Risk factors for morbidity in 1- to 9-day-old dairy calves following caustic paste disbudding

Abstract Calfhood morbidity is an important issue on commercial dairy operations, with substantial production and welfare impacts. The objective of this observational study was to evaluate potential risk factors for morbidity, including disbudding, disbudding pain control, serum total protein (STP) concentrations, and haptoglobin concentrations in young dairy calves. A total of 140 heifer calves from a commercial dairy farm in southwestern Ontario, Canada, were enrolled at 1 to 9 d of age and followed for 1 wk. Calves were scored at enrollment for several health parameters using a scale from 0 to 3, with 0 representing normal and 3 representing severely abnormal. Calves were only included if they were considered healthy enough to participate using cut points of