By Dirksen, G., Praktische Tierarzt, 1997
Description
In a Holstein-Friesian herd one cow and four heifers showed ''inflammations of the limbs'' within three months. In the heifers, the disease began after they were moved prepartum from a free stall with slatted floor to the stanchion barn with a short standing. Three heifers had to be slaughtered; the cow, suffering from complicated deep sole ulcers in the hind limbs, ascending phlegmona and acute bilateral tarsitis had to be euthanasized. The examination of the herd revealed: the hooves of several cows showed deep grooves in the sole, some had defects of the horn along the distal border of the wall, individual cows had a hygroma of the digital tendon sheath of the flexor tendons, some animals stood with the hind limbs under the body and showed increased abdominal respiration; some showed alopecia and induration of the skin on the withers. Faults of the housing system: tethering by a stiff iron neck frame positioned too low, too short standings for the large cows, a high step from the standing to the grate above the dung channel, the grate was constructed by iron rails with sharp edges and a width of about 10 mm. The observed diseases are due to the faulty husbandry
In a Holstein-Friesian herd one cow and four heifers showed ''inflammations of the limbs'' within three months. In the heifers, the disease began after they were moved prepartum from a free stall with slatted floor to the stanchion barn with a short standing. Three heifers had to be slaughtered; the cow, suffering from complicated deep sole ulcers in the hind limbs, ascending phlegmona and acute bilateral tarsitis had to be euthanasized. The examination of the herd revealed: the hooves of several cows showed deep grooves in the sole, some had defects of the horn along the distal border of the wall, individual cows had a hygroma of the digital tendon sheath of the flexor tendons, some animals stood with the hind limbs under the body and showed increased abdominal respiration; some showed alopecia and induration of the skin on the withers. Faults of the housing system: tethering by a stiff iron neck frame positioned too low, too short standings for the large cows, a high step from the standing to the grate above the dung channel, the grate was constructed by iron rails with sharp edges and a width of about 10 mm. The observed diseases are due to the faulty husbandry
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