Phenytoin: A promising non-antibiotic drug for the topical treatment of digital dermatitis in dairy cows

Vet World Vol.14 November-2021 Article-9

Research Article

Veterinary World, 14(11): 2907-2912

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2021.2907-2912

El-Sayed El-Shafaey^1,2, Mohamed A. Hamed³, Eman Abo Elfadl⁴, Naglaa A. Gomaa⁵, and Mohamed Abdo Rizk⁶

1. Department of Surgery, Anesthesiology, and Radiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.
2. Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Qassim University, Buraydah 51452, Qassim, Saudi Arabia.
3. Department of Surgery, Anesthesiology, and Radiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Aswan University, Aswan, Egypt.
4. Department of Animal Husbandry and Development of Animal Wealth, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.
5. Department of Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafrelsheikh, Egypt.
6. Department of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura 35516, Egypt.

Background and Aim: Digital dermatitis (DD) is one of the most common causes of lameness in dairy cattle. It is seen in nearly all dairy herds across the world and has substantial welfare and economic implications. In this study, we aimed to investigate the efficacy of phenytoin sodium topical treatment on painful ulcerative stage of bovine digital dermatitis (BDD).

Materials and Methods: In total, 45 Holstein-Friesian dairy cows with DD were randomly assigned to one of the three topical treatment trials (15 each): Saline solution (first treatment, negative control), chlortetracycline spray (second treatment, positive control), or phenytoin sodium powder (third treatment, positive control) (third treatment). On day 0 (pre-treatment) and on days 7, 14, 21, and 28 post-treatment, the response of DD-affected cows to the medications used was evaluated by measuring lesion depth and size, as well as the total clinical score (lameness, pain, and discomfort).

Results: The cure rate in cows treated with phenytoin (86.66%) on day 28 was significantly improved compared to cows treated with either chlortetracycline (60%) or normal saline (6.66 %).

Conclusion: Our findings highlight the superiority of phenytoin over the commonly used antibacterial agent, chlortetracycline, in the topical treatment of BDD, and subsequently suggest that phenytoin should be considered a suitable alternative treatment option for the treatment of BDD. Keywords: chlortetracycline, cows, digital dermatitis, phenytoin.

Keywords: chlortetracycline, cows, digital dermatitis, phenytoin.

How to cite this article: El-Shafaey E, Hamed MA, Elfadl EA, Gomaa NA, Rizk MA (2021) Phenytoin: A promising non-antibiotic drug for the topical treatment of digital dermatitis in dairy cows, Veterinary World, 14(11): 2907-2912.

Received: 20-06-2021 Accepted: 02-10-2021 Published online: 12-11-2021

Corresponding author: Mohamed Abdo Rizk E-mail: dr_moh_abdo2008@mans.edu.eg

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2021.2907-2912

Copyright: El-Shafaey, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.