fenceman
Well-known member
Have several with extras, always have. Dont give it a second thought. If you not showing them its no concern
But did he die of starvation?sim.-ang.king":3j1k7dvk said:The man with the gold gun had a third nipple.
He did die...
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
greybeard":2jh9qrg2 said:But did he die of starvation?sim.-ang.king":2jh9qrg2 said:The man with the gold gun had a third nipple.
He did die...
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.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.