Volume 9, No. 5
ALL HEAD TILTS ARE NOT MYCOPLASMA
By: Russ Schnepper, D. V. M.
Head tilts (otitis media) are usually seen in dairy calves between one and eight weeks of age. Usually less than five per cent of the calves are affected, and of them 10 to 30% usually die. Some times both ears are affected, but usually it is only one ear. The problems are usually blamed on Mycoplasma being transmitted through the colostrum and/or waste milk. Quite often joints are involved and become swollen. Mycoplasma infections do not respond well to antibiotics. Once the ear drum abscesses and ruptures, so the ear drains, the calf usually gets well regardless of the subsequent treatment. I recommend puncturing the ear drum to expedite drainage. I have used Clavamox off label for the ear infections and have been successful in a large number of cases. I chose Clavamox because the medical doctors use Augmentin, which is very similar. Clavamox is a combination of amoxicillin and clavuronic acid. Amoxicillin is a lactam type antibiotic and kills the pathogen by attacking the cell wall. Mycoplasma do not have the genetic code for a bacterial cell wall and are not susceptible to lactam antibiotics. So straight amoxicillin does not kill mycoplasma. But the addition of clavuronic acid to the mix makes the combination somewhat effective against the mycoplasma. I see recommendations for using antibiotics such as Nuflor daily for two or three weeks for mycoplasma. This would be extremely expensive and I think you are treating for this long in order to give the ear enough time to abscess and break open. Then the calf gets well in spite of your treatment.
I work with calf raisers that are having success treating the hanging ears with a 500 mg capsule of Amoxicillin orally twice a day for a few days. The Amoxicillin is also helping on many of the swollen joints. I do not think mycoplasma is the primary problem in the calves that are responding to the Amoxicillin.
The middle ear infections can be caused by many different organisms. Pasteurella multocida is the most common organism isolated by some of the diagnostic laboratories. Arcanobacterium pyogenes, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Corneybacterium pseudotuberculosis, Haemophilus somnus, and Manheimia haemolytica as well as yeasts are being isolated from the infected ears.
Many ear infections result as a complication of bronchopneumonia. Poor ventilation and high humidity compound the problem. Pasteurella multocida is a normal inhabitant of the upper respiratory tract of the calf. Stress and the "bug" that is already there, may be all that is needed to produce a middle ear infection. Usually the organism involved is associated with the respiratory infection and is in the nasopharynx. The infection travels up the auditory (eustachian) tube into the middle ear. If the infection is caused by bacteria, the treatment needs to be early before too much damage is done. If mycoplasma is the problem and the calf does not respond to antibiotic, I puncture the ear drum with a knitting needle. This relieves the pressure and the pain for the calf. Good nutrition helps the calf's own immune system throw off the infection. Vitamins A, D and E as well as selenium are very important. Whole milk is almost void of selenium.
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