Important, find Dorper genetics with out any influence of Katahdin. Not easy to find.
I have never seen any footroot in Canada, I know only if Zinc or Copper is very low in an area, sheep have more problems with feet. Katahdin do not well in our area, too wet .As they have partly Suffolk blood, the chances to get Scrapie in future is possible.I would not add any Katahdin blood to a flock. What ever kind of sheep you buy, take only out of flocks which never have been trimmed. As the Dorper breeder if he has to trim feet ! Look at the feet, if they are even and nice shaped. Keep the ram on low feed quality, he does well on straw and old hay. If you feed a ram too well, no doubt the hooves gone change to the bad and soften. We culled over years what ever has had to be trimmed or showed parasite problems.Meat sheep are as low workload as deer, if good selected. In years with too much rain and standing water, feed Kelp. Regards Helmut ----- Original Message ----- From: "William Buchanan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 9:35 AM Subject: RE: [blackbelly] Sore feet/hooves? > Thank you Mary, > > Wow, my situation is very similar. This guy lives only about 7 miles > from me and he also deals heavily in ethnic sales. He really seems > unconcerned. > > What I am wondering now is, what will become of his flock in the future? > Will the footrot eventually cause death? I want to warn him but I think > he is in denial. Maybe he thinks when dry weather returns, all will be > well. > > As far as I am concerned though, I made up my mind yesterday that I > won't return to his farm. NO WAY is it worth the chance. Like I said > before, I have had absolutely no problems with mine other than a few > bouts with coyotes. > > One last question(s): Are dorpers or Katahdins highly susceptible to > this FOOTROT? Where can someone go to get a Dorper ram and be assured of > getting a "foot rot free" one? I am very leery of adding ANYTHING to my > flock now. > > I am assuming all you can do is observe the flock you buy from and smell > their feet?, and avoid sale barns?. Stills sounds dangerous to me. > Would be nice if there were "certified footrot free" flocks. > > Thanks again Mary, > > Chris > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mary Swindell > Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 10:25 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [blackbelly] Sore feet/hooves? > > Chris, > > Your letter about the breeder with several limping ewes from the > dorper/katahdin flock sent up an emergency red flag for me. A few years > > ago, I bought katahdins from a local dorper/katahdin breeder. Several > were > limping, and he told me the same thing -- it had been wet lately. > > However, those sheep actually came in with contagious footrot. For one > and > one-half years I battled the horrible disease. I ended up culling all > the > purebred katahdins that I had purchased (11 adult ewes and one wonderful > > ram), and also the three lambs that were born on my property, to the > sale > barn for slaughter. The lambs had developed footrot shortly after > birth. The footrot also got into my barbado flock, and I had to cull > several of those too. > > For 18 months, I gave injections, trimmed feet madly, disinfected daily, > > kept meticulous records of individual sheep with recurrences, > quarantined > at several levels (very bad, slightly bad, possibly a problem, and OK), > made the entire flock stand in a footbath nightly (the treatments took 4 > > hours per night, every night for over a year). Slowly, after > heartbreaking > culling, I began to reduce the problem sheep to just a few. After 18 > months, I culled the last two sheep (two barbado wethers), and it was a > hard choice because they both just had a little pinkness between their > hooves. But it had to be done, as they were on the record for several > times of "recurrent" problems. > > I do not know where you live, but the sheep breeder who sold me the > katahdins lives within 15 miles of me. He does not care whether his > flock > have good feet or not. He mostly sells for production, and he sells to > the > ethnic market, so it doesn't matter that his sheep have foot diseases. > As > far as I know, he does absolutely nothing to take care of his sheep > feet. But the bad part is, he also sells dorper/katahdin crosses to > other > breeders who are looking for purebreds or for that cross in rams or ewes > to > start a breeding flock. PLEASE BE CAREFUL IF YOU BUY FROM HIM, OR > SOMEONE > WITH A SIMILAR SITUATION! If you get footrot in your flock, you'll be > in > for the battle of your life. And it doesn't matter whether your own > home > pastures are wet or dry. The infected sheep will bring the disease in > with > them. > > It has been almost 2 years since I overcame the footrot epidemic on my > farm. Only stubbornness on my part and perseverence allowed me to win > out. My friend and neighber also battled it many years ago. He and his > > wife went from 35 sheep down to 5 sheep in one year because of the > disease. They had to cull everything to save anything. We are both > very > careful about having not only other sheep on our premises, but even > having > visitors here from other farms where the disease might exist. If you > have > seen sheep farmers or university farm situations where they ask you to > slip > on some disposable plastic boot covers before you come into their > pasture > as a visitor, that is the reason why. > > Again, Chris, please be careful what you bring in. You should not > hesitate > to examine the feet of his sheep before you buy any of them. If you > lift a > foot of a limper and smell a nasty rotten smell between the halves of > the > foot, that is footrot. Get down close to the hoof and stick your nose a > > few inches from it. A healthy foot just has an earthy smell. This is > an > unmistakable smell of something dead. Even if you cannot smell it, it > may > be there in its beginning stages if you see inflamed pink or red tissue, > or > other symptoms. The hoof wall will become separated from the soft > tissue > many times, and there is literally rotten tissue in both the hoof and > the > soft parts. If the breeder hesitates to discuss this with you, it would > > probably be better if you seek out another breeder, even if you have to > drive further. > > Good luck to you in whatever you decide to do! > > Sincerely, > Mary Swindell > > > > > > =============================================== > This message is from the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep mailing list (http://www.awrittenword.com/listserv/index.html). > To respond to this message, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe or change your membership options, go to http://lists.coyotenet.net/mailman/listinfo/blackbelly > To search the archives, go to http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ =============================================== This message is from the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep mailing list (http://www.awrittenword.com/listserv/index.html). 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