Warts, two old time remedies.

[Sir Loin]

Warts, two old time remedies.

Conventional wisdom says that the virus that causes warts is contracted by young animal during the time when the antibodies from mother colostrum milk has run out and the calves own immune system is not yet fully able to fight off the virus. Or there is a mineral deficiency in its diet.

Convention wisdom also says just leave them alone and they will go away eventually all by themselves.
Now for the most part this is true, but I have seen cases when they didn't fully go away.

Conventional wisdom also says, warts cause no health problems for the animal.
And I have found this to be true also.

Now here is where the problem is.
If you are showing your animal or selling registered stock, you want them looking there very best. And warts can be extremely ugly. So what can you do?

First you can lance (cut off) one of the warts, send it away to a lab and have a vaccine made for the specific virus your animal has and hope the vaccine arrives, and has time to work before show/sale day or you can do the very same thing yourself. Yes make your own vaccine.

Cure 1. Simple lance (cut off ) one of the warts and shove it in the animals mouth and make sure he/she swallows it. If you have caught it early and there are no warts large enough to cut off, simply lance ( make an incision) one to make it bleed and rub the blood in and around the animals mouth as best you can.
By ingesting the virus the animals own immune system will be triggered.

Cure 2. Take a pair of pliers (needle nose work nicely) and crush a wart, or two, leaving it attached to the animal.
This method allows the virus to enter the bloodstream directly and triggers the animals own immune system.

Both cures do exactly what the manmade vaccine does, it triggers the animal's immune system, and it costs a whole lot less in both time and money.
It can be done in seconds while you are working your calves.

I have seen it and have done it myself hundreds of times and take my word for it, in about 30 days or less the warts will be gone, depending on how sever they were.

If you try it and it works you can thank my Grandfather and father because that is who taught me. Excuse me, I mean that is who my "mentors" were. ;-)
SL

 

[Tod Dague]

I use cure #2

 

[dun]

Instead of feeding it to the animal, bury it under your neighbors cousins mother in laws back porch. It will have the same affect.

dun

 

[hillsdown]

I think that is the most common response whan asking a vet about warts.They usually say to crush the warts with plyers so the calf makes it's own antibodies.I have only had them on a couple animals so far and the last time I finally got around to locking her up to treat , the warts were already gone.
She was an embryo holstein that was bottle fed from day one and I think she recieved 13 pints of colostrum when she was about 25 minutes old (first feeding I always give them as much as they want) .

So here is question for you if no other animal in the herd has warts where are they contracting it from?

 

[Sir Loin]

HD,
Re:

So here is question for you if no other animal in the herd has warts where are they contracting it from?

Well, as there are four strains of viruses that cause warts, I will have to do a little research on that, before I give you a more definitive answer.
But, as all viruses that I know of, including HIV (aids), all can be transmitted as an air born virus it could very well be blowing on the wind.
Then there is the fact that many viruses, and bacteria that are all around us, mutate during their natural lifespan. So it very well could be a mutation.
So IMO these two are a distinct possibility.

Then it could be that it is carried in by some other means. Such as your vet, food supplies, medications, rented bull, seaman, embryos etc etc etc

I'll get back to you on this, kid. ;-)
SL

 

[Sir Loin]

OK kid,
Here ya go.
To make a long story short: "it's genetic" and a calf can be born with it.
So the correct answer is "carried in by some other means" ie seamen and/or embryo.

Earlier work by Botchan and numerous other researchers on the human and cow (bovine) papilloma virus has shown how the virus moves into new cells. It carries its genes in the form of a circular DNA plasmid that nestles in the nucleus of the cell and makes use of the cellular machinery to generate more copies of itself. Each cell can house hundreds of plasmids.
When the cell divides into two daughter cells, the plasmids glom onto the chromosomes so as not be left behind, and are copied and delivered along with the duplicate chromosomes into the daughter cells, where they again take up residence in the nucleus as latent viral DNA. The viral plasmids turn into infectious viruses only in the top, differentiated layers of tissue.
Previous work showed that the bovine papilloma virus hitchhikes by throwing out a thumb - in actuality, a protein called E2 - that latches onto a cellular protein that, in turn, attaches to histone proteins that envelop the chromosome, tethering the plasmid to the chromosomes.

