I have an older buck, 7 yrs old, that we used to breed with. He's double bred Redoy Bill. Redoy Joe, AKA Joey, had a best score of a little over 200" at 4. At 5 he was still getting over the stress of moving from Minnesota to Louisiana and didn't grow as good. At 6 he lost one antler in January and the other in April. The late one started growing around the old base. He so tame I'd pull on it every day. When it finally came off it had infection under it. I dosed him with antibiotics and it got better.....I thought. All that year and through last winter he stayed skinny. I tried everything. We don't breed with him because we have better bucks but Joey is part of the family. He had no stress, no does to chase, no bucks to fight. This year he lost both antlers close together in February. Both were infected underneath. I think now that he had the infection all year long. After casting his antler I hit him with antibiotics but within a couple of days I noticed a swelling under one eye. That really concerned me because I figured the infection wasn't isolated in the antlers. It was probably in his bloodstream and who knows what might be infected. The battle of the antler infection started. Over the next 3 or 4 months we tried antibiotics 8 times. I used Draxxin, Baytril, Nuflor, Oxytetracycline and long lasting penicillin. I also used hydrogen peroxide daily when infected was apparent followed by diluted iodine. I was also giving Shock Effect Conditioner to put high amounts of probiotics in him to boost his immune system. It kept coming back. I hit him with heavier doses for longer periods of time determined to kill it or him!! My veterinarian is great to work with and we kept trying. I asked Faye Thayer of Shock Effect and she said a vet in Texas had helped someone she knew. I contacted him and he said he was going to give me a list of Do's and Don’ts.
DON'T
Don't use hydrogen peroxide; he said it doesn't kill bacteria and just created new pockets and channels for bacteria with all the boiling up that it does. News to me because I thought, since childhood, that it was great and used it on myself all the time. If it's doing all that boiling up stuff it has to be good right?
Don't use any of those antibiotics for antler infection, they won't work.
Don't use iodine on the antler infection.
DO
Now this is his advice for my particular buck but he said he had done a couple of hundred and it will work. You should always consult your own veterinarian and will have to buy some of the products through him anyhow.
Use Convenia antibiotics, 1 shot, 1 time at 4.5cc/100lbs body wt. It's used for small animals but gives 14 day coverage and will work on the bacteria in antler infections. It comes in a vial of powder that has to be reconstituted and is only good for 28 days afterwards. You only get 10cc and it's expensive for 1 shot.
Use Novalsan-S to clean and disinfect the area of infection. I'll post pictures later. Dry after using Novalsan-S.
Use Dry-Clox, a mastitis drug containing cloxacillin. The tube has a tip similar to Super Glue, slender and pointed to go in a cow's teat. Put it down into the infection and inject the creamy med. He said to get 6 but I got a whole box because my vet said he uses it in wounds like dog bites. Use the Dry-Clox for 3 days, but the Novalsan-S only the first time.
Give 1cc/100 lbs body wt of injectable Multimin-90, a zinc, manganese, selenium, and copper supplement. Give it 1 time only and do not use other supplements with selenium or copper to prevent toxicity.
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