AF Ranch
Active member
I have a bred heifer that has developed several "wart" like growths.....from head to hip. What are they? Are they a problem? Any remedy?
"Warts........"
- Thread starter AF Ranch
- Start date
Help Support CattleToday:
If they are warts, they'll go away. Warts are caused by a virus. If you want to get rid of the quickly, catch her up and make one of them bleed. Pull it off, cut it off, pinch one with pliers, whatever to make it bleed, and they'll all go away. She'll probably be immune to that virus and never have them again. But they do spread through the herd if one of them gets warts. They don't hurt anything except their looks. I have seen registered cattle discounted because of them. We had one really good cow around here for years that we were able to buy as a weaned heifer for almost nothing because she came into the ring with warts.
backhoeboogie
Well-known member
The warts I am familiar with are caused by a virus. The hide is not as valuable if there is obvious damage to it. If you sell one that is covered in warts, you are going to take a loss on it. I wouldn't buy it because I wouldn't want the virus going through the rest of my cattle.
EIEIO
Well-known member
Had at least 5 heifers this year with warts on their faces. Read here they would go away. Did not really believe they would however figured folks knew what they were talking about. 6 months later and don't have a single heifer with warts. I even spoke with a vet once and asked if it was true that feeding a cow a wart off it would prevent them or make them fall off and he did not give me a 100% yes answer but said it would/could work and made some sense to him.
J
J
backhoeboogie
Well-known member
EIEIO":2bw18ite said:
Glad they went away for you. I wouldn't sell one until after they cleared.
EIEIO":3ocg1ec6 said:
It isn;t them eating them it's the tearing it off that gets rid of them. You could tear them off and bury them under the back porch in a prince albert can and have the same affect. Not really trying to PO any voodo folks.
dun":2mtq9fs2 said:
You can cut warts off of a cow and send them to the Large Animal Clinic in Auburn and they will make you a vaccine for injecting into your herd. It's pretty cheap too.
I did it about 10 years ago and it worked great and only cost about $25.
The eating method might just work. After all, a virus vaccine is only introducing a virus to the animal so the immune system will build an immunity.
Gate Opener
Well-known member
Had a bull calf develop warts, he looked terrible. Some of the warts got really big. I went to the vet to get some medicine for the warts and it was going to cost $47 for a treatment and vet said it would take 2 treatments. I thought that was ridiculous so I decided to wait and just let them go away. They went away not long after and I thought, you know if I had given him that medicine I would have thought it was the medicine that worked. Glad I waited. Also, none of the other cattle developed them. Had calves around his size and they played together. Not saying it won't happen but it didn't here.
The bull calfs mom was a first timer. The other cows that we have are 3 years and up. I wonder if they throw some kind of immunity onto their calves?
The bull calfs mom was a first timer. The other cows that we have are 3 years and up. I wonder if they throw some kind of immunity onto their calves?
Rangenerd
Well-known member
We get wart on our cattle, as does our vet. Our vet, who sells purebreed bulls, needs his bulls to look good, cuts some of the warts off and sends them down to UC Davis. There they make a vaccine for him out of the warts. This vaccine is specific for that type of wart causing virus. He says that it is costly to do but something he needs to do.
On the other hand, On my place the cattle can just live with them. My replacements usually contract the warts in the middle of winter, and by spring or early summer they are gone, never to return.
On the other hand, On my place the cattle can just live with them. My replacements usually contract the warts in the middle of winter, and by spring or early summer they are gone, never to return.