Sorry you had to wait so long.
SL

 

[Sir Loin]

Dun,
Re:

Instead of feeding it to the animal, bury it under your neighbors cousins mother in laws back porch.

Would that be the one with no teeth or the one with no ankles?
SL

 

[dun]

Dun,
Re:

Instead of feeding it to the animal, bury it under your neighbors cousins mother in laws back porch.

Would that be the one with no teeth or the one with no ankles?
SL

No Teeth! The one with no ankles is the mother in laws uncles friend

dun

 

[hillsdown]

Very interesting quote Mr.SL and it actually clears up questions as to why you never see it and then boom the heifers have it.So thank you for your response.

 

[KNERSIE]

Then it could be that it is carried in by some other means. Such as your vet, food supplies, medications, rented bull, seaman, embryos etc etc etc

I think the seaman is to blame :lol: never allow those filthy sailors in your pastures, they go from port to port picking up diseases to bring back to your herd ;-)

Sorry, couldn't help myself

 

[Little Cow]

Hey!

I was a sailor in the US Navy and owned cows for the last two of the nine years I served. None of my cows had warts, so there!

 

[Sir Loin]

Knersie & Little cow,

Thank you so much for pointing out my spelling error.
So should that be "seemen" or "c-men"?
SL

 

[KNERSIE]

semen

 

[Little Cow]

Sir Loin,

No disrespect intended, just couldn't let a sailor joke slip by...

 

[Sir Loin]

Hey, I was only off by one letter and that's pretty dam n good for me. Seeing as I have a touch of Parkinson's, which makes it hard to type but it does comes in handy for brushing your teeth and a few other things. :lol: :lol:
No offence taken!
SL

 

[milkmaid]

Very interesting quote Mr.SL and it actually clears up questions as to why you never see it and then boom the heifers have it.So thank you for your response.

FWIW hillsdown, everything SL says has to be taken with a grain of salt. The wart virus is generally transmitted through tattooing and tagging equipment, or perhaps shared needles, (same as any virus, really). In fact, I think the only times I've encountered it is after bangs vaccinating... and using the tattooing equipment.

According to the Merck Vet Manual, it can also be transmitted through open cuts, sores, frostbite lesions (ie udder/teat warts), and perhaps just being in close proximity with cattle who have warts. I haven't witnessed the latter to the best of my knowledge. Last summer I was running quite a few head and only had one heifer with warts all over her face -- and I didn't have any others with warts at the same time or any since then.

The quote that SL came up with actually has nothing to do with genetics or calves being born with genes that cause warts. Simplified, the only thing it says is how the virus enters new cells and reproduces. Based on the description given, IF it were in the context of the fetus at the embryonic stage, the fetus would come out as one giant wart.

 

[Rookie]

Instead of feeding it to the animal, bury it under your neighbors cousins mother in laws back porch. It will have the same affect.

dun

Runnin backwards ta the place ya bury the wart under the light o the full moon wont be of harm neither.

 

[Sir Loin]

MM,
Re:

everything SL says has to be taken with a grain of salt.

That should be said for everything you read on any board.

You are right it can be transmitted through all those means you mentioned, but that was not HD's question.

And besides, if I had all the answers, then I would have a cure for cervical cancer, now wouldn't I, as the very same virus that causes warts on cattle causes cervical cancer in women.

There are probable a thousand ways it can be transmitted from one calf to another once it has manifested itself, but that still doesn't answer why, or how the first calf broke out with warts in the first place.
Why do some women get cervical cancer and others do not? :roll:
SL

 

[sackshowcattle]

I was told by my vet that it gets in the ground and the only way to get rid of it is steralize the ground. My breeding herd is clean but before we moved anything that came up to get ready to sell as show cattle got put in one front pen we had and whatever was in there got warts. Now that we moved I have not seen them back. So my guess would be a bull or cow you bought and put on your place brought it in. Its like ring worm gets in the ground and hard to get rid of. I cleaned the whole herd and vaccinated rightbefor the move made sure everything was clean now 3 years later have not seen an outbreak of either since they are on new clean dirt.