Clinical Perspectives of Digital Dermatitis in Dairy and Beef Cattle

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Key points

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    Digital dermatitis (DD) is a common disease process of the skin of both dairy and beef cattle.

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    Advanced lesions are associated with clinical lameness, whereas early lesions cause local skin disease with minimal lameness.

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    Topical treatment with oxytetracycline is the common therapy for advanced lesions but has a high rate of recrudescence.

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    An integrated management plan that relies on a combination of topical treatment of advanced lesions coupled with footbathing to control progression of earlier

Dairy

In dairy cattle operations, lesions are most commonly identified in the plantar aspect of the interdigital cleft of the rear feet of lactating cows. Larger lesions may extend into the interdigital space in some cows. Rarely, lesions form on the dorsal aspect of the rear feet. Although less common, lesions occasionally occur on the front feet where they most commonly are located on the dorsal surface of the foot. The reason for the higher incidence on the palmar aspect of the rear feet is

Other Bovine Lesions Associated with Digital Dermatitis Treponemes

There is a growing body of evidence to demonstrate that a large variety of bovine skin lesions of the limbs and udder contain similar bacterial organisms to those of DD. Although full comparisons of the microbial compositions of many of these lesions are lacking, focus has been on identifying similar treponemal organisms to those observed in DD. These organisms have been identified in bovine ulcerative mammary dermatitis,91, 92 bovine teat ischemic necrosis,93 toe necrosis,94, 95 and hock skin

Patient Evaluation Overview

Treatment or management interventions are likely to take 2 basic forms: individual focused therapeutic interventions of cattle with clinical lameness or obvious advanced lesions and herd-based prevention strategies designed to minimize the progression of lesions to advanced stages associated with clinical disease. Successful programs generally need to use a comprehensive variety to interventions to control the disease once it is endemic. Based on present-day clinical experience, eradication of

Management/prevention

Management of DD in dairies or feedlots requires an integrated multifaceted approach that relies on a variety of tools and interventions. Key to this process is monitoring the disease prevalence and treatment success, and these measures should be emphasized at all levels of management. Record keeping of lameness, etiology of lameness, treatment success, eventual outcome, and footbath usage should be emphasized and required.

Most effective management approaches rely on a combination of individual

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