[dougbrown]

I have a great little Jersey cow that has a two month old bull calf. I let the calf have free nursing access to the mother cow and still get 1.5 gallons of milk each morning and evening milking (more than enough for us). Problem -- two days ago went to milk and the bottom one quarter to half inch of skin was missing from the front left tit -- peeled clean like peeling an orange. As you can imagine it is near impossible to get her to allow us to get the milk out of the left front quarter. Fear mistitis if I do not get the milk out. Do calfs bite tits like this? Have to get the milk out some how or mistitis? Suggestions.

Doug

 

[MARYDVM]

That's a typical injury when a cow steps on her teat while getting up. If you can't strip out the quarter from above the injury, you may have to use a teat tube to drain out the milk - but be very clean when using it. Teat tubes are a good way to put bacteria into the udder.

 

[dougbrown]

Thank you for the information. I learned something here. I could not imagine that a calf bite did the injury. I have been getting a cup or so out at each milking by stripping from above the skin peel. Have her head in a stanchion but she acts out so that I have been stopping with that small amount. With the information you have provide, believe I will continue attempting to milk her. Important to keep the tit canal open? -- can it scar closed. How long you think for the pain to lessen.

 

[MARYDVM]

We usually recommended applying a zinc oxide ointment to keep the exposed tissue moist and pliable. The end of the teat canal can scar, if it got really squashed, making it difficult to get a good stream of milk. Your vet would have an instrument that could cut the scar tissue if the teat end heals too tight, but you don't always see a good response when cutting into already damaged tissues.