The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: pippa on November 01, 2010, 03:44:03 pm
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have recently rescued some old ewes and rams who have severe foot rot and the kindest thing would be to have them killed. is it possible to eat an animal that has foot rot? thank you
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I'm not sure they would be that good to eat anyway, to be honest. If they are old, they will be quite tough, and having footrot may have pulled them down in condition.
Foot rot is caused by a soil-borne bacteria called Fusiformis nodosus, and is prevelant in sheep with badly-cared for feet. The bacteria is anaerobic, and so can live deep within the foot without oxygen. There are several brands of foot care products which can be used to treat the feet, but first they need to be properly trimmed to take off all the dead and dying horn and expose the rotten parts to the air and the effects of the footbath.
I don't know where you sourced your sheep, but usually marts and abbatoirs don't like sheep with bad feet presented at their premises. You may have to treat their feet before you can do anything further with them.
As for eating them...I don't see any reason not to as far as the condition of the feet goes.
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I agree that you should treat the footrot first, certainly in the ewes. The old rams will probably not be edible other than in pies or as pet food, so if they are that bad you might be as well to call in the knacker to kill them humanely on the spot.
For the ewes, as well as trimming and a footbath with, say, Golden Hoof (zinc sulphate) once a week for 3 weeks, you can also give them an injection of long acting Terramycin. Once their feet are better and with some decent feeding, you may well find that their condition picks up to the extent that the ewes will be wonderful for sausages in the early summer. What are their teeth like? You don't say what breed they are, or why they had to be rescued.
If you keep other sheep, hopefully you are keeping these animals separate.
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I rescued several old sheep in this condition a few years ago, some were so bad they could not stand for long and one had to have dressings where the footrot had turned to abcesses.....
However....you cannot kill them in that state unless the local hunt takes them and I certainly would not eat a sick sheep!
So.... trim the feet, soak each hoof in strong antiseptic to clean out every bit of grot and spray v well with antibiotic spray. If relly yukky put horse poultice dressing called Animalintex on (dry) that can be got from vet or good store and bandage with vetwrap. Give all a shot of long acting antibiotic. Keep them in and feed well. Within 10 days they will look a whole lot better and within a month all should be up and walking.
The ones I rescued were skin and bone but after a summer on good grass they went in the market, the ones with teeth in the breeding ewes and the ones without in the cull ewes......I made £200 profit!
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There is a better antibiotic, I think it's called Mycotil (????) but can only be administered by the vet.
Would agree that abattoir probably will not take badly limping animals... and if they are in bad condition eating them will not be a pleasure...so you are better treating it or get the knacker man to put them out of their misery.