Warty teats

Colin · Post by **Colin** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 12:47 pm

One of my heifers had her first calf last Wednesday. Mother and calf are doing very well. She had a few hard and crusty warts on two of her teats, much of which has now been cleaned off by the calf's suckling. However on one teat, the warts are around and over the end and it looks like the calf is not suckling off this one - the teat is not clean like the others and is also larger. I tried to see if I could gently rub them off, but from the reaction of the cow I suspect if I perservere this will make her sore and I'd be concerned over making her teat bleed.

Any ideas welcome. Should I just leave her alone, or intervene and try and get these warts off ? She's proving to be a great mother and I don't want to risk losing this quarter.

Colin

seacon dexters · Post by **seacon dexters** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 2:36 pm

You could possibly place some udder cream on it or try and milk it out an then have a good look at it.

Duncan MacIntyre · Post by **Duncan MacIntyre** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 2:57 pm

I'd go with the udder cream, keep it all soft, and milk out to prevent the quarter getting too much pressure and a sore teat. The calf will probably begin to take from it as it grows but you may need to do a bit of work to keep the pressure off. As long as the warts do not actually interfere with the teat opening all will be ok eventually and they will fall off. If you are in a great hurry to be rid of them eg for show or sale, or if they are causing real problems then your vet may be able to have an autogenous vaccine made if they are of the pedunculated sort ie are on a stalk. For most cases of teat warts this is a bit expensive and not really needed.
I'm sure if you do a search of posts here you will see quite a bit on warts.

Duncan

John C · Post by **John C** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:40 pm

To get rid of warts paint them with castor oil and see them go.

The old farmer across the way even used to get rid of the holdimakers kids warts by using the same method.

Colin · Post by **Colin** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:46 pm

Appreciate the advice which I've tried out. I used the udder cream and massaged this well into the teat. Managed to get quite a good stream of milk off her, which I was very pleased with, as it at first looked to me like the warty growths had covered her milk opening. I'll keep doing this.

I'll need to get some caster oil but I will try this too.

The warts are not on a stalk, but look like very rough scabs.

Colin

John C · Post by **John C** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:19 am

Paint them regularly with the castor oil and the wart will turn to a soggy paste and simply slough off.

I didn't believe the guy when he first told me about this but it does work.