Reoccuring Hoof Rot

[dimebag]

Looking for solutions . Last year at this time I started seeing hoof rot in my cattle , almost every cow I own got it . I did the standard things to heal them , Tetracycline and Kopertox and for preventative measures I vaccinated all cattle with Fusogard , filled around all water troughs , keeping out Iodine blocks and 12:12 mineral .

Any more ideas/remedies ?

 

[Redfern]

Organic source of zinc in your mineral is where I would start. 

 

[JTM]

I use to have a lot of foot rot problems. I realize it is a virus or bacteria that comes out of the ground but I have found that my solution was more genetic than it was anything else. In that I mean that there are certain cattle that are more susceptible to getting foot rot. Usually because of there hoof growth or structure of their hoof. I have culled the cows that have had reoccurring issues with foot rot and now we rarely ever have an issue. If we do, you can almost bet that the cow has a hoof that is getting long or something. Hoof trimming is something we almost never do anymore because of the culling of these same cows and bloodlines.

 

[mbigelow]

Give them a full dose of multimin  90.  Foot rot is caused by low levels of trace minerals allowing get the hoofs to be susceptible to problems.  The minerals you listed may not be in balance with your environment thus causing deficiencies.  If you have lots of iron in you water it will bind to these trace minerals in the gut and the send them out the other end.  Also, boss cows may not allow low ranking cows enough time at the mineral feeder. I agree that generic selector over time will correct the problem but, I Don't think that you want to get rid of all your cow try the minerals.Good luck

 

[dimebag]

Thanks for the replies , these are very productive cattle so culling isn't an option . I never had any issues at all until last year , i'll try the multimin 90 and look at changing my mineral .

 

[obie105]

Also look at what the footing is in the pens. We were using fly ash which is a by product from our local coal plant. It burned off pieces of coal in a sandy material. It is also cheap and packs fairly hard. Growing up we only had horses and never an issue then when we started getting more cows and foot rot began to pop up. After talking to a few people in the area that had the same problem when using the fly ash. Now we use lime chips which in our area is extremely cheap and we have had no problems with foot rot.