Diagnosing Rosie's Hoof Problem

The first five months of this year proved to be very wet for us with above-average rainfall, even by South Louisiana standards.  While wreaking havoc on our garden, the animals suffered as well in mud and pasture conditions that were more suitable for frogs, ducks, and alligators than for livestock. I can remember hearing about a condition that soldiers in Viet Nam suffered from called 'Jungle Rot.' It was caused by soldiers walking through swampy, tropical areas and not changing their socks. This allowed bacteria to flourish and caused severe pain and difficulty to their feet.

Believe it or not, it's not just soldiers that suffer from this condition.  Our cows got a similar condition due to the wet environment.  In livestock it is called Foot Rot.  A bacteria called Fusobacterium necrophorum lives especially in the mud around hay rings and attacks the animal's hooves, or more specifically, the soft tissue between the toes.  It becomes red, swollen, and causes some necrosis.  It is not pleasant.  You can smell it.  There's a reason it is called foot rot.

Rosie contracted this due to the environmental conditions and was in pain, limping around all day back in late April.  As a result, she wasn't able to get around good to eat grass - grass she needed to develop the calf in her belly.  Although we don't like to give our cows antibiotics since we drink the milk, we had dried off Rosie two months in advance of her due date (June 18th), and there was no risk in giving her medicine that could be transferred to us in the milk.  We gave her a dose of a broad spectrum antibiotic called LA300 and in a few days, she was perfectly fine.

Well, guess what?  Now the ground has pretty much dried up and we notice that Rosie is limping again on her front hoof.  There is no smell and there is no sign of necrotic tissue or swelling. It is not foot rot.  She walks around gingerly, eating a bit and then sitting down.  Not good, especially with a baby coming soon.

My feet hurt!

So what is it?  Tricia fired up the "Google machine" and discovered what Rosie's ailment is: Laminitis.  Laminitis is a metabolic disorder of the hooves that affects about 80% of dairy cows.  It is triggered by the calving process, occurring 7-10 days before calving and continuing 7-10 days after calving.  Hormonal and nutritional changes are prevalent around calving time and Rosie has always been more susceptible to this type of thing - whether laminitis or ketosis.  We really have to watch her. She's fat right now and in great condition for calving, but she tends to be susceptible to odd things like this.

Fat as a pig!

The primary thing that you can do to prevent laminitis is trimming.  They recommend trimming 3 times a year.  This is easier said than done.  These animals are relatively small compared with other cows, but still weigh between 800 - 900 pounds.  They don't like you to mess with their hooves.  May I mention that trying to lift and trim their back hooves is not safe and invokes kicks that could leave you hurt or dead.

Our local Cattlemen's Association has a stall on wheels, hydraulically powered that, once the animal's feet are bound, will tilt sideways, allows you to trim the hoofs safely.  We have called a gentleman to come do this service for us several years ago.  This is not recommended for pregnant animals, though, so you must schedule around their pregnancies.  Here's a picture of this contraption I found on the Internet:

Image Credit

Without being able to use that device, I tied Rosie to a pecan tree and lifted both of her front feet (I'm not going near her back feet - those are the business end of the cow, trust me!) and using clippers, I've been able to trim both front hooves a bit, but she still needed more trimming to take off the excess hoof causing her pain. Over the past week, we've resorted to trying to sneak up on them while they were sitting down and quickly snip off a piece here and a piece there, trying to achieve the cuts shown in the diagram below before they stand up.  They've become leery of us walking in the pasture.  I hide the clippers in my back pocket!

Image Credit

Slowly, but surely, we were able to get the (front) hooves about where they need to be.  The first day after doing this, Rosie was worse!  Then she started to improve and by yesterday, she was barely limping at all.  By the end of December, all three cows will have calved, and then we will try to call out the gentleman to bring the tilting squeeze shoot for a more professional pedicure.  As Old Benjamin Franklin said, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!"