Bone Jowl Disease?

[lonelyfarmgirl]

I sold this lady a highlander heifer last winter. She was maybe 9 months old when I sold her and very small. Her size is why I sold her. Her mom was probably 25 years old when she calved then died of old age when the calf was around 6 months old. So this lady has a traveling petting zoo and bought her for that. She was especially happy with her size, since, well, traveling petting zoo needs a smaller cow.

So she contacted me saying the heifer has bone jowl disease..what?!?
She says her vet said it is picked up in the soil and causes cows to not grow. He said she has a 50% chance of surviving it, what ever that means.

I googled BJD and didn't find one single reference. Then I called my vet and left a message for him. The vet secretary (who has been there for years) said she had never heard of such a thing.

I also find it interesting, on a side note, that the potbelly pig she bought from me as a baby, she said first of all, bites and attacks the baby lambs and goats, even though he is harness trained now, and bites them when they put on his harness. We have never owned a potbelly that bit anything..not our tame ones, and not the ones we have never handled and are skiddish.

She also said he has 2 fully descended testicles. I castrated him myself. He only had one testicle and I removed it. So he grew two more?

She is not asking for a refund or anything, but this seems weird to me.

[SCRancher]

Lookup Lumpy jaw and/or wooden tongue in cattle.

The bull I purchased in November 2010 came down with an abscess in his jaw which had to be treated about 8-10 times by my vet. If left untreated due to it's location it could have been very serious. It was larger than a softball at curve of his jaw. Vet said it was probably because he was cutting teeth and/or possibly stuck the inside of his mouth with a stick or brier.

As it was after a while he REALLY didn't want to go into the chute and ended up getting stuck all turned around in the swing gate. When I tried to release him he almost snapped my forearm - needed about 5 stitches. Anyway he injured his rear leg and it got progressively worse till it finally burst (vet told me not to be too concerned but to watch it). Even after it burst my vet said watch it - it's fine now thank god.

[oregon woodsmok]

You could ask her permission to talk to her vet about it.

I suspect that she heard the name wrong and maybe the details about it, too.

I wouldn't sell her any more animals, nor give her any references.

[lonelyfarmgirl]

I think she meant lumpy jaw. I looked it up and sent her info on it. She says that is what it is. We don't typically sell cows anyway since we have a market for the meat. I only sold that one because she was so small. Didn't see the use in feeding her out for an animal that might not top 600# at 3 years old.

[willow_girl]

IIRC, lumpy jaw usually starts with an abscess inside the mouth, generally caused by woody or brush feed or a foreign object. I wonder if the heifer developed this at a young age, and if it may have contributed to her failure to thrive/small size?

It's a pity the disfiguring condition likely will render her unsuitable for a petting zoo.