Udder Fibro..... what?????

I was called this week to one of my regular herd check clients for a cow that was “bleeding from her udder.”  This is usually classified as an emergency, get here ASAP kind of call, as cows can bleed to death in a matter of minutes if the cut is severe enough.  I’ve mentioned in a previous post, that cows must pump an average of 500 gallons of blood through their udder a day, to produce 1 gallon of milk. So cows that are making 80 pounds of milk a day, are pumping about 5000 gallons of blood through their udder during the course of the day.  There are two major vessels and many smaller veins that supply the udder with all this blood. SO, when a farmer calls and tells you that they have a cow bleeding from her udder, yes, it truly IS an emergency.

Luckily I had just finished a herd check and was close to the farm so could get there quite quickly. When I arrived, the herdsman had the cow restrained in a hoof trimming chute and was holding pressure on the bleeding area.  Luckily it was NOT one of the major milk veins bleeding, but rather a large mass on the front of the udder.  We often refer to these masses as “Udder Rot.”  Not a very scientific name, that’s for sure, but it gets the point across.  The true scientific name is Udder Cleft Dermatitis.

These udder rot lesions are often very foul smelling and can become quite an issue when not taken care of at an early stage. The lesions are most commonly found in front of the two front teats and right where the udder attaches to the body wall. They usually start from some kind of irritation to the udder, such as a mange mite, edema or pressure necrosis of some kind. Once the skin is irritated, bacteria from the environment move in and enjoy the nice warm, moist habitat and continue to “eat away” or cause further damage to the area.  The bacteria that inhabit the lesions, are what causes the foul smell that is often associated with udder rot.

Because the body is amazing and does everything it can to heal itself, it can sometimes overcompensate.  When this occurs, as it did in this case, there is excess production of tissue that looks like a giant wart (fibropapliloma) or “proud flesh.” Some of this has to do with the bacteria that are in the lesion and the rest has to do with the body trying to heal itself.  There are lots and lots of blood vessels in this tissue but no nerves.  When the mass gets caught on something or stepped on or even bumped, it can start bleeding and can bleed quite severely. 

In this case, the cow had the mass hanging from the udder and there was another cow that was showing signs of heat (or estrus). Exhibiting natural estrus behavior, this cow tried to mount the other cow and the mass on the udder was aggravated. 

Because of how large this mass was, and the number of blood vessels that I know course through the udder, I was not brave enough to surgically try to remove the mass and then make the udder “normal” again. Instead my approach was to cauterize the bleeding vessels and have the herdsman start to aggressively treat the mass with a killing spray.  As you can see from the picture, there is quite a bit of blood on the chute. There was probably about 3-4L of blood on the ground which is significant. Her mucous membranes were starting to get pale, but she still had the strength to stand.  With a little fluid therapy, Iron injections and TLC, I think she will be just fine.  

A blood transfusion is an option if the cow had lost a more significant amount of blood. However, a cow can lose up to 6L of blood without any risk. She may be weak for a day or so, but again, the body is amazing and new red blood cells had already started making their way into circulation, the minute she started bleeding.  

To prevent further issues with these types of udder rot lesions, the best thing to do is to catch them early, and spray them with a copper sulfate or tetracycline mixture. The area is warm and moist which the bacteria love. To disrupt that habitat, the sore needs to be dried out and the bacteria killed.  Treating the animals for mange mites also helps decrease the incidence of udder rot lesions.  When they get to be large pendulous masses like this cow, not many veterinarians look forward to the call of when, not if, but when, these masses rip and start to bleed.