Employing a 2-weekly scoring routine to detect and treat new cases of lameness in dairy cows resulted in higher recovery rates. Treated animals were less likely to relapse and had lower scores after treatment than a paired positive-control group. Early treatment of lame dairy cows resulted in the development of less severe lesions, increasing the chance of full recovery and decreased the amount of time an animal was lame. The findings of this study suggest that if regular scoring is carried out in combination with prompt and competent treatment, the prevalence of lameness will decrease where traditional methods of lameness detection are currently used on a farm