Superglue

[Traveler]

Had a cow calve yesterday evening that turned out to have two ruined quarters on one side, that didn't look ruined but were hard, and of course the two that the calf insisted on sucking. No wonder he was gaunt this morning. Took some superglue and glued those teats up out of the calf's reach, so he'll be forced to nurse the good ones. Wish I would have tried doing that years ago. Of course she'll end up with the future Happy Meal bunch.

 

[George]

Sounds like a good approach

 

[Faster horses]

Now that's a new one for superglue!

 

[Spanish Johhny]

Id like to see what ya could do with a can of WD 40!!

 

[Brad S]

Do dairymen have tricks for saving a bad quarter?

 

[Faster horses]

Do dairymen have tricks for saving a bad quarter?

I was sent a bulletin that talks about fly load contributing to bad quarters. I thought that was very interesting. I'll see
if I can find it again. One more positive about the benefits of fly control in cattle.

 

[cure]

Do dairymen have tricks for saving a bad quarter?

As an ex dairyman we didn't have any real tricks to saving a quarter we were more concerned about saving the cow so we could get some salvage value out of her. Most of the time with a weak hearted Holstein the hard teat was caused by mastitis during dry off and then when she would Calve in she would get so sick that they would either die or just not recover so to save her life we would sometimes cut the teat off so that crap would keep drianing and hopefully she would survive long enough to get on the bus. I have an old cow that only has two tests this year and so far her calf looks good but she won't have a chance to see next year.

 

[Faster horses]

Here is a bit of information that was new to me.

Blind Quarters

The Horn Fly Issue

While growing, heifers are on pasture where horn flies can be a constant irritation. Horn flies take 20 to 40 blood meals per day. As heifers develop, estrogen and progesterone levels increase. It has been documented that, as estrogen levels increase so does
horn fly irritation and that cattle in standing heat are vulnerable. The horn fly impact on mastitis and blind quarters is two-fold.
First, horn flies tend to feed on the blood vessels in the skin of the teat causing irritation. Scabs eventually develop where the bacteria that cause the mastitis (staph aureus) can incubate. Second, as horn flies move around the teat and feed from cow to cow, the bacteria travels with them. The spread bacteria enter the teat orifice and move upward in the quarter destroying milk-producing tissues.

As much as 50% of mastitis is caused by horn flies.

Horn flies should be controlled throughout maturation to lower the risk of blind quarters during udder development.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

That was interesting, Thanks for posting.