Underrun Foot

[OH Breeder]

I have always found this forum helpful especially search tool.

my bull went lame. I gave him a couple rounds of Penicillin and Bantamine. Nothing. No swelling or any apparent foreign objects. So I called my vet who was on vacation. He had a young lady filling in who was petrified of large animals. That's a whole another story. LOL! ......So we get him in the squeeze chute and she uses a clamp on his foot. She said his foot is too soft. There were no foreign bodies in his foot but it was soft on the one side. She said his foot looks underrun. I have never heard that term. She starting digging and found a small cavity abscess that ran from the tip of his toe up into his foot. When she hit it, it was slightly moist and was coated with black smells like looked like bacteria. She said that a farrier could manage the shape of his foot and in the future it wouldn't create problems. Here is a picture of the pocket she uncovered when she got into the foot. We changed antibiotics and he went back to pasture and seem to start bearing weight and much much better. She pared a lot of hoof off. But it immediately helped. Plan on calling my foot guy on Monday to work his feet. She said once or twice a year just have them trimmed.

 

[Showin a Shorty]

We had one of our show heifers with the same problem in jan. They didn't call it "under run" but as soon as they took the pressure off she could put weight on it. We were getting her ready for a show so we packed it with icthomol (spelling is way off) put her on poly flex with some dex and then had the foot trimmer to add a block on her other toe. It worked for us she was reserve at the show the following week. She went from not placing any weight on it to being as free as she normally was.

 

[DL]

I have always found this forum helpful especially search tool.

my bull went lame. I gave him a couple rounds of Penicillin and Bantamine. Nothing. No swelling or any apparent foreign objects. So I called my vet who was on vacation. He had a young lady filling in who was petrified of large animals. That's a whole another story. LOL! ......So we get him in the squeeze chute and she uses a clamp on his foot. She said his foot is too soft. There were no foreign bodies in his foot but it was soft on the one side. She said his foot looks underrun. I have never heard that term. She starting digging and found a small cavity abscess that ran from the tip of his toe up into his foot. When she hit it, it was slightly moist and was coated with black smells like looked like bacteria. She said that a farrier could manage the shape of his foot and in the future it wouldn't create problems. Here is a picture of the pocket she uncovered when she got into the foot. We changed antibiotics and he went back to pasture and seem to start bearing weight and much much better. She pared a lot of hoof off. But it immediately helped. Plan on calling my foot guy on Monday to work his feet. She said once or twice a year just have them trimmed.

Hey OB - Cattle frequently get abscesses in their feet that cause them to go lame - so lame sometimes you think they have a fracture. It is likely related to wet conditions, bruise on soft tissue etc. The gunk in the abscess is black as you describe and smells. Once you open it up and drain it they walk fine - before it is opened up it is the pressure of the abscess fluid that pushes on tender tissue that causes pain when they walk (did that make sense?). So basically allowing the abscess to drain is curative - the trick is often to follow it out and make sure you get it all opened up so it can drain

I have no idea what an under run foot is - when we treat abscesses we pare it out and send them on their way - we do not treat these abscesses with antibiotics. If there is no evidence of anything else going on antibiotics really do nothing for these type of problems. IMHO trimming his feet is perhaps a nice thing to do but not necessary and may or may not prevent future abscesses.

Let me know if you need more info  

 

[OH Breeder]

Thanks DL for info. Well, to me there wasn't a ton of fluid in it. It was more moist than "filled". It did smell bad and like the previous poster she wanted to add a block but didn't have any on her truck. He didn't seem to mind it. I attached a picture of a horse hoof as it is a term they commonly use when describing the shape of the foot. The red lines are the way the hoof grew causing it to be under-run. The yellow is how it should grow from what I have been told.

Already when I search on google it comes up as number two. I had never heard that term. When I searched it, it looks like it occurs with dairy cows more frequently??

 

[DL]

OB  - gotta love the horse terms   - we see abscesses in beef cattle not infrequently - dairy cattle because they often have routine trimming may appear (or really do) have them more frequently - then again lameness is a number one welfare issue in dairy cattle and it isn't all related to abscesses - I think in beef at least it is related more to the environment (wet, sharp objects, rocks, etc) that results in injury to the sole ---> abscess more than low heels - in fact trimming will decrease the thickness of the sole and could result in additional abscesses. You can see the exact same clinical picture with a sole bruise - the only way to tell the difference is to trim it out -

the fluid in the sole abscess is really more like paste - not runny liquid - as long as it can drain he should be good to go

 

[knabe]

Horse pic is prob not yours but that horse could go barefoot or have more toe taken off. Slope of hoof should closely match Pasterns.

Even barefoot horses will do that. Doc bar horses have undersized feet and bruise easily from personal experience.

Too bad quarter horses don't allow percherons in the registry anymore.