Of the 461 cattle, 122 (26.5%) initially received conservative therapy (intravenous fluids, neostigmine, calcium borogluconate) and 329 (71.4%) underwent surgical treatment.
Treatment with sodium chloride and glucose solution, neostigmine, calcium borogluconate, metamizole and electrolytes as well as fasting was carried out similar to the cows treated conservatively.
In hypocalcaemic cows treated with calcium borogluconate the plasma inorganic phosphate rises significantly within 5 min of the intravenous infusion [ 6]. [ 3] associated this elevation to PTH effect on renal clearance of inorganic phosphate.
This cow received 10 l of a NaCl-glucose solution (50 g glucose and 9 g sodium chloride/l), administered slowly via an indwelling intravenous catheter daily for three days, amoxicillin (7 mg/kg, Clamoxyl®, Zoetis Schweiz, Zürich) administered intramuscularly for 3 days, and 500 ml of 40% calcium borogluconate (Calcamyl-40MP®, Graeub, Bern) administered once intravenously.
In addition, the cow received 500 ml of a 40% calcium borogluconate solution (Calcamyl-40 MP, Graeub, Bern) immediately after surgery and 5 litres of sodium chloride and glucose solution containing 42.5 mg neostigmine (Konstigmin, Vétoquinol, Ittigen) administered at a flow rate of 0.0015 mg neostigmine/kg/hour during the following 48 hours via the indwelling catheter.
Electrolyte deficiencies were corrected as follows: Cows received calcium borogluconate intravenously for hypocalcaemia, magnesium hypophosphite intravenously for hypomagnesaemia (see above), sodium chloride and glucose solution intravenously for hyponatraemia and hypochloraemia (see above), potassium chloride per os for hypokalaemia and sodium dihydrogen phosphate per os for hypophosphataemia.
