HELP PLEASE!! dary cow trouble

[adrellwynd]

hello, i have a dairy cow who thanks to the cold weather has developed some chapped teats. i had never realized they where very bad until one day i sat up from milking to see that my hands where covered in blood. (not really covered but they did have some blood on them. i started using Vaseline to try and sooth her from the cold. which it did, but the scratches never healed.
before too long they turned to cuts and now they're open wounds. I've tried Vaseline, bag balm, and another kind of Bag balm. while they DO help her teats become soft and protect them from the cold, i can't get the sores to heal.
i have to milk her once a day and my hands keep breaking open the scabs.
we also have a calf on her. any ideas to help keep her teats from breaking open?
also she's loosing a lot of weight. we keep her with a good amount of hay,water,grain, and minerals. but she's still not gaining any weight.
thanks for the help
Adrellwynd Fescue

[topside1]

Welcome to the forum. Where do you live that it's that cold? When was she wormed last (weight loss). How long have you had her? A few of my goats will chap, blood on hands, but usually after days of very cold weather. The teats quickly heal once reasonable temps. return to my region. The calf nursing is not helping, it's wetting the teat repeatedly in cold temp. days. My opinion is that the scabs will heal in time. Maybe spraying a antibotic directly on the wound would speed up the process. I usually tell my girls to suck it up, not much I can do. It's probably frostbite...Wish I was more helpful....Topside

[adrellwynd]

she was wormed just this last month. we live in south east MO. it got around 10 degrees a few times through the nights.
thanks for the reply

[BlackWillowFarm]

I have a cow with the same troubles. I milk once a day and the calf is with her the rest of the day. I'm in Michigan and it's been very cold and dry here for the last several months. Her teats are dry, chapped, cracked you name it. They break open and bleed a little bit. She is a good sport about it, but I can't wait to wean the calf and for the weather to warm up. I feel sorry for her. I'm just waiting it out until the weather gets nicer.

[adrellwynd]

yeah, thats all i can do too
i just hope she doesn't start hating me for it

[JKB07]

What kind of hay and what kind of feed are you feeding? Also, how much?


As to the teats. Bag balm should be applied daily during winter months. Like John said, the calf isnt helping...

Justin

[francismilker]

I had this prob on a first time freshening jersey last year and didn't get it cleared up intil I machine milked her for a few days and bottled the calf. I tried everything from antibiotic sprays to bag balm and the condition just worsened. A hungry calf can do a number on a sore teat and the cow's maternal instinct will cause her to just stand there and take it with an occasional stomp out of irritation at the pain. If you don't have a way to machine milk her you might still milk her out by hand and bottle the calf until the scabs heal up good enough to scar over. Then after that, just bag balm her after every milking and she should be fine.

[Cotton Picker]

Originally Posted by adrellwynd

we also have a calf on her. any ideas to help keep her teats from breaking open?

I would say that the calf is exacerbating her condition. IMHO, If you wish for the cow's teats to improve, pull the calf of of her, bottle feed it, and milk the cow out twice each day.

Salves will not be effective therapy if there is a calf sucking it off of the very teats that you have treated. After pulling the calf off the cow, I would suggest getting some Neosporin, or the Wally World equivalent. This will act as more of a healing antibiotic balm rather than just a moisturizer.

Hope this helps.

[adrellwynd]

yes it does, thank you!
but i'm milking, putting the calf with her, then putting the meds on her

[matt_man]

The calf's teeth are more than likely cutting her teats and not due to the cold. It really is not cold enough here in Southern Missouri for the weather to be causing the problem. We had a cow we were using as a nurse cow and the one calf that was on her was causing the problems with her teats always being cut open. I have not found any of the salves to be any better than the others and time is the best healer. I would still use the balms but I don't think it matters which one, I've tried several.

Rachel

[Deniser]

Here's another solution I've been using ever since we brought our first milk cow home just about 2 months ago. I know this may not work on a nursing cow, but it sure works on ours, who is just being hand-milked at this time. We put "M & J'S HEALING WONDER' in a spray bottle and spray a little before milking onto our hands and rub our hands on her teats and then also do the same right after milking. She has the nicest, softest teats and I have the nicest hands, according to my husband! It is distributed by Dan Vickers in Morrison, TN 37357, phone: 931-939-2426 or 931-607-2426. We just get it locally at our little variety store in Muddy Pond, TN.

[linn]

Here is my homemade wound/udder salve recipe.

Ingredients: Makes 6-7 ozs.

4 ounces Olive Butter (weighed)
2 ounces Neem Seed Oil (weighed)
1/2 ounce Beeswax (weighed)
1 ounce Lanolin (weighed) or petroleum jelly (I use lanolin)
1/2 ounce Lavender Essential Oil
1/2 ounce Eucalyptus Essential Oil

In a small pan, over very low heat, melt the olive
butter, beeswax, lanolin/petroleum jelly,
and add the neem oil once liquefied. Remove
from heat, let set for 2 minutes. Add essential oils,
stirring as you incorporate them.

Pour into clean glass jars or tins. For longer shelf life, store in the refrigerator.


I double the recipe and add 1 ounce comfrey oil to make udder salve. When my cow had a touch of mastitis I massaged this salve into that quarter and the problem was eliminated. It works well to help stimulate circulation in the udder.