Heifer with warts

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Ky hills

Ky hills

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Moved the heifers back close yesterday so we could pull the bull out, then this morning when separating bulls, got this one in the barn to pull a few warts.
She is one of two from the group of 19 that had warts. The other one just had a few and they have cleared up. I usually don't worry about warts as they don't typically get this bad, but this one is one that may get sold and don't want warts on her like that. Just cut a couple and sprayed fly spray on them.D3DE4997-F889-434F-822D-82EF6FD4D1E7.jpeg0CDE395E-3B24-42B7-A85E-0B951527B6B7.jpeg
 
@TennesseeTuxedo No but I hear there have been some strange side effects. I did use ivermectin on them in the spring. Made sure to accidentally spill some on me as I always do too, ya know for worms and things like that, maybe good for them head lice that a certain individual keeps mentioning.
 
I heard the green cheerio bands work good on the big ones.. that is a lot of warts!
I had one heifer this year with quite a few as well, but nothing in comparison.. she's getting over them now
 
TCRanch said:
Sweet Jesus, I've never seen them that bad! I always quote and practice Dun with benign neglect but that girl looks like a Hazmat suit is in order. You may want to try the wart vaccine; it does seem to help healing. Good luck!!!
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I usually practice the benign neglect thing too with warts, but that one was a little too much for us to pass up. Can't figure that one being so bad when just two out of the bunch had any warts at all and the other one just had a few and is cleared up now. Years ago I used the wart vaccine when I had registered cattle. Never have had any near that bad.
 
Ky hills said:
I usually practice the benign neglect thing too with warts, but that one was a little too much for us to pass up. Can't figure that one being so bad when just two out of the bunch had any warts at all and the other one just had a few and is cleared up now. Years ago I used the wart vaccine when I had registered cattle. Never have had any near that bad.
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I don't vaccinate with the wart vaccine, but a few years ago I had a first calf heifer that still had a few and tried it, basically just to see what happened. Vet gave me 10cc, 5cc per injection site on each side of the neck. It did seem to help. Not uncommon for my retained heifers to get warts, but nothing that warrants the vaccine as a general rule, and not something I included in my vaccine protocol.
 
Hereford2 said:
I haven't Ever seen them that bad.... Warts seem to be hereditary. Anyone else notice that?
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My old Trudy would throw a calf that every stinking year had warts.
Havnt had one here since she left the place.

Bless her heart. She was the most concerned mama too.
If she saw me doing anything, I mean anything, with a trailer. She would come running from clear across the pasture looking for her baby!

Ya had to make me find a picture!
Here she is with the last calf she raised here...
Screenshot_20210828-204429_Gallery.jpg
And her previous calf... warts and all
Screenshot_20210828-204304_Gallery.jpg
 
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Hereford2 said:
I haven't Ever seen them that bad.... Warts seem to be hereditary. Anyone else notice that?
Click to expand...

It's not hereditary (although disease/parasite resistance is)

They are caused by an infectious disease (papillomavirus). IMO there's no excuse for letting that take root in a herd any more than any other virus. Not a single one of my cows have a wart on them. If I moved next to other cattle that did I'd probably vaccinate to help prevent it.
 
Ky hills said:
Moved the heifers back close yesterday so we could pull the bull out, then this morning when separating bulls, got this one in the barn to pull a few warts.
She is one of two from the group of 19 that had warts. The other one just had a few and they have cleared up. I usually don't worry about warts as they don't typically get this bad, but this one is one that may get sold and don't want warts on her like that. Just cut a couple and sprayed fly spray on them.View attachment 7708View attachment 7709
Click to expand...
Cut a piece of wart off and inject it back into the animal. It works. Smash it up real fine and mix it with a sterile solution and use a fat needle so it can pass through . Maybe inject another shot of sterile solution to make sure it's not hung up in the needle. Another method is to take a wire brush and scratch over the wart and the skin beside it until you are scratching broken wart into broken skin. You just have to get the wart inside the body/blood? (Idk) I've also seen it given down the throat with a bolus gun. This seems to work too, although it is counterintuitive if you think about it as needing to get in the bloodstream. Not sure if this is possible through the digestive track but maybe. I don't know the science behind any of it very well but it does work. I think it's just a herpes virus like most other warts. The way ive had it described to me, this is like a DIY vaccine. I guess when the existing warts go away, no new ones grow back. It may even knock the existing ones out, idk... I've never watched them that closely afterward but they do seem to not get any worse and then go away maybe between a couple weeks and a couple months. Also they are contagious and other cattle may get them and u may have to do the same with them.

I know... I know... if this works why doesn't it work with genital herpes in people? Also maybe this is just an old wives tale and the real cure is time....

Try it if you want to and be your own judge. I was skeptical at first too, but based on my experience since trying it multiple times, I believe in it. Good luck!
 
I've heard of people swearing by cutting a wart off and putting it in a balling gun. I've never done that. I just pull a couple off, if anything at all. Our vet used to say don't worry about them, and they would usually clear up on their own.
 
We got them in our herd after using a bull without visible warts, the Heifers took longer to get bred out of that bull and we ended up selling them and anything that had warts, haven't had warts since then.
 
We've had several bad cases of warts in the last few years. Way worse than this animal.
Some look like dark icicles hanging off the heifer. Truly disgusting stuff.
We tend to treat depending on what the animal is being used for.
If it's been sold, and we just noticed the issue, I'll inform the buyer, then we inoculate, pull off as many as possible, and spray with formaline (sp?).
If it's staying as a replacement heifer, we generally let time do it's thing.
If they are on the udder, we usually pull them off well before calving, so baby can latch on.
If it's near the eye, we have the vet come and remove it (usually with a stitch or two).
We have been told of the "homemade vaccine" by our local vet, but haven't had one recently to try it on. I believe it works better than the regular vaccine, because it targets the particular variation of the virus each animal has contracted.
We had no luck with the regular vaccine (which is why our local vet suggested the homemade version)
 

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