Despite of the fact that lame cows can be found in every dairy herd and prevalence is extremely high in many farms, lameness is hardly ever recognized as an actual disease. However, the economic losses caused by lameness should not be underestimated.

While the detection and treatment of typical fresh cow diseases is well established in many dairy farms, the knowledge about lameness seems to be incomplete. Therefore we have dedicated one whole episode on this topic.

Starting with the question how do we judge if cows are lame or not and when is a good time to do the scoring? How can we differentiate between the different claw diseases and what does it tell us about our management? What are indicator cows?

These and many more questions will be discussed and answered from a very practical point of view by Dr. Astrid Brandl, specialized dairy veterinarian and dairy farm owner.