Settling back after the Christmas period, I was greeted last week by one of my regular clients brandishing a shiny new phone.

He proceeded to show me some pictures of one of his milkers he had taken that morning.

The picture was of a wart-like lesion sitting low on the back of one of the cow’s hind legs. He had noticed a few cows showing similar lesions over the last few weeks and was curious as to the cause, as he hadn’t seen it before.

He had tried injections of pen-strep and had recently foot-bathed the cows with blue stone, but the lesions weren’t budging.

I asked him had he noticed any lameness in the cows affected but since they were now indoors only the more severe had been noticed, and these were mainly due to knocks, he said.

We arranged a visit the following morning, and out of the milking herd of 70, lesions were seen on 14 animals.

These lesions ranged from small, reddened circular areas around the dewclaws, to larger more wart-like lesions. Some animals were affected on both hind limbs.

After walking some of the animals out into the yard, we noticed that the animals were up on their toes, attempting to keep weight off the affected areas.

Suspecting an outbreak of digital dermatitis, or Mortallero’s disease as it is known, I enquired about any recent new animals being added to the herd, and sure enough, in preparation for the winter milking season, some autumn-calving heifers had been bought a few months ago.

Digital dermatitis is caused by a highly contagious spirochete-type organism. In this case, the fact that the animals were still out on grass may have slowed the spread, but as soon as they were housed and the animals were standing in the same slurry, the spreading of the organism would have been easier.

Due to the numbers in this case, we decided to footbath all the cows with an antibiotic footbath. In this case, lincospectin was used.

This was repeated for three days and then a plan to repeat monthly while housed was decided, so as to try to eliminate the problem before the cows returned to grass when they would begin walking longer distances again.

Oxytetracycline spray was also used between these sessions on any cows showing signs and may be useful on its own when dealing with smaller numbers of cases due to being convenient.

In truth, however, digital dermatitis, once in the herd, is difficult if not impossible to eliminate with the best outcomes occurring if detected early and case numbers are low. So, in this period of housed cattle, it pays to be vigilant!

*Padraic Brennan works at Comeragh Veterinary, Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford. Comeragh Veterinary is part of XLVets. XLVets is a group of progressive practices who are working together to achieve a better future for agriculture and veterinary in Ireland. For further information go to www.xlvets.ie