Clinical Effect of NSAID Treatment of Calves with Early Signs of Respiratory Disease

To reduce the antibiotic treatment of calves with BRD, detection of diseased calves early in the disease process is necessary. If BRD can be treated before turning into bacterial infection, the need for antibiotic treatment could be reduced. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate if calves with subtle clinical signs of respiratory disease improve their respiratory score, when treated with NSAID early in the disease process. Thirty-four calves with subtle clinical signs of BRD in a veal herd, was included in the study. On Day 1, seventeen calves were randomly assigned to receive either Finadyne Transdermal or Metacam subcutaneously for three days and seventeen calves received no treatment. When taking account of age and antibiotic treatment at day 5, there was a positive effect on respiratory score when receiving NSAID, as the respiratory score was on average 1.77 less at day 5, for the NSAID treated calves compared to calves not receiving NSAID treatment. We found that treatment with NSAID in the early process of respiratory disease could decrease the short-term respiratory score in young veal calves. This together with others findings, suggests that starting with NSAID treatment in calves with respiratory disease and only add antibiotics if the disease develops further might be an option to consider.