When we took delivery of our Dexters last month, Thyme had a few small warts on her head and neck. At the time they were not really that visible, but we did feel them when we stroked her. In the eight weeks we have had the cattle, the warts have grown quite considerably and this one on her forehead (as this photo shows) is rather large. At the moment however, we don’t need to worry. When Rachel from Market Vets first came out to see the cows, she told us that warts such as this are reasonably common in young cows. They are caused by an infectious virus called bovine papilloma virus (BPV), and there are about six different strains. BUT, they actually cause very few problems for the affected animal and in time, do tend to disappear (albeit after several months or even up to a year later). Young animals tend to get them when the immunity they got from their mothers, (via the early colostrum) wears off and their own immune system is still developing and learning to adapt to their environment. Thyme is 17 months old so still fairly young.
The only issue is that they are contagious as far as the other cows are concerned ( but not humans). To date, we have not noticed any on the others cows or calves at all but will keep a careful eye.
Thyme herself is fine and is actually turning into quite a character. The other day, she used Jack as a rubbing post and was not at all bothered that said ‘post’ was not quite as sturdy as the field shelters or fencing!