Dr.iCow’s Diary
Date: 06.02.2020
Dear Dr.iCow,
How to treat Lumpy skin disease. Which drugs should I use?
From: Mr. Odingo Benedict,County: Homa Bay, Kenya.
Discussion:
The cow has nodules all over the skin, poor feeding and very weak. The vet had treated the cow with some injections but still is not showing improvement.
Dear Mr. Odingo,
Lumpy skin disease – LSD is a viral disease that affects cattle. It is a very devastating disease. Signs associated with the disease are high fever of up to 41ºC, swollen lymph nodes, development of large firm nodules of about 2 to 5 centimeters in diameter and are found all over the animal body, the nodules may spread to other parts of the body including respiratory and gastrointestinal tract and the disease can be fatal.
It is a notifiable disease. It is very good you reported the case to the veterinary officer. There is no treatment of the disease. The vet gave an antibiotic to prevent pneumonia and skin infections, and may also give vitamins and minerals supplements injection like Catosal as the sick animal is having suppressed feed intake and disease stress.
Other supportive treatment include wound care using products like tetracycline spray or healing oil on skin lesions. Provide the cow with adequate and quality forages with fine texture and mixed with legumes like sweet potatoes vines all mixed together, chopped, and molasses may be added to improve the feeds energy content, palatability and taste, give minerals supplements mixed with concentrates and easy free access to clean fresh drinking water. The disease takes long time to heal and can persist for months.
Lumpy skin disease is controlled through vaccination, control of animals’ movement and culling of infected ones. Please make sure your cattle and of the neighbours are vaccinated to protect them from LSD and the vaccination is done once in a year by the county veterinary department.
Like all viral infections, there are no specific antiviral drugs for its treatment. Sick animals should be removed from healthy ones and given supportive treatment. The disease is prevented by effective vaccination.