okay, here is a question for all you more exoperienced sheepo owners--- the boys got loose last week, and when they returned, i saw ernie limping-- but he was also walking with one toe on gravel and the other on a piece of plywood. I went out today, and noticed he was still limping with the "same" degree of affectedness-- so i flipped him and took a look at his feet--
his feet had been trimmed about a month ago by the previous owner--we have had a lot of rain, and quite frankly, footrot and scald are something i am concerned about, as I do not really want to be dealing with those issues so soon into ownership of my fiorst sheep. Anyway, i found the hoof wall had been broken off-- but not beyond the pad of the hoof-- so I trimmed the toes, and cleared out all muck and stuff. I smell anaerobic smell-- but the boys had been browsing- their choice, in a more 'wetland' area today. I will be taking the vet kit out tomorrow and giving all four of Ernie's feet a good cleaning, and looking for any abrasions that could be an issue> this ebvening, I could not find any warm spots or other indications of an infection. the trimming did help ease up on the limping-- and he is really havoing no issue with weight bearing. The research I have done indicates the pasture 'should' be free of footrot organisms-- but do I need to go out and get some zinc sulfate tomorrow? CArol, I beleive you mentioned using some sort of pad at one point that yuou had your guys walk across avery day-- it was saturated with the solution for treatment-- I DO NOT smell the foot rot-- a classmate did a research project on that organism, and believe me, I learned to recognize the smell-- but I need to catch things early, if need be.... Terry __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ This message is from the blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
