These three photos highlight how white line (WL) disease involving the heel can develop. You can see the tracks that are created as the WL separates resulting in the under running of the wall and sole. Note the gravel in the cracks acting like a wedge pushing the WL apart. Treatment involved removing all affected tissue and putting on a hh.
Updated: Apr 4, 2022
As you can see a screw had penetrated the sole of this cow causing her to be severely lame. The screw was 15 mm long and had affected the underlying tissue resulting in some sole underrun. I removed the screw and then removed as much of the underrun sole as I could. The sole was quite thick so I used my grinder to thin the sole making it easier to use my knife. I prefer not to get blood if I can. A hh was put on and she was given pain relief. I saw her again 7 days later and removed the remaining sole so that in the end her entire sole was removed. The take home messages from this case that you can apply to all lame cows you treat is to remove all the affected tissue or as much of it as you can, use a hh to elevate the diseased claw of the ground thereby relieving pain, promote healing and get her walking, and give her pain relief. Antibiotics were not used and she made an uneventful recovery.
Updated: Mar 29, 2022
Adequately preparing the sole that the hh will be glued to has a big part to play in how well it will perform and in particularly how long they stay on for. The sole ideally needs to be flat, dry and clean. I recommend you use a grinder with preferably a hoof trimming disc. Not only will the sole be perfect for gluing to, grinding will also maximize the surface area of the sole. It makes sense that the more sole you have to glue to, the better the hh will be attached. Flap abrasive discs also work well. These before and after photos were done using a hoof trimming disc.
