Sliced Teat

[cddexter]

Kim, not every situation is the same, but like Patti, I've had a similar problem. This is mine, and the outcome:
I left early to go 60 miles away to visit my mother, and arrived home after 10 pm to hear a message on my machine from my neighbour that my cows got out but he'd chased them back in again for me. He thought I should know he'd noticed blood dripping off a teat.

So there I am, pitch dark outside, flashlight in hand, trying to get close to the herd to see if I can find a damaged udder or teat. Of course the cows could only see the shaft of light, and even hearing my voice, milled around nervously. I finally spotted blood on one of the Bedford cows (wouldn't you know!) and got close enough to see the whole teat was ripped open with red milk leaking out. I managed to get her into the yard and in a clean pen. The vet took one look and said it had happened too long ago (that morning, probably), and it was too late to stitch effectively. He figured if I just left it, it would heal on it's own, but to poof it with sulpher powder.

Well, I did, and it did. The calf decided it didn't like the sulpher, so the teat did have a chance to rest. It did heal, and it could be milked, but there was a small hole in the side of the teat that continued to spray milk under pressure before she calved, and when she'd bagged up between nursings. Eventually the hole did close, and after about three years you'd never know there'd been an issue. So don't lose hope. From the pic, and if my experience is anything to go by, I think the bit of excised flesh will atrophy and fall off. It may leave a weird shaped teat, but still usable.

The rest of the story: Meanwhile, in the morning, I found out where the cows got out, and the fence was cut and peeled back right where the bush was thickest, and it wouldn't be noticed on casual inspection. I'm guessing the cows were curious about the activity, and when the cows found the hole, got onto the road and were headed home along the fence line. They turned in at the neighbours, and he and his not-trained-for-anything german shepherd X chased them around his yard for a while and Dora had panicked and tried to jump a 4' barb wire fence.

(This was the neighbour from hell, and a convicted pyromaniac . After he moved next door, I had a fire in the hayfield, fences cut twice, a whole row of round bale silage bags slashed open, and plants poisoned with Roundup. Oh yes, and twice the SPCA turned up from his complaints (cows crying because they had no water, when actually they have free choice 24/7, and it was weaning time; the other complaint was dreadful, muddy conditions when actually there was about a foot of mud just in the gateway from the winter pen into the barn and everything else was dry). Classic symptoms...he'd turn up all sincere and helpful that he just happened to notice something..give you the bad news, and then hang around to watch your reaction. The police agreed he was the likely source for the vandalism, but said unless I could actually catch him in the act, there was nothing they could do. He moved away several years later, thank heavens.) c.

[Star Creek Dexters]

Thanks so much for the encouragement! C, what a story! Good riddance, huh?
Madi is looking better. We are taking things a day at a time. Doing all I can to ensure a good outcome.

[Olga]

Thanks, Patti, for the link! The Heren looks like a nice breed of cattle, by the way.
Animals have such interesting behaviors, don't they? Every night after the last feeding, on his way to the night resting spot, the steer attacks the clay hillside. He charges up the hill to the steepest part with his tail in the air, gets to his favorite spot and headbutts it. He rubs and rubs his face it in, snorting and bellowing, and gets on his knees and rubs his neck and almost falls sideways. Maxine loves that spot too when she's here, I've posted pictures of her with a full face-paint of clay on before. At our North pasture the cattle also have a spot, it's under an old stump. They would almost line up and take turns rubbing their heads on the dirt. One time Maxine got her horns stuck in it even when she slipped.
Late October last year one of our horses scabbed her rear pastern. The scab kept getting bumped off and proud flesh started to grow. I consulted the vet who told me how to treat the problem. But it was doing no good. The proud flesh was very vigorous and growing bigger every day. We took the filly for surgery end of December - the mass of proud flesh was the size of a tennis ball by then. The vet removed the proud flesh as much as he could leaving enough skin to pull back together over the area, then put a cast on the leg - to immobilize the lower joint and allow the area to heal. The filly was on stall rest for 6 weeks with cast on then another 6 weeks after the cast was removed. When we tried to introduce her back to the rest of the horses they literally tried to kill her. Ok, may be her mother didn't, but the dominant mare and the lowest position gelding were extremely aggressive. Even the filly's half-sister whom she's been with all of her life until then attacked her. It took us 2 weeks of daily controlled introductions and pasturing the horses next to each other but in separate fields before the filly could be safely put back in with the herd.

As to cut teats - Sioux had a very similar cut about 2 years ago. The cut wasn't deep enough for milk to leak and so, frankly, I didn't do anything but puts some bag balm on it that had mint or eucalyptus in it to keep the flies away. It healed and milks just fine.

[legendrockranch]

Kim, if you don't mind please give us an update on how Madi's teat is doing.

Barb

[Star Creek Dexters]

Mads is doing well. The teat is healing nicely, no infection and no mastitis, thank God! Thankfully she is in her first lactation and is still a moderate producer. I can only imagine the problems we would have had if she had been a high production cow.

I am still unable to get anything out of the teat, but I have not tried that much, with the theary of less is more. I am giving her body time to heal. She finished a round of LA200 and I am keeping it covered in wound coat.

[Star Creek Dexters]

Fantastic news! Went out to treat Madi's teat this morning and it is completely emptied and clean. Obviously Zoe, her calf, got it open and drained it. Such a huge sigh of relief!!
Thank you all for your help and kind words through this. I am so glad that she is healing and the teat will be saved.

[laughingllama75]

Awesome news! And thats even better that the calf did the "hard work", now momma wont be mad at you for cleaning her out! whooHoo!

[hrfohio]

KansasDexters. I'm so sorry to read about your injury. Thanks for posting the photo, I've been reading about sliced teat but didn't really understand what it is. Also thanks for the video. I hope your girl recovers.

I have a local vet that always sends out the idiot who just fell out of school this year. I refuse to use them, they've cost me SO MUCH MONEY in things like bad casts, etc. I'd rather be on my own than use a kid just out of school because I know the animals and have usually researched the symptoms, but they get 'huffy' when I suggest anything. On the other hand, Ohio State is 3hrs away and I'd have no problem hauling into there if I couldn't find a local EXPERIENCED vet.

I wanted to ask you folks if de-orned cows do the same fighting as shown in the video? I hate watching that video, so it makes me more prone to wanting to use polled bulls... but do de-horned cows fight at much and as hard?

Thanks

[kansasdexters]

Dehorned cows, that are high ranking cows, will fight to maintain their position in the hierarchy of the herd. Even without horns, they can still shove others around and they do. Since they don't have horns, they use their weight and strength to push on the flank and butt heads with challengers. As soon as the challenger submits and backs off, the fight is over. But some challengers don't back off easily, and they end up getting shoved around until they finally tucker out and back off.

Horned bulls, dehorned bulls, and polled bulls will also get into shoving matches when establishing their position within the herd or within a group of males. Because of the width and size of the Dexter bull's horns, we normally dehorn all the bull (and steer) calves. It just makes it much easier to work with them going through the squeeze chute or loading and unloading on a trailer. We move our steers from pasture to pasture by trailer, so this becomes important to us. We can put more dehorned animals on a trailer than we can put horned ones.

Patti