Teatsealing roundup for 2023

The last few months have been busy for our techs. Our teams in the North, East and South clinics inserted over 36,000 tubes of teatseal into spring calving heifers! The conditions have been challenging with muddy paddocks, muddy heifers and non-stop rain. Lollies, biscuits, and banter kept us going, and overall, we had a successful season. 

Each year we have more clients choosing to put teatseal into their heifers and few rarely stop. So what is it and why do people keep doing it?
Teatseal is a non-antibiotic teat sealant which forms a barrier in the teat to keep nasty pathogens from entering the udder and causing mastitis. Infection increases the risk of damage to the udder resulting in higher rates of mastitis, less milk produced and higher risk of culling. 

What does the evidence say about Teatseal?

• It reduced clinical mastitis by 68% in the first 2 weeks post-calving (Parker et al, 2007)
• It reduced major mastitis infections (Streptococcus spp and Staphylococcus aureus) by over 400% (Compton et al, 2014)
• During the first 8 weeks of lactation, heifers treated with teat sealant had a lower somatic cell count and produced 5 kg more milk solids (Robertson et al 2017).

Excellent hygiene and administration technique is important when inserting teatseal, therefore we recommend getting our experienced tech team in to do the job. We can teatseal heifers in herringbone and rotary sheds or on our teatseal trailer. A team of 4 techs can teatseal 50-60 heifers in an hour making this process easy and stress-free for all.  

Teat sealants also form a significant part of the armoury protecting dry-cows from mastitis over the dry-period and will increasingly be relied upon with the changes in the dry cow therapy landscape.

Speak to your vet if you are interested in teatsealing your heifers or want to discuss teat sealants in your cows next year. 

Sophie Hamilton Vet Tech Co-ordinator.