How to prevent and treat bovine influenza with fever, runny nose and cough

Cattle

    Symptoms: The bovine influenza virus damages mucosal epithelial cells and harms the central nervous system, so cattle show the following symptoms: in the early stage of the disease, body temperature rises to 40°C-42°C, showing a continuous fever pattern. The muzzle is dry and hot, the whole body muscles tremble, and the animal is listless; the eyes are sensitive to light and tearful, and the conjunctiva is congested; breathing is rapid, with a runny nose and occasional cough, the animal does not eat and does not ruminate, drools, has little or no defecation or is constipated, urinates little and the urine is dark yellow-red. In the later stage there is diarrhea, pain in the limbs, an unsteady gait or lameness, and pregnant cows often abort. If secondary pneumonia occurs, or when the throat is paralyzed, breathing becomes difficult and the animal dies of suffocation.

    Cause: Sudden changes in temperature, such as at the turn of spring and summer; overwork of beef cattle, poor nutrition; the raiser not paying attention to cleaning the cattle shed, which lowers the disease resistance of the cattle's respiratory mucosa. The influenza virus that originally exists in the respiratory tract or enters the respiratory tract through breathing can then damage the mucosa, invade the blood, and multiply in large numbers in the blood and produce toxins, causing the beef cattle to become ill.

    Diagnosis: Beef cattle influenza comes on suddenly and spreads rapidly, often infecting most beef cattle within 1-2 days, showing similar symptoms, all characterized by severe respiratory and digestive system symptoms. Although the symptoms are severe, if there is no secondary infection, it generally resolves without treatment within 1 week, with rapid recovery and a good prognosis.

    Treatment: The raiser should pay attention to preventing secondary infection and strictly prevent beef cattle from falling down and being unable to rise. Western medicine: based on the principles of symptomatic treatment (such as antipyretic and analgesic treatment) and prevention of secondary infection, so as to reduce symptoms and shorten the course of the disease, the following prescriptions may be used: ① Intramuscular injection of 1.5-3 million units of penicillin or 20-30 ml of 20% sodium sulfathiazole to prevent secondary infection. ② Intramuscular injection of 20-30 ml of compound aminopyrine, or 10 ml of pyrazolone, for antipyretic and analgesic treatment. ③ Intravenous injection of 1000-1500 ml of glucose saline for cardiac support and fluid supplementation.