I think cow has lumpy jaw? Ship now or 3 months after hopefully calving?

Had the vet out today to look at our almost 3 yr old Angus cow.  She has a lump on her jaw about 8-12 inches long, and 2-4 inches wide.  On the lower part of the lump, the hair is worn off, and it is scabby but not draining.  The vet poked the lump numerous times and locations with a syringe to see if there was any puss present, there was/is none.  She only bled some from the needle pokes.  This lump started about golf ball size 4 months ago, went to baseball size in 2-3 days.  I gave her some penicillin at that time and it shrunk back to golf ball size and did not grow significantly until this last month.  At the time, the vet said she probably ran a blade of grass through her jaw and the penicillin would stem off infection until the abscess would rupture and clean out.  Today we did not lance it due to the lump being hard.  I gave her 40 cc of penicillin and the vet suggested 60 cc more in 2 days.  I have searched lumpy jaw, (her suspicion) on this site and cattle today and cattle.com and read that sodium iodine can be effective if not pregnant.  She is 6 months along now, and was 2 months bred when first noticed the lump.  No whipping needed about why I waited so long, done that myself, but always thought it was an abscess and would take care of itself.  Never heard of lumpy jaw until today.  My question today,  after reading the other posts and research, is should I risk contamination of the other 4 cows she is with and hope for a calf in three months or should I ship her today?  I can supplement her stalks/hay,protein and mineral with a complete feed to help her maintain condition.  She comes up to eat and I see her eat, but I think she has lost some weight the last couple of weeks.

I would lance it open, abscesses can become extremely tight and hard feeling due to the great amount of pressure. I have had some on our cattle and it literally feels like a rock and when you get to cutting it just ruptures. The fact it subsided after antibiotics reassures my thought its a abscess. After you lance it I would try some Nuflor maybe. This is just what I would do....Goodluck and keep us posted

Does ahe have any problems breathing? We had a cow get wooden tongue. She had a swollen tongue and a hard time breathing but also had swelling under her jaw kinda like you have describded. She also dropped a considerable amount of weight. Our vet gave her IV antibiotics and we helped her thru it til she calved. Ended up early weaning and still shipping her because of her condition and she just couldn't take care of her calf. Never really rebounded but we nursed her along. If it is an abcess tho it pry needs lanced open to relieve the pressure. Maybe you need another opinion.

We have had this pretty regular over the past 3 years. The Sodium Iodide works really well Intervenous we give them a whole bottle its about $11. You are right now on the cusp it sounds like we just had the same deal we had one that was right on the cusp of if she can be treated or not. We treated her it was about a month ago and we have not seen any problems the lump went down. But it is a gamble at this point. I have recently changed to a new mineral mix hoping to fix this and added a Iodized Salt block. I have heard from old timers that this is a common problem on real alkali soils and that would explain our problem we are real alkali in some of our pastures.

Sounds like your vet thinks it is an infection.  It may clear up on its on since you gave the cow antibiotics.  You may want to check it again in a week or two to see if pus will come out.  Just stick a needle in it squeeze the tissue next to the needle.  If pus comes out then you should lance it or have your vet lance.  Don't lance it if only blood comes out.  If you do lance it yourself, make a long vertical cut so the wound will heal.  Be sure to flush it with clean water and peroxcide. The cows that I have treated for abcesses have always recovered fully so I would hang on to her and see how she does.

i lance them and flush with betadine.  they can get pretty thick.  take the advice on the needle trick.

as i was tying one of my cow's head to the side in the chute, she flung her head and somehow popped the abscess and the "paste" flung to the wall and stuck.  it would probably be about an 8oz. cup of goo.

Had a 3 year old buffalo bull with a basketball sized lump on his hip one time.  We ran him into the buffalo chute and felt around, felt really hard, poked with a needle and couldn't get anything out.  Cut into it anyway, and the puss started clumping out.  The infection had thickened up so much it would not go through a needle.  Took about 2 hours to drain the whole thing, had to cut multiple puss pockets with a scalpel, but eventually got it all drained, then washed out with betadine.  ouldn't use any antibiotics as it was an all-natural deal.  Bull healed up in a few days, but was very agitated after spending that much time in the chute and being poked and prodded.  Was enough gunk that it half filled a 5-gallon bucket.

