What Do Vets Say

Healthy Hooves® eliminates hazards of Formalin while reducing cost of hoof care & increase milk yield

Application:

A topical Anti-Biotic therapy with a light wrap for 2-3 days will resolve all situations. Vaccines are being used with promising but irregular results.

Maintenance:

Studies have shown that a consistent use of a footbath with either Formalin or Copper Sulphate as a cleaning solution, will improve hoof hygiene.

Footbaths must be properly maintained to effectively prevent contamination, which limits the impact of both Formalin and Copper Sulphate.

Options:

Formalin: A suspected carcinogen and known respiratory, eye and skin contact irritant. When mixed with water, is effective for 100 cows before recharging the solution.

Copper Sulphate : An effective method but Copper Sulphate is limited in solubility, the footbath must be recharged about every 200 cows.

Healthy Hooves® with Copper Sulphate : A low pH, US patented, triple buffered formula that solublizes Copper Sulphate as it is mixed. This reduces Copper Sulphate by 80% and is effective for 500 cows before recharging.

Formaldehyde (Formalin)

Skin Contact and Absorption

Symptoms: Mild Irritation to severe dermatitis.

Acne, sores or abrasions allow Formalin to enter the body more readily.

 

 

Eye Contact

Symptoms: range from mild irritation to permanent corneal cloudiness and loss of vision.

As the concentration increases, the eyes become itchy and watery.

 

 

Inhalation and Ingestion

Symptoms: Severe irritation of tissues linig the mouth, throat and stomach. Low concentration can cause difficulty breathing, burning of the nose and throat, cough and heavy tearing.

Higher concentrations can cause severe coughing, chest tightness and swelling, or spasm in the throat.
 

 

Absorption into the blood-stream through the digestive tract can cause damage to the liver or other internal organs.

As the concentration increases, the eyes become itchy and watery.

 

 

 

Formalin is a known irritant and suspected carcinogen. It can be effective in limited applications. Tests have proven Formalin ineffective at concentrations below 2% or operating temperatures below 10°C

Studies show a typical Formalin footbath is effective for 100 cows per footbath.

Evaporation alone will reduce the solution to 2% concentration in 24—48 hours. Manure contamination and use of solution will further reduce efficacy. 

 

Copper Sulphate (CuS04)

Copper Sulphate (CuS04) has been the preferred source of Copper, because when dissolved in water it produces Copper ions (CU++).

Mixing water with 10 kilos of (CuS04) in a 200 litre footbath will produce a 5% solution for 200 cows.

By managing pH, Copper can remain in the solution and stay effective for longer. As the chart illustrates, a ph of 7 (typical tap water) will result in almost 83% of the Copper unavailable and precipitates to the bottom of the footbath. While a pH of 2 results in almost 85% of soluble Copper ions.

By managing ph, Copper can remain in solution and stay effective in attacking bacteria.

Copper disposal regulations are increasing making it necessary to reduce consumption.

What is Healthy Hooves®?

Key Benefits of using Healthy Hooves®:

  • Safer than Formalin.
  • Lowers pH in the footbath.
  • More cow passes per footbath.
  • Longlasting, effective in use solution.

Healthy Hooves® uses a US patented, low pH, triple buffered formula. A 2% solution will effectively dissolve Copper Sulphate resulting in a chemically chelated compound. Healthy Hooves® maintains a ph of 2.0 in the footbath to keep the Copper at a maximum of 85% solubility that yields more actively available Copper.

Healthy Hooves® overcomes the solubility issue and more importantly, controls the release of the cupric ion (Cu ++). Copper is released by biological demand instead of the water conditions. As solubility increases, Copper remains bio-available thereby reducing Copper Sulphate use by 85% or more.

The critical difference between Copper Sulphate dissolved in water and Copper Sulphate dissolved in Healthy Hooves®, is the degree of toxicologically active Copper complexes that are formed. Because of the abundance of hydrogen ions in the Healthy Hooves® product, predictably higher concentrations of active Copper complexes (Cu2+ ) are held in suspension in a stable weak field chelated chemical bond, thus preventing the precipitation problem that is common with Copper Sulphate in water alone.

When Copper Sulphate or Copper Chloride is dissolved in water, the Copper must be solublised, or chemically changed to a stable, bio-available chemically active form before it can predictably kill micro-organisms. The extent of these chemical changes is now possible to predict. Field trials with Healthy Hooves® show the buffered low pH solublizes Copper to make it a predictably bio-available active form. Thus, the Copper concentration can be precisely predicted with Healthy Hooves®.

Healthy Hooves® maintains a consistently low ph through a triple-acid buffered system that maintains the ph and reduces Copper Sulphate use by up to 85% over Copper Sulphate alone in water. It saves the farmer money while meeting anticipated compliance regulations on Copper use.

Healthy Hooves® also eliminates the hazards of Formalin while reducing the cost of hoof care and increasing milk yield.

Footbath Comparison

All figures are calculated based on the correct use of the product, which is stated on the homepage.

When introducing the Healthy Hooves® process after Formalin use, additional days of foot bathing will be required for the first 3 week. We recommend 5 days of foot bathing after each of the milkings; am and pm. For weeks 4 to 12 we recommend 3 days of foot bathing after each of the milings; am and pm.

Healthy Hooves® Footbath Changes

2% = 4 litres / Kg of Healthy Hooves® and Copper Sulphate // this allows for 500 cow passes in one 200 litre footbath.

You need 4 litres / Kg for 500 cow passes. Therefore you do not need to change the footbath, until 500 cows have passed through

Copper Sulphate Footbath Changes

5% = 10 Kg of Copper Sulphate // this allows for 200 cow passes in one 200 litre footbath.

You need 25 Kg for 500 cow passes. Therefore you need to change the footbath 3 times (2.5), until 500 cows have passed through

Formalin Footbath Changes

6% = 12 litres of Formalin // this allows for 100 cow passes in one 200 litre footbath.

You need 60 litres for 500 cow passes. Therefore you need to change the footbath 5 times, until 500 cows have passed through

From the information stated above, using Healthy Hooves® eliminates the dangers of handling Formalin and maintains the lowest cost per cow, when compared to the use of Copper Sulphate and Formalin alone. The end result is better performance for hoof hygiene, while reducing costs and increasing milk yield.