Anyone ever seen this? Cow skin/udder problem.

[Jennifer L.]

I have several heifers that came back from the guy who has been raising them the last two years. They freshened in the past two weeks and seemed ok, but the other day I noticed that one of them had a stain on the inside of her hind leg. I pushed her udder aside so I could see, and was surprised to see the skin on the side of her udder and the skin on her thigh was wet and stinky. Where the skin crosses between thigh and udder, up at the top of the udder, the skin was raw. I thought it was odd, but figured she'd gotten hurt some way and didn't think too much of it, that time would heal it. Well, last night one of the other heifers in that same bunch (there are 7 of them) was urinating in the parlor, and you know they hump up and spread their hind legs slightly to do this. I was standing near her and noticed a bad smell, and when I looked at her, sure enough she has the same problem the other heifer has. It's not an injury at all, it's some other kind of problem, and on this heifer it's on both sides of her udder. I think it maybe it's a yeast infection. Has anyone ever seen anything like this on a cow? I've been doing this for a lot of years and it's a first for me.

Jennifer

[JeffNY]

Udder rot, and it is caused by their sweating between their udder and their legs. I had a couple with this, and it does smell, smells like really wet, dirty, wool socks. They can form legions in there, and it is painfull to walk as well for some. They do make a powder that you can sprinkle inside their leg if you can do this. Baby powder can also work as well. The key is to soak up the moisture. The medicated stuff, is your best bet tho. The stuff we used was blue in color. Helped the cow in question I mentioned in the other thread when she calved last year. Udder was so big, it chaffed the inside of her leg, where her udder is. So yes, it is normal, it does happen, and it will eventually go away once the bags swelling goes down some. But treat it with someone if possible, because the skin can fall off some, and could potentially lead to infection.


Jeff

[Up North]

We have this happen once in a while too with big uddered heifers. I always attributed it to chaffing. It usually goes away after they have been milking a bit like Jeff says. It's pretty hard to treat though. Those sores are so high up in their armpit they are just about impossible to get to.

Heather

[Jennifer L.]

The funny thing is, these heifers are that particularly large uddered. Not that much edema in them at all.

Huh. Well, it does beat all how you can do something for most of your life and still keep seeing something new. Thanks. I'll go check out on some kind of medication for them.

Jennifer

[Up North]

The IBA Dairy Supply Company has a dry powder product just for this. Comes in a plastic shaker bottle the size of a honey dispenser.

[Jennifer L.]

You know, I checked into this more and did see it ID'd as Intertrigo, which is a yeast infection AFAIK. The heifer raiser lucked into a deal on corn silage and this is the first of my cows that ever had any. It's interesting that this showed up in these heifers because in humans, at least, if you have a yeast over growth you are supposed to avoid femented foods. I can't help but wonder if there is a connection between me seeing this for the first time (always fed strictly hay here) and the corn silage.

Interesting, anyway.

Jennifer

[Paula]

I was gonna say yeast too. See it all the time with morbidly obese people with lots of skin folds/rubbing. And yeah, it's stinky. In the hospital we use Nystatin powder. You can buy it otc at the drug store, but I'd call the vet to make sure it would be ok to use.