We have a cow that seemed very sick so we brought her in from the pasture and called the vet. He came out and checked her over and said she had "Wooden Tongue disease". Said it was related to hoof rot. We got some medicine for her but forgot to find out if the tongue will grow back to normal size and not be so hard on the end of it or what. I tried to find something on the net about this and couldn't find anything. Will she get completely better or will the medicine just halt the disease? What is the medical name of the disease so I can look it up?

Wooden Tongue is caused by a bacteria, the treatment will consist of antibiotics, perhaps a bit of iodine. Perhaps Doc gave a shot, and gave you a cycle of tetracycline (spelling?) Which is an antibiotic which you give daily for at least 5 days - If you are giving this medication longer perhaps it is another antibiotic.

Your question "Grow back to normal size" suggests a loss of tissue??? Or has the Tongue swollen?

If there has been a loss of tissue, I fear the cow will never grow back her Tongue.

If it is swollen, then after the antibiotic kills the bacteria, and the wounds heal, it should return to normal size. Depending on how bad the condition got (I assume not bad at all since you didn't say anything about the Vet coming back to administer more shots), scar tissue could lead to a slightly larger Tongue.

David

David gave you a good answer but I would like to add some clarification to the description of what wooden tongue is and looks like.

The medical name for wooden tongue is Actinobacillosis

Infection is sudden causing a severe painful swelling to the tongue, to which the animal is unable to eat or drink for several days. The animal loses weight rapidly and becomes dehydrated. In the acute stages fibrous tissue (scaring) is deposited and the tongue shrinks and becomes immobile and the animal has great difficulty eating. At this stage the tongue appears wooden, hence the name wooden tongue

Wooden tongue mostly effects cattle, but it also appears in horses, pigs, sheep, dogs, chickens and actinobacillus capsulates have been associated with septic arthritis in rabbits.

The soft tissues are infected including lymph nodes, and possibly bony tissue. When looking at an animal that has been infected one will see a hard tumorous abscess of the tongue. Pus is often present and may contain other organisms encircled by club like processes of calcium phosphate. This gives the appearance of a grayish white sulfur granules.

The organism normally resides in the mucous membranes of the upper GI tract, but causes problems when it gains access through a wound in the mouth or spreading via the lymph nodes to other tissues or organs. This condition is seen worldwide and intermittently. Currently there is no vaccine available and is difficult to prevent.

Below is a link to a photo of a tongue which has been infected


http://www.msu.edu/~ramosjo/v8882.jpg

We went through the swelling tongue this spring. We didn't really know what it was at that time and treated it with medicine on hand. She got better and wanted back out in the pasture with her calf. At the time it swelled up, we thought it was either cheat grass lodged in her jaw or a snake bite but we could find nothing. When the wooden tongue showed up, the tongue has already shrunk so it now looks like its gone. The tip of it is hard. Don has been treating her for three days and she really hasn't made much improvement. The vet said that she had started this infection a long time ago. We mentioned the thing that had happened in the spring and he said that was the start of it.