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.
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