Ever seen an infected ear?

[ILfarmersdaughter]

I have a steer calf that started hanging an ear about 4 days ago. He was coughing and had a nasty snotty nose so I assume respiratory and treat as such.

His ear started looking wet about 2 days ago and I thought maybe another calf was licking on his ear and it was not hanging like before.

I finally put him in the chute today and he has the nastiest ear infection. It smells and is just loaded with infection. I felt awful when I saw how bad this looks. I tried my best to clean it out but he was not real cooperative. I could not find anything in there either. I treated with naxel and heavy pen in case this was still part of a respiratory.

After 26 years I have never seen an ear infection in cattle! Anyone have any ideas or seen this one before?

 

[IL Rancher]

I saw one once on a calf who had been ear tagged recently.. I think the tag was real nasty or something, it was at a friends place.. Yes, nasty smelling but the calf pulled out of it as soon as they realized what was causing the trouble.

 

[ROB]

it can be a symptom of microplasma- lets hope not.

i had a calf show up last year with cough and an ear infection, treated the calf with nuflor. got rid of the respitory problem, but the ear infection progressed into a lump on the side of the calfs head below the ear. treated it with a paste the vet gave me for inner ear infections and also gave pennicellin. after about two weeks, the swelling finally drew up into a hard knot, and i was able to lance it. after i cleaned out the wound, i sprayed it with screw worm spray, and applied pennicellin. healed up fine, and the calf did well.

ROB

 

[ILfarmersdaughter]

I know it is not from his tag as this is all inside the ear and into the ear canal.

Do you mean mycoplasma? That would not be good! He was banded about 6 weeks ago. He had draining a few days earlier from the sac which Dad took off today since he was in the chute.

I am glad to hear your calf did well!

He is in a group of calves that all have been coughing but I was attributing this first to this too fine feed my Dad insisted on grinding. I complained about that in another post!

Yikes. I hope that is not it. Calling the vet around here is just the absolute last resort--and it does not do us any good unless we get 2 of the 5 in the only local clinic. Those are not good odds.

 

[bward]

I have seen it a lot in the feedlot, and its easy to treat. Just like kids with all the ear infections they get.

 

[larryshoat]

Is this calf running a fever(102 +)?Have the calves been vaccinated?The most effective antibiotic for ear infection is draxxin,next would be micotil plus sulfa.If they have not been vaccinated use 2 rounds of bovi-sheild 5 gold 14 days apart.I would add AS700 to the feed at a rate of 1/2 pound per day for 7 days on all calves.

Larry

 

[ILfarmersdaughter]

I do not like to call the vet on the weekends after hours but I did not think I had much choice this morning. A different calf was going down hill much faster.

Plus I had a second calf with a nasty ear.

When we can get a vet she is absolutely fantastic! She said the ears were ruptured ear drums. And myco is a definite possibility at this point. But with the feed being so fine she said they could have aspirated tiny amounts and the infection was on.

Calf that was so bad is better tonight and the others are not as bad either.

Feed is also completely different and much better tonight!

 

[milkmaid]

I had a heifer like that once. Three days on Baytril and she was as good as new.

 

[3rdgeneration farmer]

got an antibiotic in him quick