???Warts

[renegade]

I bought a steer calf at the auction today. He is a yellow steer with a bald face. When we were bidding someone said something about the steer and the auctioneer said it was sun burn, i couldn't see anything from where i was so i asked the people around me and they couldnt see anything and they figured it was really red or something.I got him home and it looks like a ton of warts in the ear.  What should i do about them? Try and pick them off?

 

[DL]

When does he need to be wart free? Since warts are caused by a virus you can "vaccinate" them by finding a big one, squishing it (with pliers or forceps) and then pulling it off - the other warts will usually shrink away over time - if you aren't in a hurry I would just remove one or two - otherwise he may not like having his ears touched ...good luck!

 

[renegade]

Well, im in no big hurry. I don't have any shows and weigh in isn't until febuary but it is like a HUGE clump in his ear and i just dont want it to spread.

 

[renegade]

Also what should i vaccinate him with? And he has a bad sun burn on the back of his ears; so just use some soothing ointment?  I feel bad becuase he is a sweet, nice looking calf its just someone didn't take care of him.

 

[Show Dad]

Squish one; cut another one off then feed it to him. Will be wart free in 3-4 weeks. I know its sounds like a lot of hog wash but seems to work for me.

 

[red]

Sounds like he's had a rough start. Glad you got him so he has a good home.
I too will pulll them off & feed them back. seems to work better than the vaccine.

Red

 

[Rocky Hill Simmental]

Go to the vet and ask for a wart vaccination. We usually give ours 10 cc's in two locations (since it's a steer give it to him on both sides of the neck so you don't scar the meat anywhere else) and in a few weeks cut them off and they won't come back. If your keeping any other cattle in with him then vaccinate them too so they won't catch it.

 

[pigguy]

the vaccines sucks. go and find a big one of squish it and then rip it off with a pair of pliers and that will go and take the virus through the body and the body makes an antibody against the virus and then they will al go away. and then go and take another wart and stick it in his feed.

 

[renegade]

I will have to try those suggestions thankyou! I am wondering if he will be big enough for the fair. He weighs 475 right now and has to be 1050 by the last week of july or second week of august depending on which fair he would go to.  He does have a good base with sufficent muscle i think. Just wondering if you guys think he would make weight or should i just eat him(he was only .64 cents a pound)

 

[pigguy]

i would think he would be able to make weight

 

[CAB]

  Just asking. Are you sure that what you are seeing is warts? I just never have seen warts inside the ears. I've seen small ones on the outer ear, but never in the ear. Another question. My experience has been that if the calf already has the warts, wouldn't he/she already have immunity to that spacific virus? I think that the calf would already be on his way to being cleaned up. Are there more than 1 strain of warts? You never see a bovine have warts past the yearling stage. The calf should be all cleaned up by Feb. & I think you should easily be able to make wt. I had never heard of feeding them back to them, but I don't think that it would hurt, and don't know if it would help anymore than having the warts. Cab

 

[DL]

CAB - warts are caused by a billion(OK a bit of an exaggeration) different viruses - which is one reason why some people find the wart vaccine is not very effective. Seen lots and lots of warts in ears - usually related to tattoo numbers that were not cleaned between animals...a warty tattoo is an ugly thing to behold!

 

[renegade]

We are gonna take him to the vet to get checked out since he hasn't been vaccinated yet and to see what the vet thinks about his warts. Come to think of it it could be a warty tattoo but i have never seen one and i dont know why they would be tattooing a cross bred steer. I just know those ones in his ear are bad.

 

[ratmama2]

We had bought three steer calves from one guy a few years ago and all of the tattoos were covered in warts. They were in the perfect outline of his farm initials and numbering system that he used. We vaccinate every year with the wart vaccine. Our vet says to use two times the amount prescribed on the bottle. Sometimes it works sometimes it don't. Depends on which strain of warts you are infected with cause the couple of vaccines on the market are for only a couple of wart strains.