Diagnosis and therapy of retained fetal membranes, puerperal metritis and clinical endometritis in cattle: Results of the Online-survey among Swiss practitioners. I Retained fetal membranes

Abstract

The aim of this study was to obtain the diagnostic and therapeutic approach among Swiss practitioners in cows with retained fetal membranes (RFM) (part 1). All members of the Association for ruminant health were contacted per email via the newsletter. The survey was completed by 128 veterinarians, partially responded by 140 veterinarians. The manual removal of the fetal membranes is practiced by 129 of the responding veterinarians. Cows with/without fever are treated usually with intrauterine antibiotics. Cows with RFM with/without fever are most commonly treated parenterally with tetracycline or penicillin. The use of cephalosporins and quinolones in cows with fever is more common than in cows without fever. With the present results of the survey veterinarians should critically question the supposed benefits of the manual removal of the placenta and the use of antibiotics in cows with RFM.

Treatment protocols and management of retained fetal membranes in cattle by rural practitioners in Belgium

“…Although widely used in mares with RFM (Threlfall et al, 2007;Burden et al, 2019), there is no evidence of its efficacy in cows. As also demonstrated in another recent study (Hehenberger et al, 2015), tetracyclines are the most commonly used molecules for intrauterine AB treatment. This is logical, since chlortetracyclines are the only registered AB molecules on the market in Belgium for local treatment of RFM (Gustin, 2020).…”

“…Vaginal examination can be necessary to confirm the diagnosis, for instance when the fetal membranes are not externalized (Gilbert, 2018), but another important motive for vaginal exploration seems to be the manual removal of the placenta, which is done by a large majority of respondents. This practice of manual removal of the placenta does not seem to be a uniquely Belgian practice, since another recent study came to the same conclusion (Hehenberger et al, 2015). Manual placenta removal has proven to be ineffective to avoid systemic illness or improve reproductive performance (Drillich et al, 2006).…”

“…The current survey is useful to identify treatment habits of veterinarians, to assess whether these habits are in line with the scientific literature and legislation, and to identify areas for improvement. We are not the first to take an interest in this issue, since a similar survey was recently published in Switzerland (Hehenberger et al, 2015). However, since the type of breed, the available products and the national legislation differ between countries, these data cannot be extrapolated to the Belgian context.…”

“…The use of ampicillin seems justified because of its efficacy against Escherichia coli (Lehtolainen et al, 2003); accordingly, satisfactory clinical results have been observed when treating metritis with ampicillin (Lima et al, 2014). According to a recent Swiss survey, the most widely used molecule was tetracycline, followed by penicillin (Hehenberger et al, 2015).…”

Treatment practices after calving-related events on 45 dairy farms in California

“…Thus, based on the lack of consistent scientific evidence supporting antimicrobial use to treat cows at risk of metritis, Constable et al (2008) and LeBlanc (2008) proposed an approach to limit antimicrobial therapy to cows with clinical signs of puerperal metritis (i.e., fetid vaginal discharge or abnormal nonfetid vaginal discharge with fever or signs of systemic illness). However, our findings agree with results from other recent European studies (Hehenberger et al, 2015;Eppe et al, 2021), suggesting a lack of agreement on the combination of clinical signs that should lead to antimicrobial treatment decisions. Thus, the aforementioned guidelines have yet to be widely adopted by dairy producers and veterinarians.…”