
26/02/2025
How to Toe necrosis syndrome/toe ulcer
Step 1: Arrange time and day with farmer to have cow in the crush
Step 2: Clean as best as possible, apply tourniquet and IVRA or local ring block
Step 3: Apply block or remove misplaced blocks
Step 4: This is the part where it gets messy, remove all the necrotic, hypergranulating tissue and all the loose horn. In this case there was a track running up in the medial part of the lateral claw almost until the skin in the interdigital cleft. Thin out the edges around that lesion as much as possible.
Step 5: Apply primary wound layer with topical product of choice, follow with a nice layer of synthetic cotton and finish with cohesive wrap that puts a lot of pressure on and around the claw but not around the foot (under des claws).
Step 6: Give the cow appropriate pain management such as NSAIDs (ketoprofen or carprofen)
Step 7: recheck within 1 week
Every bovine vet should have the skill to do this, you don’t need a fancy crush or fancy equipment. Just a grinder, 2 hoof knives, glue, blocks and basic bandage materials.
Putting the IVRA at the start of this procedure makes your life a lot easier, same when starting with the block, blood doesn’t mess with the glue.
Ideally we don’t want cows with lesions like these but sometimes it happens. Let’s get this one back on track as fast as possible.
Recheck in a week with an update!