Every year about this time my phone starts ringing from producers looking for solutions to an age-old problem in their cattle – Foot Rot. This condition is not isolated to any specific area of the country and it's almost impossible to estimate the countless dollars lost annually by cattle producers in terms of labor, medicine cost, performance and even animal loss. This article will review this problem and discuss methods to prevent and treat the condition. Much of the text was adapted from Kirkpatrick and Lalman, Oklahoma State University.
Clinically speaking, foot rot is a subacute or acute necrotic (decaying) infectious disease of cattle, causing swelling and lameness in one or more feet. The disease can become chronic, with a poorer likelihood of recovery if treatment is delayed, resulting in deeper structures of the toe becoming affected. Weight gain is significantly reduced when grazing cattle contract the disease. In one three-year study, Brazle (1993) reported that affected steers gained 2.3 lbs. per day, while steers not affected gained 2.76 lbs. per day. Foot rot is usually sporatic in occurrence, but the disease incidence has been reported as high as 25 percent in high-intensity beef or dairy production units. Approximately 20 percent of all diagnosed lameness in cattle is actually foot rot.