Working together to reduce cattle lameness

Regimes for foot bathing

Start:

Treat any known cases (antibiotic spray, copper gel or bandage with an effective treatment) then foot bath will give better cure rates

Antibiotic foot bath (consult vet)

OR Antibiotic spray (knap sac only practical solution for your herd)

OR 10% copper sulphate followed by rising formalin regime (seek vet advice on this and consult notes on the regime)

Followed by

Daily foot disinfection (you can rotate with formalin, copper sulphate and zinc sulphate)

Formalin (4-6% if 3-5 days, 3-4% if twice a day but then 5-10% at least once a week)

Copper sulphate (5-10% if 3 days per week, 2% if once or twice daily with 5-10% at least once a week)

Foot washing on days when no foot bath with formalin, copper sulphate or zinc sulphate

2% hypochlorite/ other effective disinfectant

Monitoring

As soon as any raw/painful lesions are detected (seen in parlour or during lameness treatments or found by claw trimmer) then go back to the start. It may be that you need to go back to the start every 3-4 months or at times of higher stress.

Infected groups of young stock and dry cows

5% copper sulphate/ formalin once a week

Please note that putting cows through formalin with raw lesions causes pain and therefore is cruel and liable to cause cow stress. Plus cows with raw lesions avoid putting feet into the formalin and so do not receive treatment as required.

More information