Early postpartum treatment with carprofen in a dairy herd with high incidence of clinical metritis – a case study

This study evaluated the early treatment with carprofen over the incidence of clinical metritis (CM) and subsequent reproductive parameters on a commercial dairy farm without health interventions for this disease. Late-gestation pluriparous cows (n = 62) were enrolled at the beginning of the close-up period and randomly assigned to treatments at parturition. Cows received either no treatment (control) or subcutaneous carprofen (1.4 mg/kg of BW) 12–48 h postpartum. Clinical metritis diagnoses were performed weekly starting on days 3–21 postpartum. Reproductive data included conception rate at first service (CRFS), pregnancy rate (PR), calving to first service interval (CFSI), calving to conception interval (CCI) and services per conception (SC). Cows with CM had the CCI increased by 32 days (P = 0.035), the SC by 0.92 (P = 0.048) and a higher risk of non-pregnancy (HR = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.25–0.93, P = 0.03) compared to healthy animals. Carprofen treatment decreased the incidence of CM by 29.5 percent points (P = 0.03), decreasing the risk of developing CM by 3.4 times (95% CI = 1.07 – 10.66, P = 0.04), and shorted the median time for 50% of cows to become pregnant at first service after day 60 by 9 days (P = 0.03), but did not affect any other reproductive performance parameter evaluated. Clinical metritis had a marked effect on reproductive performance. However, the use of carprofen during the early postpartum improved uterine health and the fertility to the first service.