Wrapping milk cow's legs?

[mrsnav98]

Hi all. My milk cow is being eaten alive by flies. Her front legs are bleeding & she's going down drastically in milk production. I have been using an oil based fly spray on her, which works great everywhere else on her. But after walking through tall, wet grass, her legs become vulnerable again.
I am cleaning & treating her legs twice a day with wound wash, spray, & ointment, as well as spraying her down with the fly spray. I'm wondering if I can wrap her legs, similar to a horse? Her back legs aren't affected nearly as much as her front.
I thought she was doing better because the wounds were scabbing over & the flies seemed to be bothering her less. But this morning I saw that the flies have moved up higher on her legs to fresh, unaffected skin.
Suggestions?

[Rose1317]

Let us know how that works, we have the same problem here.

[KeepingItAtHome]

Can you use an emollient? Something that would stay better. I don't how to find if essential oils are safe for cows but I would melt some shea butter, coconut oil and beeswax, add lavender oil, thyme oil and Tansy oil. The mix of fats should be thick and wax like, which will keep the oils on the cow, the oils repel flies and most other biting insects and will heal the current sores. This is what I would use on me and my kids anyway, like I said I don't know yet about using essential oils on animals.

[agmantoo]

There is a good insecticide made from an extract from chrysanthemums flowers available. Do a little searching on google and you should find it

[goodhors]

How about mowing the field, getting grass shorter so it isn't rubbing her legs? If you don't mow regularly, grass loses nutrition with drying and going to seed. So maybe the grass available, isn't giving her enough nutrition if she doesn't travel a lot in the field. Our cattle seemed to do better in fields that were mowed regularly, kept down to 5-8 inches high, with new grass growth coming on all the time. And while we had flies, they didn't seem to leave scabs and make holes in the cattle. Have to say wet legs will soften the skin, could make it easier for flies to get holes going on the animals.

They do sell leg covers for horses, not sure if you want to invest in them.

http://www.doversaddlery.com/leg-guards/c/4303/

Have you considered bringing the cow inside during the day hours? We do that with the horses here, flies just chew them to bits. With night turnout, they do get some bug bites, but not chased by the flies. I do use Vasaline on the scabs almost daily. Softens the scabs, prevents bugs biting the same area over and over. I think it clogs up the biting parts on the bugs! Horses seem to get the most bites, scabs on the underneath skin of belly area. The navel, girth area, armpits, near the sheath or udder area, between the jawbones of head, where windpipe goes into chest. Ears I wipe with just a smear of vasaline on the scabs inside, don't want any running down into the ear canal. The other body parts out of sunshine, I apply a good coating and rub it in some.

Vasaline, Bag Balm, other greasy coatings WILL BURN THE SKIN in sunshine, so you have to be careful with the animal. You can burn them BADLY with greasy coatings on hair. Again, our animals are out at night, so I have no problems with burns.

Dollar Store vasalines work fine, usually more quantity for your money, because you go thru quite a lot keeping big animals greased to prevent holes in them.

Sorry about your cow, sounds nasty to deal with your flies. Shorter grass gives less places for bugs to hide in, no friction of stems on her legs, less wet on skin to cause wet skin problems, especially if she has white legs.

If you have fly tags for ears, you might braid one into her tail with a piece of string to hang it on, she would get more coverage with tail working the tag. You do have to go pick up the tag if she loses it, not good left on the land.

[mrsnav98]

I'm obviously new to all of this, but I was wondering if mowing the pasture would help. Now I know. The farm we bought was abandoned for a few years, and the land itself even longer, so we have MUCH to do. Since we're just starting out, we are at the point of getting a pasture fenced, moving the cows in, then having just enough time to fence the next pasture to move them into.

We've mowed the far pasture that we're in the process of fencing in right now. But the closer pasture, where they're at now, has grass that is 3-4 ft tall and some weeds that are over 6ft tall. We have poison hemlock Thankfully they don't eat it.

