Interdigital something - bull foot

[Putangitangi]

I got the vet to knock this guy over today for a while, to deal with what I expected was going to be a puncture wound infection. It didn't look like it once we cleaned the mud off. Any comments or experience?

I saw him wince a while ago - tried to find the note I thought I'd made, but weeks not months. Now I think this thing was getting to a size he'd started to notice and something hit it, rather than that he stood on something sharp which caused an injury then.

If we had better yards and the bull wasn't quite so jumpy when he's there, we'd have tied his foot up for a look but health and safety are a big deal here and who wants to rest up with a broken something for weeks? Takes a while to concrete in new posts too. :shock:

 

[dun]

Are you thinking Interdigital Hyperplasia, i.e. corn?

 

[alisonb]

Is it Digital dermatitis? How did vet treat and what treatment did he/she prescribe for future? Anything about Copper Sulphate treatment?

 

[dun]

Is it Digital dermatitis? How did vet treat and what treatment did he/she prescribe for future? Anything about Copper Sulphate treatment?

Digital dermatitis is hairy heel wart, that isn't what is shown. looks like a corn to me. The only corn treatment I know of is cutting it off/out.
Problem is it will just come back

 

[Putangitangi]

The prescribed treatment is cutting it off, at the neck. He's not indispensibull, if we cut it out there'll be a big wound and it'll take a while before he could work again and all in all, the easiest, probably kindest thing, is to truck him off to the abattoir as soon as he's out of the withholding periods for the two drugs we knocked him down and got him up with.

I just wondered what it was as the vet said he'd not seen quite that presentation before either. I thought someone here would surely have some ideas.

 

[angus9259]

Personally I call it advanced footrot or an abscess. A corn grows out more - got a cow with one right now. That thing is going in it seems. There's also what appears to be a lesion in the top pick too along the hairline in the back. His foot is just infected I'd say - but it is pretty advanced it seems to be opened up like that. Surely your vet has seen a corn before and I don't think that's it.

Question now is - do you treat him with some oxy tet - which is what I do for foot rot and wait out the withdrawal or hope he stays alive till then. If his foot is rotting away and you don't do something, you may be digging a hole if he goes down in your field.

 

[alisonb]

Never seen anything like this either...interesting, I've been reading ;-) . Here's some info that may help, they actually wire the claws together after surgery.

http://www.westvicdairy.com.au/Port...herd-health/Lameness-Interdigital-Fibroma.pdf

 

[Lucky_P]

Yep. Interdigital fibroma, aka 'corn' .
We used to cut them out, wire the claws together and bandage, like in the link above.
'course, that was 30+ years ago... they may handle 'em differently now... Milkmaid would be most current on 'em.

 

[Workinonit Farm]

I'm with dun on this one, looks like a big old ugly corn to me.

I think your plan of waiting for the withdrawal to come & go and shipping him is a good one.

 

[Koffi Babone]

There seems to be a small strawberry lesion starting at the heel level (1st photo)...

Digital dermatitis (photos included in all the links):
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/muscu ... attle.html

Interdigital hyperplasia:
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/muscu ... attle.html

Interdigital dermatitis:
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/muscu ... attle.html

 

[regolith]

Personally I call it advanced footrot or an abscess. A corn grows out more - got a cow with one right now. That thing is going in it seems. There's also what appears to be a lesion in the top pick too along the hairline in the back. His foot is just infected I'd say - but it is pretty advanced it seems to be opened up like that. Surely your vet has seen a corn before and I don't think that's it.

Question now is - do you treat him with some oxy tet - which is what I do for foot rot and wait out the withdrawal or hope he stays alive till then. If his foot is rotting away and you don't do something, you may be digging a hole if he goes down in your field.

Fibroma. It's really not very common out here, I think I've seen two in the eighteen years I've been in NZ and they don't really look like that. So it would be quite possible that the vet hasn't seen similar.

I think the wound would be not as bad as you thought if you did choose to cut it off... but they do have a tendency to come back, so it may or may not give him a lifetime of working. Obviously knocking him out again would increase your costs, only worth it if he's a pretty good bull to start with.

 

[Putangitangi]

Apparently there's now a serious question over Bovine Digital Dermatitis (BDD), which is common elsewhere but only recently being found here. We'll have to sample it, hopefully via the abattoir vets rather than having to do anything again to the bull while he's still here.

That thing vets say about hearing hoof-beats and looking for horses rather than Zebras, just never works on this farm; there are always stripes.

Thank you all for comments and thoughts.