In vet school, it seems to me, much time was spent learning about lameness in animals - how to characterize it, how to localize it, possible causes of it, and diagnostics and treatments for it. In rural veterinary practice lameness in cattle is oftenpretty simple. Most of the time it's caused by an infection often known as Foot rot. Sure, bovine lameness can be caused by other things like the occasional traumatic soft tissue injury, which doesn't involve bacteria, the very occasional nail-through-thefoot, andeven,onceinavery long while, a broken bone. And not every bovine foot infection is Foot rot. There are some other recognized varieties of infection, like Hairy heel wart (yup, that's a bad disease with a great name), some of which have as-yet-unknown agents. As well, an inflammatory condition of the toes called 'laminitis" is a potential cause of sore feet in cattle but is more common in dairy than beef cattle.
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