Hi guys I have a 3 month old calf out in pasture with other cows .On one ear I thought it was fly bites , but now it really looks bad and is hard .I put swat on it to keep the flys off , gave a shot of antibiotics to ward off infection too .Never had this problem do you think she may loose an ear ? Any major problems with a one eared cow ? The only other thing I could think of is maybe another calf was sucking it and then the flys started .Any ideas ? Ow yea she is now out of pasture and up front to get spoiled until she heals.

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), August 11, 2001

Answers

Patty,is this just the cartiledge floppy part of the ear? If so, I wouldn't worry. I have calves occasionally chew each others ears in the winter time (after drinking milk) and they'll lose part of their ears to frost bite. Never hurts them a bit. They just look a little funny with little bear ears. I'd be more concerned if it were the base of the ear/head junction, and I'd keep the antibiotics up for awhile in that case.

-- Jennifer L. (Northern NYS) (jlance@nospammail.com), August 12, 2001.

Do you have other calfs in the pastrue. My girlfriend had two calfs nursing on each other's ears, come to find out the cow she had them on did not have enough milk for the two of them. It made there ears get chaped and nasty.

-- Teresa (c3ranch@socket.net), August 12, 2001.