Torn teat.. all good.

[FullCircleWVa]

My favorite cow, Red, calved last year April 1, this year March 31 to a nice simangus heifer. I went up to check on her I want to say around mid March and noticed she had a freshly ripped teat on her front right quarter. Man talk about a punch in the gut, made me sick because she is absolutely my best cow. Thankfully the flies weren't around much yet and I was able to dose the wound with blu-kote twice a day to keep infection at bay. I knew she wouldn't let the calf nurse that quarter because of the soreness and I was afraid that she would lose that quarter to hard milk or something.. WELL, just let it be known a few weeks ago I go to check as usual and see the heifer calf nursing that quarter.. talk about a good feeling. She's got a scar but she still milks all from all 4 and that made me hoop and holler.

I scoured my entire property for any sign of barbed wire down or something that she got caught on and I saw nothing.. I do a good job on keeping trash and random oddities out of the pasture, so I'm not too sure where she got caught up..

Although this worked out A-okay in the end.. is there a better option to blu-kote and bag balm for getting a wound like that under control? I feel as if I got lucky on this one.. but I'd rather be lucky...

 

[FullCircleWVa]

Here's her calf and the test after initial treatment. It looked way worse than it turned out and I let that get me anxious but it's okay. I'd rather worry and do something over just not caring at all.

 

[wbvs58]

Glad it worked out good because it looked bloody awfull or is the colouring from your Bluecote?
You could try doing nothing with a cut like that, good blood supply so they heal well. Of course there is always the option of having your Vet stitch it up.

Ken

 

[FullCircleWVa]

Ken, yes that is from the bluecote. If it was like that initially I think a vet definitely would have been called. Just tried to play it by ear

 

[Hereford2]

Do you have ponds they can get into? Snapping turtles can seriously damage teats...

 

[FullCircleWVa]

Do you have ponds they can get into? Snapping turtles can seriously damage teats...

I never even thought of that. There is one pond in the back that I fenced off so they can drink and get to the edge but not in the water. The cut was an inverted V, extreme resemblance to that of what a snapping turtle would do.

 

[Lisagrantb]

Friend of mine has a big dairy and years back his highest producing cow only had 3 teats, she lost one somehow probably stepped on it while getting up.