A Longitudinal Study on the Transition of Digital Dermatitis Lesions for 11 Months after Topical Treatment with Lincomycin HCl Using 4 Scoring Systems

Twenty-nine cows with active, painful lesions of digital dermatitis (DD) were observed for 11 months following topical treatment with lincomycin HCl. Each lesion was photographed and scored according to four different scoring systems. The system by Döpfer et al. (1997) uses 5 scores for early, acute, healing, chronic and negative stages of DD, while the scores by Britt et al. (1999) apply five scores for erosive, granulomatous, dyskeratotic, proliferative and negative stages of DD.
The scores from the University of Wisconsin employ four stages, a small red erosive lesion less than a dime in diameter, a strawberry-like erosive lesion larger than a dime, a verrucose proliferative stage and a negative stage of DD. The University of California system (1998) used 5 scores: early erosive, flat lesion; flat or raised, granulomatous lesion; proliferative (dyskeratotic) lesion with early papillae formation; mature, gray, dyskeratotic lesion with advanced papillae formation; and no lesion.
All four systems compare well when detecting ...