At what point do you mess with an abscess?

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Noticed the cow had some swelling in her bottom jaw the day before calving. Didn't want to stress her too much with the heat and the pregnancy. It's in the soft spot between her jaw bone Nd about the size of a baseball. It's not impeding her eating or anything. Probably a stick or some thing poked the inside of her mouth. At what point would you mess with it
 
I don't think it's an abscess. Looks too symmetrical. Dewormed her recently?
 
I would do a sample test with a large gauge needle and syringe. See if you can find a soft spot. If you can draw out puss. I would open it up at the lowest spot and flush it out with dilute Betadine. (Tea color.) Keep it open and flushing, and start an Antibiotic.

If no puss on your sample aspiration, it is soft tissue spelling. Something else is going on. Or it has encapsulated itself beyond your reach.

Now that you have posted a pic., could it be Bottle Jaw??
 
After seeing pic. I am with Milkmaid. May not be an "abscess". Swelling will accumulate in a low, soft spot like that.
 
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Worms can cause protein loss - protein (albumin) in the bloodstream holds fluid in (osmotic gradient) - low protein or anything that causes protein loss (diarrhea, Johnes, kidney disease, liver disease, etc) will result in fluid accumulating in ventral areas due to gravity, such as below the jaw, brisket, legs, etc.
 
If you are considering which type of worm she might have also consider Liver Fluke. They cause anaemia and bottle jar, not necessarily with poor condition either. Ordinary wormers like "-mectins don't kill them. You need Triclabendazole special fluke treatment. There is one or two other chemicals which act on fluke but they dont kill the immature fluke as well as triclabendazole.

As the others said bottle jaw is caused by metabolic conditions, which are caused by things like parasites, or illnesses. In the case of Liver Fluke they damage the liver and take lots of blood, leaving the animal anaemic, and lacking in protein in the blood and then to bottle jaw.

Backline treatments with fluke action are not as good at killing fluke as the oral drenches for fluke. If one cow shows a fluke problem the other ones will also have it but not show outward signs.

We live an an endemic fluke area and have to treat all the animals at least once a year for fluke. That can be quite expensive so it is good to have tests done and know if you have a problem or not.

Cattle rarely show obvious signs of fluke infestation, but sheep are very susceptible. Large commercial sheep operations on wet country in your area would know if there is fluke locally, as would agricultural vets.
 
I checked that one. I have not used it myself. From the product information:

"The dosage level of clorsulon supplied by IVOMEC Plus is effective only against adult liver flukes (Fasciola hepatica)."

So, yes, it does adult fluke but not the immature and early immature stages. That is probably enough in most country but we have really bad fluke here we can give the stock a number of months break from all fluke by treating all stages in early winter after some bad frosts. The frosts stop the fluke on the ground so there is no new fluke intake from early in winter until it warms up in the spring. If we did not treat immature fluke they could still have a heavy fluke burden over the hardest time at the end of winter.
 
That makes sense. I treat twice a year, but we do not have a fluke problem in my area. But I also try to drench at the same time.
 
She got the ivermectin plus. It came on so sudden I wonder if it isn't protein deficiency from the last week before she calved coupled with the bad horse and deer flies. For now I'm covering all the bases
 
I have never seen the horse flies and deer flies this bad. Live cows are bringing a premium right now at the sale barn. That one of mine that got sick eating corn is going for a ride.
 

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