Extra Tit

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Have several with extras, always have. Dont give it a second thought. If you not showing them its no concern
 
Alan":s3mf0m60 said:
Seriously! That's your advice is to a member, a calf may starve to death on a dry, extra, rouge teat? You are all about a step forward and two back.


To Bovine Part Time, if you have a calf that will suck on a dry teat until it dies of starvation there's a lot more wrong than a extra teat. Extra teats=no problems..... Period! Your calf will not starve to death.

Alan
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Alan, what I've learned from this thread is that you don't have enough cattle to know what you are talking about. Sorry, but she said so. Calves will stand there and suck themselves to death on a non working tit while the other ones poke it in the eyes - but only in large groups of cattle.

But just so I know for the future - how many cattle do I need to learn about this big herd phenomenon? 102 cows? 317? 740? 1006? Oh sorry, I forgot you like round numbers cg8. Now I dont know if I should breed for more nipples and pretend to be a BTO with starved calves, or to piddle my life away with a few basic cows with good udders and live calves - small time farming sure is hard.
 
Extra teats don't kill calves, but cows with teats that are too big to suck will kill calves. We usually cull cows that look like they are going to develop teats that a calf can't suck. It's always been a progressive condition where the teats get bigger with each calf the cow has. Another one of those instances where a notebook is handy. If extra teats are a real problem for you they are easy enough to remove when the heifer is young. When she is starting to bag up is too late for that, though. The condition is pretty common in dairy cattle. The problem there is that they only have four inflations per stanchion, so they remove extra teats on heifers.
 
I know people sometimes remove them when they are young - but would an elastic not remove it, Perhaps on her off season between calves to lower the risk?
 
If it is feeding off of one of the other quarters, I suppose you could band it in the off season, but if it has it's own quarter that is allowed to develop milk, it could maybe get mastitis if you cut off the spigot. If it was a truly blind teat, you could certainly do it. If it isn't going to see a dairy barn or a showring, it's not worth the trouble.

When you see a cow come in in the fall, and she has a 250 pound calf and she has three huge teats, make sure she goes on the trailer with her calf. Don't blame the bull that jumped the fence or extra teats.
 
I have more than a couple with six. Noticed yesterday a heifer calf with seven. I, also, was wondering if the extras were dead ends. I've never tried to milk any of the extras (normally two more additional, equally spaced, in the rear) when I've had to help a calf or milk colostrum.
 
I almost lost one to a blind teat last week. Calf was tall and 100 pounds. Cow was short. She had a couple small teats high on the back of her udder. I saw the calf the day it was born, weighed and tagged it. Three days later, while tagging another calf, I noticed this cow calling and I found the calf laying by the fence, He did not even get up when I approached him. I checked him out and it was obvious he was thinner and his gut was empty. We got him and the cow up to the chute to check him out. Cows udder was tight and nipples were dry and rough. It was obvious she had not been sucked. We milked the cow and tried to get the calf to take a nipple, but he just fought back. We milked the cow into a bottle and stuck it in the calves mouth. With a little encouragement he began to drink. After that he got excited about it, and we tried the cow again with no luck. Let the cow out, and the calf went over to her tail and tried to suck those high and dry teats. I let him have the rest of the bottle. For the next couple days we milked the cow, got him started on the bottle, and then showed him the teats. It took three days before he got smart enough to find those teats on his own. I admit this calf may have had a hard birth and not have been the brightest to start with, but it does show that in rare situations a calf can stave on those blind teats. This was actually my second stupid calf who obsessed with those dry teats, but the first one was on a cow with large nipples. She was culled after that of course.

I probably have more cows with extra nipples than without. Many of them even have milk. 99.9% of the time there isn't a problem, but I know for a fact that under the right circumstances it can be.
 
Katpau":2iw5k2a9 said:
I almost lost one to a blind teat last week. Calf was tall and 100 pounds. Cow was short. She had a couple small teats high on the back of her udder. I saw the calf the day it was born, weighed and tagged it. Three days later, while tagging another calf, I noticed this cow calling and I found the calf laying by the fence, He did not even get up when I approached him. I checked him out and it was obvious he was thinner and his gut was empty. We got him and the cow up to the chute to check him out. Cows udder was tight and nipples were dry and rough. It was obvious she had not been sucked. We milked the cow and tried to get the calf to take a nipple, but he just fought back. We milked the cow into a bottle and stuck it in the calves mouth. With a little encouragement he began to drink. After that he got excited about it, and we tried the cow again with no luck. Let the cow out, and the calf went over to her tail and tried to suck those high and dry teats. I let him have the rest of the bottle. For the next couple days we milked the cow, got him started on the bottle, and then showed him the teats. It took three days before he got smart enough to find those teats on his own. I admit this calf may have had a hard birth and not have been the brightest to start with, but it does show that in rare situations a calf can stave on those blind teats. This was actually my second stupid calf who obsessed with those dry teats, but the first one was on a cow with large nipples. She was culled after that of course.

I probably have more cows with extra nipples than without. Many of them even have milk. 99.9% of the time there isn't a problem, but I know for a fact that under the right circumstances it can be.
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It happens....I'm sure with people who only check their cows occasionally, they lose a calf and wonder what happened. It happens if a cow has a nonworking teat too. My vet recommends having them removed if you happen to have the cow there for other reasons.
I have a calf right now who is nursing a down cow. The total opposite of a dumb calf. We had a cow calve during all the rain and was paralyzed. We brought her to the house where i have a bottle calf whose heifer mother had no udder so we sold her. Kept the baby so that when, and it will happen, a cow loses her calf. I graft these calves onto those cows. Anywho, all i had to do is show this calf a teat on the ground and off she went..Now i have my fingers crossed the cow stands.
 

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