Hydrogen peroxide will do to flush it out,  lance it and flush till you get tired.

Had a cow with lumpy jaw last year. Sodium Iodine treatment is about the only thing. It will get a lot worse the closer she gets to calving.

I spent allot of time years ago over in Colo, where they seemed to feed allot of wheat/rye/triticale type products, which were usualy good feed BUT always had the after affects like this. For years, all I heard those old timers say was -- "Wait till it gets big and lance it, nothing else to do"" -- WRONG

Sodium Iodide is - by far -- a miracle when it comes to EARLY treatment of wood tongue and or lump jaw. Both of these derive from the same sourse or type of cause. Usually it is due to one or both of these -- a defficient zinc/iodine soil or feed sourse, OR, more common, irritations caused by the feed sources.

Caught and treated early with Sodium Iodide, nearly 100% will reduce in size very quickly, and within a week or two you'd never know they had it.

CAUTION -- pregant cows past 4 months of gestation are hypersensitive to it -- and have been know to terminate the pregnancy if used excesively. On the bottle it clearly states to use a educed dose ofr longer term pregnancies or not at all. A 1/2 bottle dosage is pretty safe, I have never had one abort if this is kept in mind. I won't try and prod you on your late timing, but now you will know. If you ever see any type of swelling on or aorund the face, chin, side of the head etc, it is almost always wood tongue / or lump jaw. Early treatment will cure it almost every time. Once you try and lance these things open, if it is already in the bone, you will only succeed in causing a walking Zombie looking cow!!! No pun intended. Scar tissue does not heal back to normal. Abseces uo on the neck or hip are usually causes by intrusion - IE -- dirty needles or bent needles, not getting fully into the muscle with some shots, or in rare cases splinters while rubbing on trees or fences. These will respond and improve by lancing and agressive ant-biotics.

NO -- I am not trying to prescribe medications -- just giving insight into history I have seen! (warrant disclamer in other words)

I would try the half dose as soon as you can, you might be amazed as to what you see later. Your call though!

Good luck -- Terry

  Remember, since you already gave her penicillin, you can not ship her for at least 30 days. 

Thanks to all who replied, this site is an awesome source of info and knowledge sharing!  The bottle I used says 10 day withdrawal, Pen-Aqueous agripharm.  I am going to mention to my vet the reduced rate sodium iodine treatment.  Also will give a shot of Oxytet.  I can supplement feed and add iodized salt also.  She has no trouble breathing at this point and comes up to eat with the rest of the herd.  Will see what happens.  Going to doctor her at least hoping to get a live calf, then see how she is.  Thanks again for all the replies.

We'd had a cow with lumpy jaw, and we left her out on pasture with the rest of the cows until she calved and never had a problem with it spreading.  From what we were told, the only way that it would have spread, is if some bacteria from inside got on the grass, and then a different cow ate that grass and had a cut on the inside of her mouth already. 

Here is an update on the cow. Since my last post we gave the cow 3 lbs grain/day as she was losing some body condition.  Also topdressed 1 1/2 # sbm as some of the hay was poor quality crp, and 1 # Aureomycin 4G crumbles, with 1 oz iodized salt each day.  Her body condition improved and after about 30 days had the vet out again.  She noticed that the lump/abscess or whatever it is went down some since her prior visit.  I thought so also but was not sure when you see them everyday.  We have continued that feeding regimen and last Thursday, March 21, she gave birth to an 85# SAV Final Answer bull calf.  Her lump/abscess/infection has continued to go down and is now about half the size it originally was.  Since it has responded to the 4G, we are pretty sure it was not lumpy jaw.  Will talk to the vet again as to how to proceed now.  We have not mouthed her to see if it is a bad tooth, and may need to attempt that.  Will try to get a pic of the calf and the cows jaw posted.