—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 4,1978
26
{medicine and
Know how to handle your medicine
There are very few farmers nowadays who do not use
some drugs themselves to treat their own animals. There
are many cases where this can be beneficial and
economical. There are many other instances where it can
be detrimental and uneconomical. The purpose of this
column is not to discuss the pros and cons of when and how
farmers should be able to treat their own animals; but to
try to give some helpful information which will produce
more beneficial results from many of the drugs they
already do use.
First of all and very important: Bead the label and then
follow then follow the instructions. Those labels and in
structions are there for a purpose and any deviation from
label instructions could result in less effective treatments.
Withdrawal times for milk and meat should also be
strictly adhered to. Whether we like it or not methods of
detecting minute amounts of drugs are becoming more
sensitive all the time, and penalties are becoming stiffen
And yes, injections m the muscle do get into the milk in
sufficient quantities to be detected.
Many drugs require special handling, specifically
refrigeration. The cooler temperature slows the rate at
which the drug deteriorates. Many drugs have expiration
dates printed on the label. What this date indicates is the
time period one can reasonably be assured potency of the
drug if (and this is a big if) the drug has been stored ac
cording to the manufactures recommendations. Actually
if drugs are properly stored they will remain effective for
many months, even years, beyond the expiration date. On
the other hand; if a drug has been improperly stored it
may have lost its potency long before the expiration date.
Proper storage is very important. livestock is too
valuable to risk using a drug which has been stored m the
warm when it should have been refrigerated. For
example, you notice a cow with a bad discharge from the
nose and coughing, you grab the pen strep from the shelf
(label: store under refrigeration) and treat for three
days. The pen strep has been setting m the warm for
months and has lost its potency. Instead of getting better
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the cow develops a pneumonia which may not be able to be
treated.
Besides storage on the farm one should be cautious
when purchasing drugs. If one buys a drug which is
labeled “store under refrigeration” check to see if the
seller is storing it under refrigeration. Once the drug
company has sold the product it loses control of the
conditions under which it is handled. Recently I was in a
store running a special sale on Combiotic, a penicillin
streptomycin combination which should be is clearly
labeled “store under refrigeration”. However in this
particular store were cases upon cases displayed in the
warm storeroom. One can only wonder how many days,
weeks, or months these products have been setting in the
warm. And the longer it is, the more they lose their
potency. Many stores are only concerned with selling and
are not concerned or do not care that the products are
properly stored to insure that the purchaser is receiving
an effective product. When buying one should always
check the label to see if refrigeration is required. If it is
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