Lameness affects farmers’ bottom lines as much as it does the health of their cattle.
Chris Clark recently illustrated the problem’s severity at a livestock seminar using a tub of chilled cattle feet.
Clark, who works at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon cut cross sections of hoofs he had collected at a packing plant to show producers.
“It isn’t just the dairy guys, it isn’t just the feedlot guys, it’s you guys, too.”
John Campbell, also from the veterinary college, said solutions exist.
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“The number one reason for culling a bull is lameness. If a producer can get another year or two out of a breeding animal by improving foot health, then that is a significant savings to the producer,” Campbell said.
Clark said professional hoof trimming can be a more profitable solution for bulls than culling.
“Not all bull problems will be solved with hoof trimming,” he said.
“Some are due to fighting and some to many other problems, but if you can stretch out the productive life of an expensive animal, it may be worth it.”
Lameness or lameness-related problems is the second or third most likely cause for commercial cattle to be culled before they have matured or provided a proper return.
It is the number one cause of death in the feedlot, with “one third of the dead pile” coming from polyarthritis.
This combination of arthritis and pneumonia causes severe lameness and swelling in the joints, resulting in an animal whose life is spent in the chronic pen and usually ends with euthanasia before a salvage or market value can be recovered.
Unfortunately, there are few solutions and few recoveries by animals that suddenly react to the bacteria, which is common in the lungs of most cattle.
Researchers say they are studying the problem.
Treating lameness in the pasture is a difficult and time-consuming process, but early detection, correct medication and management decisions can reduce costs.
Foot rot is the most common problem and one that veterinarians only see if it develops into something more serious.
An animal with foot rot will show swelling of the entire foot up to the fetlock, uniform swelling around the coronary band and foul smelling pus in the infection. Expanded tissue stretches the two digits apart.
Foot rot usually affects only one hoof at a time and is usually a result of trauma to the soft tissues of the skin between the digits. If allowed to progress, it will rot away the tissue, move into the joints and become a more serious problem that usually will result in salvaging the animal.
The bacteria Fusobacterium Necrophorum, which lives in soil, manure and feed slurry, as well as in the animal’s rumen.
The problem starts when tissue between the toes is damaged by softening in wet conditions, and cuts from stubble and rough gravel.
“Luckily, foot rot is easily treated with antimicrobials and will clear up immediately,” Campbell said.
Trish Dowling, a veterinary pharmacologist at the University of Saskatchewan, said the problem is generally treatable using “good old-fashioned penicillin.
“The problem many farmers get into when treating their cattle for simple problems like (foot rot) is hitting the animal with the big guns – using long acting antimicrobials that are really better suited for other tasks.”
Long-acting drugs can complicate decisions to sell a lame animal for slaughter if the withdrawal period hasn’t ended.
Sandcracks are another problem. As many as one-third of cattle in the West suffer from some form of this hoof horn deformity.
Luckily, only a small percentage of animals with sandcracks develop lameness and most commercial animals’ lifespans are too short for it to become an issue.
Possible solutions may include providing good forage in new pasture when making a sudden spring dietary change. Feeding a Biotin feed supplement has been shown to reduce sandcracks dramatically.
“Mainly, they are a problem in an older, heavier cow,” Campbell said.
“Mostly though, they just look bad and don’t give much trouble.”
