Warts on Heifers

[PoultryScienceAggie]

I have a question for all you cattle experts. We have a small herd of cows in Central Texas. We bought a heifer about a month ago and just now noticed that she has warts on her body in different places. She has been seperated but another heifer already has them. We called the vet and he said that there is a shot for him and that it should make them fall off and disappear. Well I was talking to another vet and he said that they could take up to 6 months to clear up and even if they clear up, the cows will pass them on to their offspring. We are considering selling both heifers to eliminate this problem from the herd (hopefully). Is anyone familiar with this?

 

[Farmer Kitty]

Are these going to be show heifers?

The warts themselves won't hurt anything so, I'm wondering why your considering selling.

 

[wynedot55]

as said the warts wont hurt them at all.id give them the shot that the vet told you about.an i sure would not sale them because of the warts.because the warts will go away sooner or later.

 

[Thewife]

We bought a bull a few years back that had warts, they guy had given him the first shot in the series of "wart removing" shots, I don't think we ever gave him any more shots and by the time we sold him, the warts were gone.
I've had a few weaner heifers get them in the winter, through out the years, but they went away?
Never considered selling for that reason.

 

[GrassFarmerGalloway]

Warts don't do anything, they just look odd.

 

[PoultryScienceAggie]

We don't want the other animals to get them so that is why we are considering selling the heifers. Plus we don't want the babies to get them from their mothers.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

I wouldn't sell them for that reason.

 

[jhm47]

Warts aren't a good reason to cull those heifers. It is a viral infection, and if you ever add animals to your herd in the future, you stand the chance of bringing in the virus again. When mine got them, they had the warts for awhile, and I talked to an old vet, who said that we should pinch the warts with a pliers. This would set up an immune reaction, and the warts would disappear. It worked very quickly, and even the warts that we didn't pinch disappeared. After a few years, the virus seemed to run it's course, and we haven't been bothered for several years now.