EARLY IDENTIFICATION OF LAMENESS

Why do we need to identify lame cows early on in the disease process?

Lame cows produce less milk, lose weight and take longer to cycle. Early treatment is the key to rapid and complete recovery with minimal disturbance to the cow and her productivity.

What tools are available to you to help identify lame cows early?

THE LAMENESS SCORING SYSTEM

Training your staff to regularly look at cows and identify lameness is still the main way of identifying lame cows early.

The scoring system rates cows from 0 (no lameness) to 3 (very lame) and gives recommended actions to take.

Lameness scoring should take place throughout the year on flat, even surfaces. Cows can also be observed when being brought in for milking and as they enter the shed. In a rotary, look out for uneven weight bearing as cows stand in the bail.

LIVEWEIGHT LOSSES

Several farms have walkover scales positioned at the exit from the milking shed. Walkover scales allow the liveweight (LW) of individual cows to be recorded at least twice daily. Alerts from these records allow you to identify cows with sudden and severe decreases in LW to be identified.

A study conducted at Massey University showed that LW decreased for up to 3 weeks before lameness was identified by the herd manager. Total LW loss arising from a single lameness episode was, on average, 61kg!

COW COLLARS

At last count almost 5000 of the milking cows our practice looks after are now fitted with some brand of cow-level physiological monitor. These monitors can help with early detection of a variety of diseases – including lameness. They measure the cow’s ‘performance’ including rumination, behaviour and physical activity. Studies have shown that lame cows have an increase in lying time and number of lying bouts as well as a decrease in number of steps, activity, feeding and rumination time.

RECORDING ALL LAME COWS

Why bother? To reduce the lameness in your herd, you must first understand the nature and scale of the problem and this is where recording comes in, to identify and address the potential risk factors, assisting you to move your focus from treating lameness to preventing it - saving you time and money and your cows from the associated pain and discomfort.

Easy ways to record lameness

It is important to remember this includes ALL lame cows examined, not just the ones that are treated with antibiotics. A couple of easy ways to enter lameness without using paper are:

The Healthy Hoof app and Minda Live.

THE USE OF PAIN RELIEF IN TREATING LAMENESS

If they are limping, there’s increasing evidence that prompt pain relief can make a big difference. It’s not a magic fix – lameness is a complex, condition caused by multiple factors which have to be addressed to achieve lasting improvement.

However, one of the very first effects of lameness in dairy cows is reduced feed intake, often before you can actually see something is wrong. That’s due to bruised, damaged, overgrown or abscessed hooves which hurt to walk on. And the cow that can’t walk normally often won’t graze normally either.

Adding proven pain killers like KetoMax 15% to the lame cow kit means you can quickly reduce pain and inflammation as you examine and treat injured hooves. This is now standard practice for farmers who want to get lame cows walking normally again – pain free - as quickly as possible. They recognise that every day of reduced feed intake takes an immediate toll on milk yield, BCS, animal welfare and their own morale.

Remember it can take weeks for a cow to recover from even moderate lameness. During that time, she can easily lose a lot of body condition. So along with the hoof knife, trimmers, leg rope, blocks and other tools in your lame cow kit, add a proven pain relief treatment. You’ll be glad you did.