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Unit 4 Productivity, Health and Foot Care In practical animal management, routine foot care is a very integral part of animal health and productivity. If an animal has sore feet, it will be reluctant to walk to feed and water, to graze or perform other everyday activities of a healthy animal. Infection that starts in the foot can spread throughout the body if it is left untreated. Routine care of animal feet can prevent many problems. Genetic selection of animals for proper body and foot conformation can also aid in maintaining productivity and health of the animal with a minimum of additional effort. If proper preventative foot care is not practiced, it can lead to:
It is important to remember that a healthy hoof can only be produced by a healthy foot in a healthy animal, so one must consider the overall health of an animal along with foot care. An understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the foot will help in understanding the underlying causes of lameness in cattle and sheep. The hard, horny outer covering of the hoof, the hoof wall, bears most of the weight of the animal whose feet are properly trimmed. The "white line" demarcates the junction or interdigitation of hoof wall with the sole of the foot. The sole is softer and accepts the concussion of walking on hard surfaces. In cattle, the front feet will normally carry about 60% of the animal's weight and the rear feet about 40% of the weight, however most of the foot problems are observed in the rear feet. Ideally, the lateral claw of the foot should bear as much weight as the medial claw. Normal healthy hooves will grow approximately 6 mm per month or 3 inches per year. The hoof grows faster at the toe than the heel, and faster at the lateral surface than the medial surface. As the lateral wall of the lateral claw grows, it results in the lateral claw bearing more weight than the medial claw. Some animals that do a lot of walking on rough terrain may naturally wear down these surfaces. If the animal doesn't wear these surfaces down in walking, the toe and lateral hoof wall will need additional trimming periodically to balance the foot and prevent lameness. When properly trimmed, the coronary band of sheep and goats will be nearly horizontal; in cattle the coronary band will be angled to the heel and the degree of angle is variable depending upon the breed of animal. Examples and diagrams illustrating this information will be shown in class lecture and two excellent references Cattle Footcare and Claw Trimming, E. Toussaint Raven, Farming Press Books, 1989, and Cattle Lameness and Hoofcare, Roger Blowey, Farming Press Books, 1993 are on reserve in the Veterinary Library for further study. Lameness in animals may be caused by a number of factors:
Prompt and proper recognition and treatment of foot problems is critical to maintaining a healthy, productive animal. Prevention of lameness is aided by good genetic selection of animals that do not have post legged conformation, corkscrew or roll claws, shallow heels or sickle hocks. Providing good, well balanced nutrition, avoiding abrupt feed changes and ingestion of toxic material such as ergot infested grain or endophyte infested fescue grass will aid in prevention of lameness. Animal housing should provide an environment free from junk or large stones that could puncture or bruise the feet. Cement must provide the proper footing; too much roughness will cause hooves to wear too quickly, while too much smoothness will cause injuries due to slipping and too little wear on hooves. Isolation and quarantine of new animals, provision of clean, dry ground and use of foot bathes can minimize infectious diseases of the foot. [home] [next] [previous] [lec syllabus] |