New digital dermatitis treatment protocols recommended

Veterinary professionals and dairy farmers have been urged to utilise an adhesive gel barrier alongside antibiotic spray when treating digital dermatitis.

The new treatment protocols have been recommended following research into the efficacy of NoBACZ Healthcare’s waterproof Ambugreen gel barrier product, which launched last year.

First presented at BCVA Congress in October, a randomised, controlled field trial study compared an adhesive gel bandage over topical chlortetracycline spray (CTC) versus CTC alone in digital dermatitis cases on three dairy farms.

There were 119 cows enrolled into the study, of which 108 yielded 189 lesions, ranging from early to chronic.

Improvement

Lesions treated with a combination of the CTC and the adhesive gel bandage showed a significantly higher probability of lesion improvement at day seven than the controls, with an odds ratio of 2.45.

At day 28, the treatment group was 3.37 and 3.38 times more likely to have improved or been cured, respectively.

Overall, 84.3% of the lesions in the treatment group improved over the course of the trials while 30.4% achieved complete cure, compared with 71.6% and 16.2% in the controls, respectively.

The authors noted that “while the cure rates in this study could be considered disappointing… they compare favourably with other studies, and it is certainly possible that higher cure rates could have been achieved with a more intensive or prolonged treatment regime”.

Natalie Harrow, a Register of Mobility Scorers-accredited vet technician and foot trimmer at Synergy Farm Health, has adopted the new protocol.

‘More effective’

She said: “Once a foot is cleaned, trimmed and dried off with paper towel, I’ve been applying antibiotic spray to the lesions and then using a clean glove to apply a thin layer of the barrier gel.

“While the gel is drying, I can carry out the rest of the trimming and by the time I’m finished the gel has ‘cured’ and the foot can be put down.

“I’ve noticed less aggressive lesions in the cows after just one application, and it is far more effective than conventional bandaging which I find performs poorly in wet conditions and harbours the bacteria that causes digital dermatitis.”

NoBACZ Healthcare vet Emily Collins-Winsgate added: “While no single intervention will eliminate digital dermatitis, adhesive gel barriers such as Ambugreen can be applied over antibiotic sprays to provide an effective tool to enhance treatment protocols, support infectious lameness management and improve cow welfare and productivity.”