Hello and welcome back to Nate the Hoof Guy. Today's video, we're going to be working on this overgrown front foot and

if you like double soles, you're probably going to enjoy this video. Stick with us; we're going to get this cleaned up a

little bit, and we're going to explain why this happens and how we can determine how long ago this lesion

started. So, as we zoom in, right away we can tell we've got a lesion up above that's some

dermatitis there, and we've got several layers of sole separation, which tells me that there's a lesion hidden underneath

here as well. So let's start paring away this hoof and find out what we're dealing with.

So I get questions a lot about how do you know how long ago one of these lesions might have started, or how old is

this particular lesion? And the way we do that is we kind of estimate based on sole thickness and how many layers of separation there

are. Kind of add that up, and we can get a timeframe. So that outside layer that I already removed, that first chunk of hoof,

that would be that outside; so that first layer of separation, that is when the lesion likely started. So

as we start removing layers inward, we would add up the sole depth of those separated layers from

then on until we get to that lesion. And knowing that solar horn grows at approximately a quarter of an inch per month, we can

estimate how long ago this particular lesion may have occurred. Now the reason you might you might look at

this and say, 'How can the farmer not notice if this lesion took, in this case, probably close to a month ago from the

original lesion time?' And what happens with these is it's not necessarily a cow really lame that entire time. This, I'll give you a

kind of a rundown of what this might look like right so when a cow first develops an abscess, or when it first

becomes affected, infected; that is when there's acute pain, right? That pressure starts to build inside the foot, and that's when you might notice

some lameness or some limping right away. So the farmer might say, hey, that cow's got a problem, what's going on there? But

as that, you know, within a day or two, you might build up enough pressure in there and that might burst open and release

that pressure. When that happens, that's when a lot of that pain is going to dissipate. So if it were your cow and

you're watching her and all of a sudden you notice, you're like, oh, that cow's limping, what's going on? And then the

next day you look and that lameness has gone away a little bit, you might think it's maybe some type of injury or

something like that. Over time, this cow is actually trying to heal this foot up on her own; it does it naturally.

The problem is, as you can see as I'm removing these layers, that that layer of sole separation

provides an area where debris and dirt and all sorts of stuff can get packed in there. And in this case,

what we've got is dermatitis inside that that has infected that lesion. So each time the cow tries to produce a new

layer of horn, it's interrupted by that infection from the dermatitis, so it can't heal. So

then you might see a flare-up, and those layers of separation actually provide a cushion and kind of protect that area as

it heals. It's an imperfect system though, and it takes a long time, which is why we actually work on these and remove the

soles ourselves to try to speed that up. We can open that area up and provide an environment where that it can't get

packed full of bacteria, and where we can clean that lesion really well and treat it with salicylic acid to kill that

bacteria that cause dermatitis and get this foot to heal much faster. Here you can see what it looks like now.

that I've gotten those outer layers of sole separation removed. We still got some more work to do here, and we've got

several lesions that we've got to clean up and treat yet. You can see all the different crevices

that this lesion has caused, and that's why I've got to get this sprayed out really well so I can see where all the loose

stuff is, what else I need to remove so I can expose that lesion completely. From here you can see we've got that

lesion now opened all the way up and cleaned out really well. That way, my treatment can now attack the bacteria

that cause that dermatitis.  Both these lesions get those cleaned up and get them to heal, but we need to get a block

on this other claw to elevate that injured claw off the ground and let it rest and give it some time to produce

some new horn without having any contact with the ground. The reason these lesions haven't healed yet is because they're infected with

digital dermatitis. This white powder is called salicylic acid, and what that does is kill that bacteria that's causing

that dermatitis and allows the corium to then begin producing quality horn again without interference. My black glue is dry; that means this

foot is ready to go. Let's put it down, send her on her way, and let's see how

she walks on this new block. All right guys, that's going to do it for today's video. As always, thanks for

watching, and we will see you all on the next one.

WHAT ARE WE DEALING WITH HERE???