Necrotic Laryngitis
Taylor Rempp
Etiology
Fusobacterium necrophotum is a bacteria that is a normal inhabitant of the respiratory tract of animals and causes several necrotic conditions in animals including necrotic laryngitis. The incidence of disease is sporadic and is not considered highly contagious.
Symptoms
Animals affected present acute onset dyspnea and painful coughing. Difficulty breathing is reflected as open mouth breathing with an extended head and neck in an attempt to open the airways. A swollen larynx, elicitation of a painful cough upon palpation of larynx, nasal discharge, foul breath, fever, and depression are also symptoms of necrotic laryngitis. Without treatment of the disease the condition becomes fatal within 2 to 7 days because of the spread of bacteria and respiratory distress.
Prevention
Because the disease is sporadic there are no effective methods of preventing calf diphtheria. All cases of laryngitis should be treated early and aggressively in order to prevent severe disease.
Treatment
In order to treat this disease you have to alleviate the pain and respiratory distress and antibiotics to treat the underlying infection. Steroids should only be used if they are needed and repeated dosing will ruin the animal's ability to fight the infection. Prognosis for recovery is much higher if the disease is treated at the first onset of symptoms.
calf with laryngitis