Picture time.
That's from the cow I have that had a really, really bad case of footrot last Dec ('04). The picture was taken a good 2-3 months after the inital appearance of footrot. A front view would have been a little better, but this is all I have. You can see there was still swelling over the hoof, and a small opening where it's draining above the hoof. It was also draining below, between the claws. She showed up with footrot around the beginning part of December, I brought her to my place around the end of December, and it took until May before that cow was really sound. She started with soft tissue swelling and it later turned into an abcess inside the hoof as well. Just kind of spiraled out of control, and since she wasn't using the leg at all, there was limited blood supply to carry the antibiotic to the infected hoof and so it took a long, long time to get that infection eliminated. I'm still -over a year later- having to watch her closely and keep that hoof trimmed on a regular basis.
Why don't you feel the LA200 was working? what dosage did you give?
Oxytetracycline is a broad spectram antibiotic, so I'd be inclined to treat with that several times before I went to something that is limited such as penicillin.
Now, penicillin and oxytet are not compatible, so I'm not sure what to say right now.
It could well be a sprain - or not. I had someone look at a cow not long ago that I knew had footrot, and they gave me their opinion - "looks like she sprained it" - and I just nodded non-commitally, and then treated her with antibiotic. Cleared it right up. But then I did give her a really, really high dose.
And - food for thought - if there's an infection and it's draining, IMO it's not a sprain. There I think you'd see swelling, and inflammation, but not an infection. So my guess is a severe case of footrot.
That's from the cow I have that had a really, really bad case of footrot last Dec ('04). The picture was taken a good 2-3 months after the inital appearance of footrot. A front view would have been a little better, but this is all I have. You can see there was still swelling over the hoof, and a small opening where it's draining above the hoof. It was also draining below, between the claws. She showed up with footrot around the beginning part of December, I brought her to my place around the end of December, and it took until May before that cow was really sound. She started with soft tissue swelling and it later turned into an abcess inside the hoof as well. Just kind of spiraled out of control, and since she wasn't using the leg at all, there was limited blood supply to carry the antibiotic to the infected hoof and so it took a long, long time to get that infection eliminated. I'm still -over a year later- having to watch her closely and keep that hoof trimmed on a regular basis.
Why don't you feel the LA200 was working? what dosage did you give?
Oxytetracycline is a broad spectram antibiotic, so I'd be inclined to treat with that several times before I went to something that is limited such as penicillin.
Now, penicillin and oxytet are not compatible, so I'm not sure what to say right now.
It could well be a sprain - or not. I had someone look at a cow not long ago that I knew had footrot, and they gave me their opinion - "looks like she sprained it" - and I just nodded non-commitally, and then treated her with antibiotic. Cleared it right up. But then I did give her a really, really high dose.
And - food for thought - if there's an infection and it's draining, IMO it's not a sprain. There I think you'd see swelling, and inflammation, but not an infection. So my guess is a severe case of footrot.
