As I rinse this hoof off, is that defect in that claw obvious to you? Welcome back to Nate the hoof guy. If not, I'll point it out to you. It's right here, actually. That is the access point for the bacteria; the lesion itself is going to be a bit higher, and you're going to see that here in a moment.

You'll notice my audio's got a lot of background noise; that's from the fans that are used to keep these cows comfortable during the summer months. It's going to be unavoidable for a while, as cow comfort is top priority, other than my audio, so it's not a big deal.

You can get the gist as we start to trim this away. You're going to see that dot what I pointed to earlier, but you'll also notice after a few more swipes there's another dot a little bit higher; that is where this problem lies.

Here you can see that second dot that I was speaking of. You also notice that darker dot first; that first one we could see is chronologically older, meaning originally that's where that defect had formed inside the claw.

But as it starts to grow out, that black dot's going to move out and down the claw a little bit. That's why, when we find, as we go in further, we find that second dot that is actually where that active lesion is.

And I think you can see right now we have confirmed that. Next step, we need to pare away this loose horn. We want to expose that lesion to oxygen to allow that to heal.

Once that corium heals, it's then going to be able to produce this hard outer layer again. This cow walks on that; that's not going to happen until we can get that corium into a healthy state. So we're finishing trimming this down, working...

That area's free, and then we'll follow our steps: give her a salicylic acid wrap, put a block on that other claw.

And we're going to make her much more comfortable by doing that. You'll notice I didn't remove any

material before I started prepping this claw to get a block on it, and that's because the sole depth and the toe

length on this claw is about right. I'm going to shorten that toe up just a little bit as I clean this area off, but

for the most part, that claw is in really good shape. I don't need to take any material from that hoof. Trimming isn't

about removing material; it's getting that claw into the best possible position for that cow. So here I'm just

trying to clean that off so we can get good adhesion with my block. I don't need to remove a lot of material.

Now that I've got that cleaned up, I'm going to get this block applied, then we'll move back and finish trimming up

around that lesion. As I mentioned earlier, I need to remove all of the detached horn from around this area that I can safely.

And the reason for that is I've got to be able to clean that area out, but also I

want to provide as much oxygen to that area as I can. That's going to help this lesion heal up and help her to

start producing this hard outer layer that's actually going to cover that foot up and protect that corium as she walks.

It won't do that if I can't get this area cleaned out, so that's my step here:

remove all of this loose horn that I can, carefully working my way around the edges, and then we're going to spray down

with chlorhexidine and give her a salicylic acid wrap. Another one of the reasons that I

I like to use chlorhexidine, besides it being a great antiseptic, is that it sprays on

clear and allows me to see these margins much better, so I can safely trim them away. Here you can get a better view of the

location of that lesion. Now, this specific location on either side of the toe triangle here tends to be very

sensitive spots to get um, these types of defects. Just the way that the weight is transferred inside the claw there

tends to be a lot of pressure here, so when they do get them here, they tend to show some pronounced lameness, as is the

case with this particular cow. The salicylic acid we're going to use will take some of that pain away, as well as

prevent any bacteria from colonizing there, so we don't get digital dermatitis on that lesion. But get this wrap on her; we're

going to send her on her way. We'll check back with her in a couple of weeks to see how she's doing, and until then, once

again, as always, thanks for watching and we will see you all on the next one.

PRESSURE RELEASED from COW’S HOOF

PRESSURE RELEASED from COW’S HOOF