# Something is wrong~ Rain Rot maybe? pics



## Cheryl aka JM (Aug 7, 2007)

Okay~ I'm heading out to the vet with these pictures as soon as I get done putting the pics up here~ but there has been several times my very nice vet missed something y'all picked up or didn't suggest medicine that y'all did and it's helped me out tremendously! So~ I'm in a small panic about this~ and I'm going to show y'all the pics as well as my vet.

Background~ Bessie is a first freshener dairy cross her calf was born July 19. She was providing WAY too much milk for me to keep up with and came down with mastitis (confirmed at home with CMT test) in one quarter on Aug 16th. I did three days of "Today" injections into all 4 quarters just to be sure and bought two dairy bull calves to keep her milked out. Calves came home and were put on her Aug 20th. She took right to them easy as can be~ her udder has been staying empty~ her calf and the two bull calves look to be bright eyed and frisky. I put Bess and the three calves back with the rest of the small herd about a week ago, maybe two weeks. I've been watching when I take Bessie out every morning and give her about 3lbs of all stock grain and everything looked good until this morning.

I see this on Bessies udder~ It's hard to see in the pic~ but it's small scabs all over her udder and all four nipples~ there is what feels like small pimply postules under the skin on her udder and the inside of her legs where the udder rubs against her legs. There are a few more pimply feeling bumps on the rest of her body~ not a lot. The not open/scabby bumps kind of feel like what your skin feels like after you've been bitten by a fire ant.









I washed my hands and then rubbed the other cows that will let me rub them (only three of the other cows will) I found a few pimply fire ant bite like bumps, not many at all and none open or scabby like on Bessies udder.

I chased the three calves into the pen and caught them up to rub all over them. Her calf feels fine. The black and white bull calf feels fine. The brown and black bull calf feels.....scabby. All over his shoulders, face and lips.....it's pretty gross and hard to get a picture of:









I panicked~ we have cow pox or cow herpes or some horrible cow disease! The my friend Carol suggested rain rot....ok...I've never seen rain rot~ but then I've never seen any of those horrible cow diseases I was worrying about either. We did have the first rain since these calves got here on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of this week. And it was a LOT of rain. It's amazing how much rain we got in those three days~ the pond rose a 2 or 3 foot!

So what do y'all think? Rain rot? What do I do if it is? I can *probably* shampoo Bessie and that calf....but there is just no way short of shooting them first I'm gonna be able to give a bath to at least three of the cows out there....including that bull.

Going to the vet now~
Any insights greatly appreciated!
Thank you!


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## Brooks WV (Jul 24, 2010)

http://www.thecattlesite.com/diseaseinfo/230/rain-scald-dermatophilosis

Looks like it could in fact be rain rot (scald). The calf in the piucture could have spread wit while nursing. Might try putting them in the barn for a bit, or at least someplace to dry out. Food grade DE (diatomaceous earth) might help if you can put some on... it will help dry the spots.


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## mamahen (May 11, 2002)

Some sort of lice/ringworm/parasite? And yes, I'm thinking new calf brought it home with him. 

My new calves "might" have the start of lice. I know I saw ringworm at the dairy we bought from, but those heifers were seperate from my calves.

Vetricyn treats many, many different problems. It is pricey, but should also be safe for a nursing/milking cow & the small calves.


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## Cheryl aka JM (Aug 7, 2007)

Ok~ Back from town and my vet said he thought it could be either rain rot/scald or ring worm and that his advice was the same either way. Let it run its course. He said the cattle may start looking pretty raggy for a few weeks but considering at least part of the herd are not pets and I'm not going to be able to bring them up to a barn (I don't have one that would work) or to give them baths~ that I should just let it run it's course. Most people with beef cattle never even know if their cattle come down with a mild case because they are not looking at the udders everyday or rubbing the calves.

I'm not real comfortable with that answer....
but it is a relief to hear its not some major concern.


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## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

FYI, Cowpox is rare in the US, and even if it were not, it is a relatively benign disease and they always recover.

Smallpox vaccine is made from the cowpox virus. It was noticed that milkmaids never caught smallpox. Turns out it was because they had all been infected with cowpox, which was common at the time (1700s)


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