A fifth teat…
The survey conveyed during the first-calf heifers scoring shows that 28% of the breeders cut the extra teats, either for practical reasons (detection by the milking robot), regulatory reasons (exportation), or esthetic. A large variation can be observed depending on the geographical areas (from 8% in Rhône Alpes to 41% in Franche Comté). Solutions exist to remove them :
- Setting a rubber band (rubber ring for sheep tails)
- Perform the manipulation preferably on gestating heifers to ease the detection of bad teats.
- After adjusting the clamp equipped with the rubber band around the teat to be deleted, carefully pull on the teat and place the rubber band the higher possible up the teat, against the udder base. This is to avoid blisters around the scar.
- 1 week after placing the rubber band, as it stops the blood flow, the teat darkens before falling after a fortnight’s night.
- Removal with a scalpel or surgical scissors
- Treat the cow with an anesthetic’s dose
- Clean the operation arear with a disinfectant solution like « Betadine »
- Seize the teat with clamps and cut it with the surgical scissors
- Disinfect the wound
Precautions to take
- Perform the surgery as early as possible (at birth, during dehorning …)
- Double the surgery with another manipulation
The surgery must be performed by a trained experimentator, if not experienced
