I put Ruma on the stanchion one morning, as per usual, and knelt down to milk-
“Wait- blood? Fresh blood? Where is it- oh wow… Ew.”
She had somehow snagged her teat tore it clean open, nearly 2 inches down the length of the teat. A very unsettling mixture of blood and milk was weeping out of the gash. Gross. Super gross.
She seemed to be in no obvious pain or distress. So I milked out her good side, trying not to look at the wound too closely for my own stomach’s sake, before going inside to pondered what to do.
I whipped together an infused lard with usnea, comfrey, and holy basil in it. My go-to combo for wounds that are deep, clean, and need to close as rapidly as possible. Each day, several times throughout the day, I slathered the torn teat with the thick herbal lard to help keep debris out of the wound and encourage healing. Blood and milk wept from it over the next 2-3 days, but no further complication arose.
Poor Ruma became so full on her unmilked, wounded side, that walking was becoming painful for her. But, alas, I couldn’t touch the teat without the wound pulling open again. It was scabbed over and healing beautifully, but the scab wasn’t very strong. So at each milking I very gently compressed her udder between my palms. Milk shot out of her engorged teat (in a normal, natural fashion, mind you- not through the wound!) and bring her some relief. I did not squeeze or compress too much, of course, for fear of bruising or injuring her udder. Thankfully the compromise seemed agreeable for both of us.
It took about 7 days for the teat to close up firmly enough to resume very gently milking her. Through gentle trial and error, I determined the day that milking would be possible again. For the first time in about a week, I milked Ruma’s injured teat slowly, with the wound firmly covered by my palm to keep the milk’s pressure from pressing on the inside of the scab. She flinched and kicked now and again, but the relief of her over-engorged udder finally emptying apparently overpowered the discomfort of the wound.
Within 2 weeks we were milking normally again. She had some scar tissue inside the teat for awhile that restricted the milk’s flow. I gently massaged it at each milking to help break it up, much to her dislike. No sign of inflammation, infection, or complication ever arose. Usnea hasn’t failed me yet! I kept the teat slathered in herbal lard constantly throughout the healing process to ensure protection and encourage healing.
And naturally, I did not keep any milk from that teat until her wound was fully healed and any risk of infection had passed.
Surprisingly, good ol’ Ruma did not reduce in her milk production even an ounce once we were milking normally again! She made a complete recovery with no lasting damage to her teat.
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