The Use of Combination of Antibiotherapy and Dimetylsulphoxide in The Treatment of Infectious Keratoconjunctivitis in Calves

Infectious keratoconjunctivitis in cattle is a contagious infectious eye disease that is mostly observed in the summer months and can cause vision loss if it is not treated in early stages. In the treatment of this disease; it is advised to be perform both parenteral and local administrations according to the progression of the disease. The purpose of this study is to compare efficiencies of a parenteral antibiotic combined with subconjunctival (SC) antibiotic and anti-inflammatory drug combination. In the study, IBK natural infected with 12 calves were used. Together with lacrimation, blepharospasm, photophobia; conjunctivitis at varying stages, corneal opacity, ulcer and perforation symptoms were determined in the animals. For bacterial agent analysis; in the swab samples were collected from the eyes of the animals, while M. bovisin 5 eyes, S.Aureusin 1 eye, both M. bovisand E. coliin 1 eye and both E. coliand S. aureusin 1 eye were isolated, any agent was not isolated in 3 eyes. After the single dose oxytetracycline LA (20 mg/kg IM) was administered, the animals were randomly divided into 2 treatment groups, each of which consisted of 6 eyes. While 40% dimethylsulphoxide + penicillin G 800.000 IU mixture via SC was given to the group 1, dexamethasone + penicillin G 800.000 IU mixture via SC was given to the group 2. These administrations were repeated 4 times at 3-day intervals. At the end of the treatment, it was determined that except for the 2 cases, all the cases completely recovered. There were no differences between the two groups in terms of recovery time. As a consequence, dimethylsulphoxide could be used in the treatment combination with penicillin G as an alternative to dexamethasone in the IBK cases