Suspected bacillary haemoglobinuria in a calf: A case report

Abstract

The present case reports the clinical management of a suspected bacillary haemoglobinuria in a Friesian calf. A 3-weeks-old Friesian cross female calf weighing 30kg was presented with a primary complaint of inappetance, haematuria and diarrhoea. Clinical evaluation revealed that the calf was pyrexic (40.8°C), having dyspnoea, pale mucous membrane with capillary refill time of > 2 seconds, bilateral prescapular and prefemoral lymph nodes enlargement and sign of abdominal pain during palpation. Furthermore, there was haematuria and greyish diarrhoea. The differential diagnoses at this point were babesiosis, anaplasmosis, trypanosomosis and bacillary haemoglobinuria. The blood result revealed an anaemia and leukocytosis with marked hyperbilirubinaemia. In addition, blood parasite screening showed negative results. Thus, the present case was diagnosed as suspected bacillary haemoglobinuria. Treatment was instituted with antihistamine 1mL/50kg administered intramuscularly 30 minutes prior to blood transfusion. 600mL of blood was collected from a donor cattle and and tranfused intravenously. Oxytetracycline (20mg/kg), was administered intramuscularly SID on day one and day four of hospitalization to treat bacillary haemoglobinuria. Flunixin meglumine (2.2mg/kg), was given intramuscularly SID for four days as anti-inflammatory, anti-pyrexia and analgesic. Fercobsang (1ml/10kg), was also administered intramuscularly SID for four days as iron supplement. Bacillary haemoglobinuria is a severe and fatal disease; however in this case, prompt and effective treatments were able to prevent unnecessary death and losses to the farmer.