Farm Animal Health: Treating Horse and Cow Leg Injuries

By Andrea Looney and D.V.M.
Published on December 1, 1996
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PHOTO: JOHN REIS/PHOTOLINK
The typical lesion of digital dermatitis is a moist gray-brown exuding area with matted superficial hairs on the skin at the back of the foot, just between the bulbs of the heels.

Andrea Looney, D.V.M. offers her farm animal health experience in treating horse and cow leg injuries.

Treating Horse and Cow Leg Injuries

We have 56 milling cows in our herd. They are well conditioned and being fed a ration balanced by a nutritionist. Fourteen cows have become lame in the past three weeks with swollen hocks. We use straw bedding. Our veterinarian isolated serum from the joints and diagnosed hygromas. What is the cause of this?

–Eddie Sequino
Carbondale, IL

To treat these, first try to increase the bedding. Straw bedding may become slippery and since trauma is the culprit, we don’t want the animals to cause further damage when they fall. Sand bedding is extremely helpful. Three to five inches of clean, washed sand, free of dust and rocks, can be placed in each of the stalls using PVC piping across the back and boarding up front to keep it out of the drain and manger. Sand also helps eliminate laminitis from the herd and reduces environmental mastitis. The downside is the wear and tear on barn cleaners, and the fact that it may get into the teat cup, so be sure to clean milkers well.

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