A veterinarian’s role in creating more days with 0% lameness

Abstract

There is an opportunity for veterinarians to get involved in foot health management as part of a team of dairy industry stake­holders. As veterinarians, this requires acknowledging that we might not be the most knowledgeable stakeholders on the team. Given the complexity of lameness and the variety of stakehold­ers involved, this also means we, as veterinarians, will need to become skilled at understanding communication strategies and behavior change paradigms. When our increased knowledge about lameness and communication is combined with the typi­cal performance medicine veterinarian’s skill sets in records analysis, protocols and training of employees, foot health man­agement should be seen as a key opportunity to increase in­volvement on our clients’ dairies. Over time, this will result in more days with zero lame cows and improved welfare of cows.