<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0h21Nq_0vtzuPqX00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0h21Nq_0vtzuPqX00" width="748" height="400" ><figcaption>When foraging in the fall, cattle can be exposed to extra dense stems that may penetrate the eye or face, causing infection or disease. Contributed</figcaption></figure>As grasses within a pasture mature, various physical changes occur, which impact the cattle grazing them. Older plants dry out and lose nutritional value, but they also develop coarse stems – making cattle more susceptible to injuries involving their face and eyes.On a recent episode of the Cattle Chat podcast, Kansas State University veterinarians recommend producers watch for lumpy jaw and wooden tongue as their pastures start getting “stemmy.”“Green growing grass isn’t likely to cause these problems,” said Kansas State University veterinarian Bob Larson. “Lumpy jaw and wooden tongue happen when the tissues of the mouth are damaged on rough textured forages.”In the case of wooden tongue, damaging incidents to the mouth allow for germs that live within the animal to cause an infection.“It’s not really something that cattle get from other cattle. It’s caused by bacteria that are normally in the mouth and throat area,” Larson said.Kansas State University veterinarian Brad White said, “Coarse feeds and grasses can damage the mucous membranes and cause lesions.”Cattle with wooden tongue display obvious physical symptoms, according to Larson and White.Larson said, “Their tongue gets large and tends to hang out of their mouth, making eating difficult. They look like they are panting or drooling."<h2>People are also reading…</h2>White said, “It gets stiff, swollen and painful. You do not very often see an animal – a cow especially – sticking their tongue out of their mouth; they’re not doing it to play. They are doing it because their tongue won't go back in.”Like wooden tongue, cattle contract lumpy jaw through the bacteria that inhabit their mouths.Larson said, “After an injury, (bacteria) gets into some of the other tissues of the mouth. What's dangerous about that one is it can invade bone. If that happens, it becomes difficult to cure.”Larson said when producers discover lumpy jaw and wooden tongue in their earlier stages, cattle have a better chance of recovering.“A lot of times these cases will be treated intravenously,” he said. “This is pretty effective at bringing those two syndromes back to normal but contact your local veterinarian before making any treatment decisions.”When examining an animal’s mouth and face for lumpy jaw and wooden tongue, Larson suggests that producers monitor the eyes as well for squamous cell carcinoma, or cancer eye.If that affliction goes untreated, cattle may face the same fate as their lumpy jaw and wooden tongue-infected counterparts.Larson said, “Cattle can get a cancer of the eye – often in their third eyelid. If you treat it early with surgical removal of that area, those animals respond well and can go ahead and have multiple years of productive life after that."However, “If that cancer spreads and it involves the bones of the head, that is not going to get better, and it is time to think about euthanasia just from an animal welfare standpoint.”Visit ksubci.org/2024/07/26/heat-feeding-risk-management-facial-diseases-cull-criteria/ for more information.</div></body>

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Look out for facial diseases

As grasses within a pasture mature, various physical changes occur, which impact the cattle grazing them. Older plants dry out and lose nutritional value, but they also develop coarse stems – making cattle more susceptible to injuries involving their face and eyes. On a recent episode of the Cattle...

Look out for facial diseases

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