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se montana | For a number of years now (probably 15), our calf herd has gotten prone to middle ear infections. The ears droop, drain, or both and the calves can get really sick of gone untreated. The calves will shake their heads in irritation when infected. Well, its becoming one hell of a problem in our herd. A few more every year. Right now, since weining a week ago, I've doctored 40 and put in the sick pen (that's almost 20% of the herd). By Christmas, I will usually have stuck a needle in about 50 head, however, this year is looking uglier than that. After years of trial and error, I'm pretty much able to treat them and get them well again, but my question is HOW DO I PREVENT IT?
I've pretty much got a top notch pre-condition program (express 5phm and vision 7 somnus), and I booster the somnus and the respiratories. I do not give shots for mycoplasma, because I don't think ear infections are related to that. One year, I gave every calf anti-biotic at weining. That was a pain in the a!! and results were no different. One year I gave nasagen at weining, no good. I don't know what else to do.
Does anybody have this problem to this extent? How can we prevent this mess every year? This is really expensive and labor intensive. Makes me want to sell calves every year and abandon the yearling business.
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ear infections in weined calves
