Free ranch reference
Cattle drug withdrawal times
Slaughter withdrawal for the antibiotics, dewormers, and anti-inflammatories in most cattle medicine cabinets — pulled from current FDA labels, not decades-old charts. Click any product for routes, milk withholding, and the label gotchas that cause residue violations.
The label on your bottle and your veterinarian always outrank this chart. These are label values for label use only — a different dose, route, or frequency voids them, and your vet must set the interval (usually via FARAD). Label data checked July 18, 2026.
Antibiotics
| Product | Active ingredient | Slaughter withdrawal | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Draxxin | tulathromycin | 18 days | |
| Micotil 300 | tilmicosin | 42 days | |
| Nuflor | florfenicol | 38 days | SQ single dose; 28 days for the two-dose IM program |
| Resflor Gold | florfenicol + flunixin meglumine | 38 days | |
| Baytril 100 | enrofloxacin | 28 days | |
| Advocin | danofloxacin | 4 days | |
| Excede | ceftiofur crystalline free acid | 13 days | |
| Naxcel | ceftiofur sodium | 4 days | |
| Zactran | gamithromycin | 35 days | |
| Zuprevo | tildipirosin | 21 days | |
| LA-200 (oxytetracycline) | oxytetracycline 200 & 300 mg/mL | 28 days | |
| Tylan 200 | tylosin | 21 days | |
| Penicillin G procaine | penicillin G procaine | 14 days | at the label dose — higher doses are extra-label and need a vet-set interval |
| Albon (sulfadimethoxine) | sulfadimethoxine | 7 days |
Anti-inflammatories & pain control
| Product | Active ingredient | Slaughter withdrawal | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banamine | flunixin meglumine | 8 days | transdermal; 4 days for IV injection — IM is illegal-adjacent extra-label use |
| Meloxicam | meloxicam (oral tablets) | No U.S. label | no U.S. cattle label — vet sets the interval; ~21 days meat is a commonly used conservative figure |
Dewormers & parasiticides
| Product | Active ingredient | Slaughter withdrawal | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ivermectin (Ivomec & generics) | ivermectin; + clorsulon in Plus products | 48 days | pour-on; 35 days injectable; 21 days Ivomec Plus |
| Dectomax | doramectin | 45 days | pour-on; 35 days injectable |
| Cydectin | moxidectin | 21 days | injectable; the pour-on is ZERO days |
| Eprinex | eprinomectin | Zero days | |
| LongRange | eprinomectin 5% extended-release | 48 days | |
| Safe-Guard | fenbendazole | 13 days | feed/mineral forms; 8 days for suspension and paste |
| Valbazen | albendazole | 27 days | |
| Synanthic | oxfendazole | 7 days |
Why withdrawal records matter
Every violative residue found at slaughter traces back to a premises — and nearly every one starts the same way: a treatment that never made it into a record, a route that was not written down, or an animal that got on the trailer because nobody remembered it was treated. The chart is the easy part. Remembering it on sale day, for one specific animal out of two hundred, is the hard part.
HerdCommand does the remembering: log a treatment with its withdrawal days and the animal carries a hold flag until the date clears — and the sale workflow warns you before a flagged animal ends up on a load.
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Common questions
What is a withdrawal time?
The minimum time that must pass between the last dose of a drug and slaughter (or, for milk withholding, the next milking sold). It is set by FDA from residue-depletion studies so that tissue levels fall below legal tolerances. Shipping an animal early risks a violative residue traced back to your premises ID.
What happens if I use a drug differently than the label says?
Any different dose, route, frequency, or class of animal is "extra-label" use. It is legal only under a veterinarian's direction (AMDUCA), and the label withdrawal no longer applies — your vet must assign a longer interval, usually using FARAD data. Two exceptions: fluoroquinolones (Baytril, Advocin) may never be used extra-label in food animals, and certain cephalosporin extra-label uses are also prohibited.
What is FARAD?
The Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank — a USDA-funded program that gives veterinarians science-based withdrawal intervals for extra-label drug use. If your vet quotes you a withdrawal different from the bottle, FARAD is usually where it came from. Producers can browse label data at farad.org, but extra-label intervals must come through a veterinarian.
Do vaccines have withdrawal times?
Most killed and modified-live cattle vaccines carry a 21-day pre-slaughter withdrawal on the label — check yours. It exists mainly because of injection-site reactions rather than chemical residues, but it is still a label requirement.
Which common cattle drugs have zero withdrawal?
At label use: Cydectin pour-on and Eprinex pour-on (both also have no milk discard), plus Excede and Naxcel have no milk discard for dairy (they still carry 13- and 4-day slaughter withdrawals). Everything else on this chart requires a hold.
When in doubt, what should I do?
Hold longer, and call your veterinarian. The chart on this page reflects current U.S. labels as of the date shown, but labels change — the label on the bottle you actually used, plus your vet, always outrank any chart, including this one.