The fly spray we're using is approved for organic dairy use. It contains white mineral oil, vanillin, soybean oil, and essential oils of Eugenol, Cedar, Peppermint, Cinnamon, Geranium, Geraniol, Lemon Grass, Rosemary, and Thyme. It works really well. It's just the tall, wet grass washing it off her legs. And the flies don't seem to bother the other cattle that much, just our milk cow. She must smell really tasty. And yes, she is blonde/white.

I let her in the dark, cool barn 2 hours before I milk her, to help relieve her of the flies. But our barn is basically a giant sieve and the whole north side is so bad that we don't want the cattle in there. So that leaves the "good" side, which we use for milking, and we don't want all the cattle in there all the time, making it unsanitary.

We did wrap her legs last night, but it slid down. It did seem to help quite a bit though. We decided to leave them unwrapped today since it was raining this morning, and everything is soaked. We'll wrap her legs again tonight, but a bit tighter this time.

We thought if we let the grass seed out that it would help it grow better and hopefully choke out the weeds. Maybe? Maybe not? We know that it's way too tall right now, though. We're learing as we go. Thanks for the advice.

[G. Seddon]

I agree with goodhors about mowing the pasture. Our cattle don't eat the long stems and much prefer the shorter grass. This will also keep down some of the risks of pinkeye. Knocking down the weeds can keep them from overtaking the grass as well. Here the weeds seem to outgrow all the grass, whether it's been wet or dry.

Not sure what the chemicals are on the horse leg wraps, but you could research that and ask your vet if this would work.

This year we went back to insecticide eartags for our cows and there's barely a fly on them!

[KeepingItAtHome]

Since you already have a good organic spray you could just add that to melted beeswax. The wax would just hold up against the wet grass better than straight oil and you'd still get all the benefits of the oil you're using. I would start with a mix 25% beeswax 75% oil and see how it works.

[mrsnav98]

That's a good idea, KIAH. I just may try that tonight. Thanks.

[goodhors]

Keep an eye on the cow's legs, the buildup of flyspray or things in the spray, may cause some dermatitis on her skin. Seems like white skin on cows can be a lot more sensitive than the colored skin. And some individuals are more sensitive about their white skin. We had a Dutch Belted steer and the Hereford heifer, who both got quite sore when wormed with pour-on Ivermectin wormer. The Holstein calf with white never had any issues with pour-on wormer.

Do be careful wrapping legs, too tight or too loose, could let the wrapping material cut into circulation or get snagged on stuff and hurt her legs. I probably wouldn't wrap her legs, just rub on some stuff to cover the scabbing instead. I never turn my horses out with leg-wraps on for that reason. If they have something to get snagged with, they WILL hurt themselves.

With your VERY tall grass and weeds, I would find some way to get the height reduced as soon as possible. I have not ever had any grass gone-to-seed produce growth in my fields. I have to go out, scratch the bare spots up with machinery or a rake, put down grass seed I PURCHASE, then cover with dirt, for any grass production. Grass gone to seed goes dormant, so it quits producing for you, for less grazing.

My pastures are nice BECAUSE we mow them and don't let seeds form.

[mrsnav98]

Well I tried the 75% fly spray mixed w/25% bees wax last night. It worked great, for 1 hour. She just scratched it off, along w/her scabs. So DH wrapped her legs again. This time he went a bit tighter & a bit higher, up to her knees. But when she scratches she pushes the wraps down & scrapes off her scabs, thus attracting the flies to fresh blood.

I do wash her legs w/warm soapy water each time I milk her, so the sprays & ointments aren't building up. I think we'll try horse leg wraps next, instead of the self adhesive wrap. I just need her legs to heal enough that they're not bleeding or weeping.

DH did mow the pasture they are currently in last night. They seem happier now. I'm really tempted to put our ducks in the pasture w/our cattle, but I'm worried they will either run away or it will be next to impossible to catch them at night. And we would have to put them back in their pen at night; we have a lot of coyotes here.

I'll keep y'all posted.

