The entire shell of this cow's hoof is about to fall off. This is hoof GP; it's clearly very obvious that this

cow has a terribly sore back foot. But if you look very closely, you can actually see the hoof capsule cracking open with

every step that she takes. Once she's in the race, she can barely bring herself to even put it on the ground and is

actually shaking because it's hurting so much. Now that she's in the crush, we'll get this washed off so that you guys can

get a clear look at exactly what is going on. I already know that this is toe necrosis, an infection that's killing

the bone inside her hoof capsule and, in turn, making her hoof rot from the inside out. So I'm going to use my nippers here

just to show you how much you can actually take off with a nipper. It'll also stop all the vibrations going

through her foot, so it should try to limit any pain that's connected with the problem. We're going to take a huge

amount off with these here nippers. The sole of the hoof wears away more quickly than the wall horn, and that's

why sometimes you're left with this high ridge of wall horn around the outside edge. These lines of the lamina, with the

lamina corium inside her foot, actually grip and hold onto the wall horn itself. Once we've removed that, and I hold

my fingers up next to her foot, you can see just how overgrown that outer or lateral claw truly is. I use my grinder

to finish off shaping and correcting the medial, or the inside claw. Believe it or not, this is vital to ensure that the cow has

stability. Once we've completely fixed both feet, she needs to be standing flat, true, and even on the surface of the

floor. So that's a crack running right the way through her foot here, and if I actually get my hands...

Can twist it like that; you'll see all of this is detached. I'm actually going to take it off of the grinder, though,

because it'll be quicker. Make absolutely no mistake about it; this foot being up in the air

on that paddle, in this crush, or in any crush, is hurting this cow. But unfortunately, it's the lesser evil; we

need to put her in the crush, and we need to lift this foot in order to make her much more comfortable. So a little bit of

discomfort right now is well and truly worth [Music] it. Although I'm absolutely certain this is a tonac cross, what I don't yet know

is how far in it actually goes, so I need to reanalyze the foot constantly as I'm using my grinder to make sure that I

don't hit any healthy or live tissue, which, believe it or not, is much more easily said than done. When a cow gets to

necrosis, the bone in the interior is rotting away, leaving the exterior wall horn and the sole intact with a massive

void right up through the center, or the heart, of her foot. Tonac crosses happen to varying degrees, and no two cases are the

same. Because this is a severe problem which isn't going to be fixed in a matter of weeks, we use a plastic block;

this won't wear out at all and will give her a much better degree of comfort for far longer. Once that's in place, we carry

on with the trim, removing as much of the detached hoof horn around the lesion as we possibly can, while also removing even

more height from the heel of her affected foot. As we do that, though, we touch and feel with our fingers to make

sure we're not going too thin before moving back to the problem at [Music] hand. I said earlier that I would try to

use my nipper as much as I could to reduce the amount of vibrations and therefore the discomfort of the cow.

However, this trim is taking much longer than I'd like for the cow to be in the crush, so the grinder is much more

appropriate. As delicately as I can, I work around the open lesion. That clarity you can see in the lesion is not from me

cutting into her; it's from me removing what was covering it up and it being allowed to expel from the area. Now that

it's completely exposed, I'm sure we can all understand and appreciate why it's been causing her so much

discomfort. In virtually all cases of chronic lesions which have been closely studied by vets, they found the bacteria

which caused the dermatitis present, so it stands to reason that this one will be exactly the same. So we treat it with

Rid-ma and salicylic acid, held in place by a bandage. Here's how this cow was walking

just a few short minutes ago. Her sore foot was causing serious discomfort and she wasn't striking the ground correctly. Now she's able to plant that

inside claw firmly on the ground and walk with a truer stride. She's not fixed, but she's definitely more comfortable

than she was just those few minutes ago, and for me, that is job done.

her hoof CRACKED WIDE OPEN!!!!