Effects of Meloxicam In Fresh Cows
Each cow in your herd that freshens, experiences numerous physiological changes in her body. These physiological changes include things such as negative energy balance, low calcium, pain, and inflammation. Having a plan for managing these changes are important for your bottom line because they can impact your cow’s risk of developing certain diseases such as ketosis, metritis, mastitis and LDA.
Many cows receive Kexxtone boluses or calcium boluses to mitigate the impact of negative energy balance and hypocalcemia. But what about pain and inflammation? All dairy cows experience some degree of pain and inflammation after calving, even when they deliver calves unassisted. When animals become painful, they can be less likely to eat and thrive in their environment. Injectable Metacam and Oral Meloxicam are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) that can reduce pain, swelling, and inflammation. Both drugs have the same meloxicam molecule even though they have a different brand name and dose.
Many producers are aware we can use these drugs in fresh cows who experience a tough calving or had twins. But can other cows who calved without assistance, or cows who seemed to calve normally benefit? Typically, the focus is on pain and inflammation in the cow’s reproductive tract, but inflammation occurs in other areas of the cow’s body such as their udder and joints. Research has also shown that lipolysis (using up fat tissue) and entering a state of negative energy balance causes inflammation throughout a cow's entire body too.
Administering Metacam or Oral Meloxicam to fresh cows on the day of calving is a strategy that might help reduce the risk of cows developing transition disease in your herd. This kind of strategy would include more than cows who had just rough calvings. This may include all animals, or cows that have a history of disease (ex. mild lameness, high SCC, high body condition score at calving). Sometimes, we avoid flunixin (Banamine, Flunazine) in cows as it may contribute to retained placentas. A large trial found that Metacam, unlike flunixin, does not increase the risk for retained placentas. Injectable Metacam has a 96-hour milk withholding time if using it per label (mastitis, surgical pain). Oral Meloxicam has a 96-hour milk withholding time too, but using both of these medications in fresh cows as a preventative can be considered extra-label.
Does using Meloxicam in fresh cows make sense for your herd? Metacam and Oral Meloxicam have shown to improve milk production in cows that did not have a difficult calving in some studies. Oral Meloxicam has also shown to reduce culling and mastitis risk. Different results may be due to differences in management, especially timing of administration relative to calving, and degree of inflammation cows in these herds generally experience. We do know that Metacam consistently demonstrates an improvement in pain responses in fresh cows, which is positive for cow welfare. If you have questions about trying Metacam or Oral Meloxicam at calving for your cows, please speak with your herd vet.