I am raising dairy bull calves on goat's milk. At approximately two to three weeks old, calves develop high fever (104.5° to 107°F), pneumonia, and a high number of ear infections. A few of them appear to have some sort of neurological disorder. I have had calves get ear infections in the past, one every six months or so, and they would always respond to a course of penicillin. Now I have cases almost every month, and they are very difficult and expensive to treat. These also start about three weeks of age. Most of the time the calves appear to be healthy, but on routine temperature checks, the high temperatures are found. The pneumonia seems to respond to treatment at the young ages, oxytet and sustain III but after weaning (five weeks) seems to come back with a case that is unresponsive to all attempts (above treatment, nuflor, or micotil). Mortality has become very high. I suspect mycoplasma might be a problem and am going to have the milk tested. CMT scores are T to 1 on some goats but negative on the bulk tank sample. My vet does not think that there is any connection between mycoplasma in milk and the pneumonia or ear infections. I would like another opinion. Do you think it's possible that the younger infections are related to the older ones, or are we possibly looking at more than one cause?

Last Updated: August 27, 2010

View as web page