Cows and fly control

b4thefuture

Have a couple milking cows and the volume of flies is awful. My main problem is one of the cows licks off the flies from her teats a lot and is licking herself raw which is attracting more flies. A vicious cycle.
She is currently milking with calf sucking hind 2 teats. Its the front 2 teats that she mainly licks. One of them is blind and I milk the other by inserting a tube. I don't actually need to hand-milk it.
I've used pour-on and sprayed some on her udder. She licks off the Stockholm Tar. She seems to like the taste and keeps licking till it's gone.

I'm keeping them indoors during day. Relatively very few flies in the barn and it only takes one fly to annoy her. I'm now haltering her when inside so she is restrained from licking her udder.

So any ideas? One to really keep flies off them and 2 to stop her licking which would give chance for wounds to heal.

b4thefuture

A further possibility, a harness to restrict her head reaching her udder?

whelan2

put the tar-not the spray stuff- on the back of her udder, what pour on did you use? There are also tags you can get to stop the flies.

Genghis Cant

I would think on an open wound the tar is an irritant. Like Whelan said, lash it on the back of the elder. I'd use sudocrem on the front spins.
I'm not so sure I'd house her unless the situation is drastic. ( maybe it is!).

b4thefuture

Pour on is Liceban which is Cypermethrin.
Is Spot On (Deltamethrin) more effective?

She licks the tar off with relish, as you say may well be an irritant, but so is a fly never mind loads. Reluctant to put tar on back in case it stops calf from suckling. I'm share milking and need to calf to suckle for let down. Without let down, I'm in real trouble.

Amazing how quickly it improves with a few hours of no licking, but need a couple weeks or more for wounds to start healing.

Situation is drastic and she has to be in during the day (and harnessed to prevent licking). She practically runs into barn in morning but with the short nights, she's not getting much grazing time. Milk production is not a priority, just getting her through the summer.

I don't have means for zero grazing or have feed to keep her in full time.

b4thefuture

Put the tar on and calf suckled so that is well. In this really warm weather the flies were bad even at 6am and she does a lick every few seconds. So at moment she's not getting much time out. Getting straw tomorrow for bedding

Springwell

Search neck cradle for horses - they're to stop horses biting at their legs so might work on your cow to stop her reaching the udder?