# How to get down fever in a calf



## heatherlynnky (Nov 25, 2012)

She has pneumonia and a temp of 105.8.  She just got another dose of antibiotics. Any help at all would be appreciated


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## Lothiriel (Nov 25, 2012)

In March of this year our 2 month old JerseyXHolstein got a mild case of pneumonia. She had a temp of 104, was coughing a little and had thick white nasal discharge. When we found her like that it was too late in the evening to call the vet so we ended up drenching her with garlic water and stayed up all night feeding garlic cloves at intervals. Somewhere I had read that garlic reduces fevers so there was nothing to lose by trying, and we had to do something for the poor thing. The garlic reduced her fever to almost normal temps by the next day. We also rubbed Vick's Chest Rub on her sinus cavities, around her nose and at the base of her hooves on the hairline. 

A couple days later the vet did come out to make sure things were ok and they gave her 2 shots of Nuflor.

But just to be sure we kept rubbing on the Vick's and feeding 2 cloves of garlic 2x/day for a month. Another herbal remedy that we found extremely helpful was a Thyme mash which was 1x/day. Here's the recipe in case you or anybody else wanted to try it out:

1/4 cup dried Thyme
1/4 bran
molasses

Just mix it all together so that it's nice and thick. Our cow didn't have any problems eating it when she got a sinus infection. But with the heifer we had to spoon it in her mouth. 

Pneumonia is a scary thing - it frightened me and my sister half to death when our heifer got it. But with the right treatment they'll get over it. This girl is almost a year now and hasn't had any recurrence/hint of it.

Hope everything goes well with you and your heifer. Keep us posted!


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## Stacykins (Nov 25, 2012)

Do you have any banamine? It is a fever reducer. Should also help with any pain and inflammation in and around her lungs. 

Aspirin would do the same thing, but it is not an RX. The dose needed would be quite large, I'm not even sure. It is used in goats in place of banamine.


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## heatherlynnky (Nov 25, 2012)

I have asprin but not the other. I will get some tomorrow morning though. We got fluids down her with patience and still on the bottle so hoping that helps. She also got her 2nd shot of nuflor. Apparently I will need to pick up another dose. I will do the garlic to though. I get brochitis really bad myself and that is what I used this year as soon as I had the first little hint of any cold. I never got sick this year and usually I am in the ER getting a steroid in the hinny to help me breathe. So I know garlic work, just had not thought of it for the calf. 

Here is my issue. The vet said do the shots every other day. The first shot she seems TONS better but skipping a day seems to let the virus get in control again. I just wonder why i have to do it every other day. It seems like Every day would just wipe it out. I would think. Not sure how much more of this she can take. At any rate, no matter what the vet says she is getting some type of antibiotic tomorrow evening because I am ready to nip this in the bud. We have nothing to lose really. If this keeps up and we don't do anything different we will lose her. I think agression is needed.


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## california cowgirl (Sep 17, 2013)

My vet told us when they are really sick you can hit them hard for three days in a row.  That usually gets it under control with a high fever and bad illness.  I am curious about the garlic trick.  My holistic Vet uses organic Iodine for like a low dose long term antibiotic.  It works had a horse with a bad cough and yucky drainage and put him on that and worked like a charm.  The only trick is to give it to them and if their nose starts to run back off a bit and give less.  About 2 tablespoons for a horse so less for a calf.  That is good stuff.  In this case you need some good drugs and fast.  Hope it all went well.


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