Kexxtone - Good for Cows, NOT so Good for Dogs

Most people know that many pesticides and rodent poisons can be harmful if pets get into them. But what might surprise you is that a product called monensin – found in Rumensin premix and in Kexxtone boluses – can also be deadly for animals other than cattle, especially dogs and horses.

Recently, there was a tragic case where a couple of dogs chewed on a plastic Kexxtone bolus that had been regurgitated from a cow on a farm. Sadly, the result was fatal.

Monensin belongs to a group of products called ionophores. In cattle, they help improve feed efficiency and prevent diseases like coccidiosis by changing which bacteria grow in the stomach. Used properly in cattle, they’re safe and effective. But in other animals, even very small amounts can cause severe poisoning.

The main organ affected is the heart, but it can also damage muscles and nerves. In dogs, this can lead to an abnormal heart rhythm, weakness, loss of coordination, difficulty breathing, and death. Horses are also extremely sensitive—symptoms can include weakness, loss of appetite, colic, heavy sweating, collapse, and sudden death.

It takes only a tiny amount of monensin to poison a dog—sometimes just a fraction of a single wafer within a Kexxtone bolus. Unfortunately, there’s no specific antidote for monensin poisoning, so immediate veterinary care is the only chance of survival, and even then, the outcome depends on how much was eaten.

More Tips and Tricks on Calf Scours

Milk consumption speed and volume. As more and more calf feeding robots are in use, recent research is suggesting that milk consumption or drinking speed can be used as a good indicator or disease even a day BEFORE clinical signs of scours. A 40% drop in intake or drinking speed as an alarm is a good indicator to evaluate the calf. The higher the plane of nutrition, the more accurate the indicator of pending disease

Colostrum for the treatment of scours. Newer research is demonstrating that 1L of colostrum at 130 gm/L (colostrum replacer powder) per day for 4 days at the alarm of 40 % decrease in milk consumption or speed resulted in faster recovery times and increased ADG by day 7 after treatment compared to milk replacer alone. Related research also demonstrated that 50 gm of colostrum powder twice daily from approximately day 7-14 of age prior to the typical age of onset of scours may actually reduce the incidence of calves getting scours.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatories. NSAIDS like Meloxicam at label dose have been shown to decrease the duration of scours and severity when given at 40% milk drop alarm.

Antibiotics Yes or No? It’s a common question or statement we hear that if you have a scouring calf, it can’t hurt to give antibiotics. Right? Well newer research is showing that might not always be true. With most scours there is lots of gut damage and gut flora like E coli can proliferate and cause septicemia/bacteremia (bacteria in the bloodstream). But this doesn’t happen in all cases of scours, with only about 30% of calves developing bacteremia. The problem with blanket treatment of all scouring calves with antibiotics it can actually increase the dysbiosis and dysfunction of the gut biome and increase proliferation of bad bacteria like E coli by killing off the good biome, actually resulting in increased mortality. A research project at OVC has shown that fever and or blood in the stool have been shown to be poor indicators of bacteremia (24%). However, depression and dull demeanor have been shown to be much better indicators of bacteremia (71%) and therefore antibiotics are warranted and beneficial. Only 6% of bright and alert calves with scours were bacteremic and therefore not a good indicator to use antibiotics.

Other treatments like Probiotics, Kaopectate, Charcoal, Pepto. Research is a little weaker when it comes to the benefit of these adjunct treatments for calf scours. Probiotics like Revive at the onset of scours were able to show a 0.6 days improvement in days to resolution but no impact on average daily gain. So they may have their place but were not as impactful as treatment with colostrum powder. Other products like Kaopectate, Pepto and charcoal have not been shown to have definitive benefit.