Extra Teats on Jersey Calf

[Ernie]

Though I checked pretty vigorously when I bought her, a Jersey calf I picked up last year is now presenting an additional row of teats at the far back of her udder, giving her a total of 6. These are very small, almost vestigal.

I am a hand milker. How much trouble is this going to give me?

[francismilker]

Ernie,
How old is she? Sometimes people clip them off the heifer at a young age. It takes a good sharp pair of scissors and some iodine on it after you're through clipping them.

Most of the time I don't worry about the extra teats. They shouldn't pose too much of a problem for handmilking as long as they aren't too close.

[Ernie]

She's about a year now. They are properly spaced in a row away from the others, but it bothered me that they were present at all.

However I found some documentation on the condition. Polythelia it's called.

http://jds.fass.org/cgi/reprint/17/8/559.pdf

It's a pretty old document, but in their tests they found 60% of Jerseys had this back then. It's been culled out pretty heavily by the commercial dairymen, as multiple teats interferes with milking machines.

I don't know when they became obvious. They aren't as big as the last joint of my little finger. I looked really closely when I bought her, but she was only a couple of weeks old then and I guess they hadn't presented then. They are either vestigal and non-functioning, or they may be connected to the gland system. It's hard to say.

[Christina R.]

You can find some older posts on this. It is normal and they do not need removing. I remember finding them on my family cow. Same thing, I had looked for extra teats and lo and behold quite a bit of time later there were "2 more on the far back of the udder, venly spaced, small" etc. almost word for word what you said.

One post I remember had the explanation that they were left over "evolutionary" type things, kind of like our appendix. Anyhow, what you are seeing is normal and should be left alone.

A true "extra teat" presents differently.

[Ernie]

Good to know. Thanks. I wasn't even considering cutting them off, but my concern was that when I try to sell her heifers in years to come I'd be furthering some weird genetic disorder.

I don't remember ever having this problem with Herefords, but we just ate them ... we didn't milk them. I really can't ever remember a day counting teats.

[Ronney]

Ernie, if you had scrolled down a bit further you would have found another thread on the same subject which I answered last night.

It's very common and unless they are going to foul the cups on a milking machine, are nothing to worry about. Herefords have them as well and I knew a family that milked a Hereford as a housecow and she had 8 teats, 6 of which produced milk.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[Ernie]

Makes me feel better to know it's so common.