cow teat open sore from nursing calf

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I had a calf on the cow, and she nursed without sticking her tongue out far enough to cushion the teat. Her bottom teeth cut the favorite teat pretty badly. I removed the calf from the cow, and am trying to heal it up. I am coating the teat before and after milking with bag balm, and it helps, but I am wondering if there is anything else that will promote faster healing.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), July 01, 2001

Answers

I had a cow break thru a barbed wire fence to visit the neighbor's bull about a week ago. She cut one of her front teats pretty badly. The cut ran from her udder to the tip of the teat. I asked a friend about it and she told me that it'd probably be ok untreated. I kept check on it, and have noticed that she's letting her calf nurse it now. Seems fine and looks ok. Probably the bag balm will be enough to use on your cow. My friend, who operates a dairy, says that the cows' teats are pretty tough. Your cow doesn't try to kick you when you touch the teat? Hope your cow does well.

-- Tim (tsduck@bellsouth.net), July 03, 2001.

Pearl is so gentle that she has never kicked, even when the sore was bleeding badly while I milked that teat out. She did flinch, but never kicked. The sore came to be there from nursing. I watched her, and she never moved a muscle while the calf was tearing that sore teat open again and again. I am researching a little on homemade salves, and am looking at perhaps making a petrolatum-lanolin-gentian slave to speed healing. I may use beeswax instead of petrolatum, not sure yet.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), July 03, 2001.

If the teat keeps getting opened by the calf nursing or by milking, wouldn't it be better to not let it nurse that one teat? When we have had problems with teats like this in the past, we debried all the old tissue, recutting the skin, so it is fresh and straight and will heal quickly, where old tissue will not heal together, and is usually jagged. We use superglue to glue the surfaces flush together, and empty that half (goat) of the udder with an infusion tip, (they are sold in jefferslivestock.com) empty the udder without having to "milk" it. Using something like comfrey or aleo heal, you could heal this teat, letting the calf only nurse from the other teats. Tapeing the teat flat against the udder so the calf can't find the teat works well. You would have a healed teat much quicker than trying to heal it with salves while the calf still nurses the salves off and the teat gets ripped back open by sharp little teeth! Your cow truly has a wonderful disposition! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), July 03, 2001.

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