Making Plans

Another sign of the dry times is the number of cases of wooden tongue we are seeing. This disease is caused by a bacteria called Actinobacillus lignieresii which is a normal inhabitant of the mouth and the rumen.

Infection is caused by a laceration inside the mouth due to rough feed - galvanised burr, roly poly, boxthorn, stubble and catheads will do it.  Eruption of teeth can be a predisposing cause. Additionally, nutritional stress will lower the immune system and make the chance of infection higher.

Although strictly speaking, lumpy jaw is caused by a different bacteria Actinomyces bovis which tends to invade bone, in our part of the world wooden tongue and lumpy jaw tend to go hand in hand with few diagnostics done.

Cows that have tongues that feel like surfboards also have lumps under their jaw and draining abscesses. Sometimes they drool, have difficulty eating and drinking and therefore lose weight, and can have trouble breathing if the lumps affect their airways.

These cases love to evade the immune system and live in dark places. This is why the abscesses are commonly surrounded by an inch of fibrous scar tissue which can make lancing and flushing challenging.  Letting air and sunlight in with a large draining tract is a good idea, broad spectrum antibiotics and sodium iodide to help the antibiotics penetrate all that hard tissue. Sometimes multiple injections are necessary and it is always best to sell the animal as soon as it’s drug WHP and ESI is finished as they do recur.

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