my cow has cuts on her teats from her calf - what to do?

[cathleenc]

The bull calf is nine weeks old today, will wean him completely off of our family cow in 2 weeks. Mom is jersey/guernsey, calf is 95% jersey. Calf has access to mom for about 7 hrs/day and is separated the rest of the time. Cow has at least 2 teats with 1" cuts on them from the calf's teeth. The cuts look clean and healthy, for a cut that is. Clearly the teat looks healthier without the cut.

Would you do anything now or just wait till the calf is weaned?

thanks!

[wolffeathers]

I just clean the cuts once a day when I milk(share with calf). She recieved two or three cuts from this years calf, but they healed fine. We didn't pull the calf from her, just monitered the cuts to make sure they didn't become infected. She hasn't gotten cut for the past several weeks so maybe she knocked some sense into him. As long as the cuts remain clean they heal fairly quickly.

[jwal10]

Put some bag balm on when you seperate the calf for the night, will heal fine....James

[linn]

We usually separate the cow from the calf and let the cow in night and morning. We also put udder salve on the cow's udder.

[francismilker]

I'd clean it well after the calf nurses with iodine and then put neoporin ointment on it. I had a jersey one time that had such cuts on her teats it wouldn't heal with just using udder salve on it. It's going to be hard with the calf sucking her. But, it can be done. Good luck and keep us posted.