Wounds of the Udder and Teats 991 



with fragments of necrotic tissue. Later the abscesses healed, 

 without serious interference with the secretion of milk. 



Johne did not determine the cause of the disease. Clinically 

 it assumed an enzootic character, and appeared chiefly in stables 

 where potato tops and mouldy straw were used for bedding. In 

 the handling of the disease, the abscesses were opened and dis- 

 infected according to general surgical principles. 



21. Wounds of the Udder and Teats. 



Wounds of the udder and teats present every possible variety 

 in cause and degree. Cows which are kept in crowded stanchions 

 frequently suffer from wounds to the teats caused by neighboring 

 animals treading upon them. In many parts of the United 

 States a very common cause of wounds to the teats of cows is 

 barbed wire, especially where a fence has been badly built and 

 cows have crowded through it or attempted to jump over it. If 

 the cow is in full milk, so that the udder is ten.se and distended, 

 the wounds from the barbs of the wire may be ver}' .severe and 

 extensive. 



Wounds or contusions may also occur from rough milking. If 

 a milker is careless in regard to his finger nails, the teats may 

 be badly abraded by the.se. We have observed wounds, of a 

 more or less .serious character, inflicted by pigs or other animals 

 in sucking. When pigs are allowed in the same enclosure with 

 milk cows, and there chances to be a cow from which the milk 

 flows involuntarily when she is lying down with the udder well 

 filled, pigs, coming about, detect the milk and eat it. Following 

 up the stream to its source, the pig finally acquires the habit of 

 sucking the cow, incidentally wounding the teats with the teeth. 

 In one case we observed a heifer, pregnant for the first time, ac- 

 quire maternal attachment for a half-grown pig, which she 

 persistently suckled. The sucking by the pig caused unimportant 

 teat wounds. 



From wounds of such diver.se characters, equally variable lesions 

 follow, such as milk fistula, suppuration, ulceration and mammi- 

 tis. Wounds of a quiescent udder usually heal well, but if the 

 cow is in milk and the lesions involve the teats it may be exceed- 

 ingly difficult to milk the cow without irritating the wound and 

 delaying the healing process. 



