Cancer?

[Bret4207]

Well, what I thought was a head or knee or something in my cows side was still there after she freshened. My limited research shows it's probably a tumor, just ahead of her right hip. Got a few more smaller ones on her right side ribs. Neighbor dairyman says probably cancer, she'll go until it get's too bad and then it's done. Any options or ideas? We use her for milk instead of buying milk replacer, had planned on her being around a few years.

[oneokie]

If she is still in good flesh, sell her for slaughter and replace her.

[Chixarecute]

When we sold our Ayrshire cow who had cancer (noticeable tumor) we got $40 for her. The cattle hauler felt so bad he didn't charge us for hauling. This was about 1988-89.

[MARYDVM]

No buyer worth his salt will touch a cow with swollen lymph nodes. Cancerous cows are condemned at the slaughterhouse as unfit for human consumption, so they are a total loss to the buyer. If it's confirmed as cancer, call the renderer, or dig a big hole in the ground.

Bovine leukemia is caused by a virus, and calves can become infected by drinking the milk of a cow with the disease.

[Ronney]

Bret, get your vet out. You don't know nor does anybody on here nor does your neighbour dairyman. I have a cow with nodules on her ribs and other parts of her body - got the vet out and they are non-cancerous, more like vibrous growths that are not painful, do not affect her health and are unlikely to give her problems in the future.

If it is cancer the vet will be able to tell you and also, probably through tests rather than experience, tell you if it has got into the lymph nodes. If it has forget about sending her to slaughter, she will go down the shute and you will get nothing for her.

I should add the rider that this is NZ law - anything suspected of having cancer cannot go to the works without a vet certifying that the cancer hasn't, in their opinion, spread to the lymph nodes and elsewhere in the body and also certify it as being fit to travel to the works. If the vet feels that the cancer is advanced the beast goes nowhere except into a big hole.

I have only had this happen to me once. A bull with cancer eye. He went to the works with vet certification and the kill sheet from the works came back (with a cheque) confirming that the cancer was still localised and he had been duly processed.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[Bret4207]

Thanks for the info.