[KeepingItAtHome]

well, once the scabs are healed maybe the wax combo will help keep the flies away. I guess the problem is getting them healed. I use Neem oil in my (human) after bite care, it helps heal the sores.
Are your ducks used to coming in at night? I think they would be helpful in controlling the flies and if they're accustomed to coming in at night they might not be too hard to catch...

I wonder if a collar of tansy would help deter them?? I don't know, just thinking outside the box. I hope you find a solution for the poor girl soon!

[mrsnav98]

I decided against the horse leg wraps. I knew she would just shred them w/her hooves while scratching. The combo of short grass, time in a dark barn, & fly ointment in beeswax seems to have done it. Thank you again KIAH for suggesting the beeswax!

She is healing really well now, and quickly. I'm going to try making my own fly spray. I already have most of the essiential oils & herbs on hand anyway. I might as well try to save a little money. Thank you everyone, for your helpful suggestions.

[goodhors]

Glad to hear the good news about milk cow!! You just hate it when nothing helps against the bugs. Maybe she will give a bit more milk, now she is more comfortable!!

[Miss Kay]

Try a sulfur block. It isn't 100% but sure seems to help.

[carellama]

I use the ear fly tags but do not like to put holes in my cows ears. I have lots of old belts that I do not use and each cow has their own belt necklace with a fly tag attached on each side. WE had a case of pink eye in one of the beef cows so had to do something to keep flies away. Works great!

[goodhors]

Originally Posted by carellama

I use the ear fly tags but do not like to put holes in my cows ears. I have lots of old belts that I do not use and each cow has their own belt necklace with a fly tag attached on each side. WE had a case of pink eye in one of the beef cows so had to do something to keep flies away. Works great!

I had forgotten the "cow collar" with 2 ear tags idea! We also did this with our cattle and it did work nicely in reducing flies on the cattle. I didn't think the cattle needed extra ear holes either, already had a RFID tag in one ear, with 4-H Fair tag in the other.

[CIW]

I may have missed this, as there has been alot of information given.
Have you thought about using a dredge or wipe for your cow to walk under? You can put nearly any kind of concoxtion in it that you can make up. Many kinds of flys originate by landing on the animals back, and then migrating to the belly and legs.
You won't see immediate changes from one day to another, but over time they are very effective against most pests. Just place it where your cattle frequent. They will learn to rubunder it. I've even seen some that they step over, if you want that.

[mrsnav98]

CIW, yes I have wondered about that! We considered buying a cattle rub, but asked other farmers if we could use our organic fly spray on it vs disel like they all do. Every farmer we asked replied, "I don't know." Now I'm going to try it, thanks!

The organic fly spray we buy is $63 per gallon and I was told, by the person at the company, that it should last "a really long time." That really long time was only 2 weeks for us. Maybe she meant for just 1 cow? We've tried cutting it 3 to 1, 2 to 1, and using it straight. It works best straight, but not for very long. We can't be spending around $130+, with shipping, every month on fly spray.

The flies have gotten really bad now. Even with the short grass, beeswax combo, ducks and chickens in the barn yard chasing flies, and fly spray. Must be the hot weather. And now the flies are after all my cattle. I hate flies.

Everybody is eating DE in their salt and minerals, so hopefully that will help with the flies next year. I just may try the fly tag necklace as well. I did try a couple of fly spray concoctions of my own. The lady at the local, natural health store said to try castor oil instead of evil mineral oil. I did, and learned my lesson. You CANNOT spray castor oil, it's so thick!

It doesn't even absorb into the cloth very well! I haven't figured out what to cut it with yet, but I'm thinking there's a reason that everyone else uses mineral oil. The lady at the feed store suggessted Avon's Skin so soft; which is a base of mineral oil. Hmmm... seeing a pattern here. It works okay.

So far the SSS mixed with ACV, essential oils, and water works best. Though still not as well as the store bought stuff. DH, children, and I use SSS, ACV, and water for a bug spray when gardening; it works great! It didn't seem to work that good on the cattle until I added the essential oils though. I'll keep experimenting.