the five day treatment period to a mean concentration of 7.35 mg/dl. There was no correlation between the serum haptoglobin concentrations and the rectal temperatures of the cows during the five days.

Meloxicam administered PO at 1.0 mg/kg has good bioavailability with slow elimination kinetics in sheep. These data suggested that meloxicam may be clinically useful, provided the safety and analgesic efficacy of meloxicam as well as feed-related influences on its pharmacokinetics are established in ruminants.

No abstract