Treating the lame cow: the importance of aftercare

Aftercare is an important consideration when treating lameness in dairy cows.

Special attention

Cows that are lame require special attention as they may:

• Be less likely to compete at the feed face
• Find it harder to get up and down and are therefore more prone to injury
• Be likely to slip down the ’pecking order’ and are less able to assert themselves in a crowd

Lame cow groups

Creating lame cow groups can be effective and have advantages for the lame cow and recovering lame cow due to:

• Small group size can be managed to have a shorter milking time and creates less competition for feed and water
• The group can be kept on loose housing or at pasture to allow cows extra room and grip to get up and down
• They have been shown to speed up recovery time

Every dairy farm should have a ’special needs’ facility for proper care of lame and injured cows. This should be separate from the calving and fresh cow group.