The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: ladyK on March 25, 2015, 07:03:13 pm
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I've just noticed awful looking lesions on my Soay wether's front foot/leg. Bald patches, skin looks scabby and cracked and some of the cracks are bleeding a bit. It's quite dry not really suppurating and it doesn;t look infected. It doesn't seem sore or itchy. It starts just over the hoof and goes up his ankle for about 10cm. The hoof itself including between the cleats is not affected.
The other front foot is affected too, but not as bad, some bald patches where skin looks a bit dry but not scabby or cracked yet. (last photo). The back feet are not affected nor could I find any other odd looking patch anywhere on his body. No other sheep affected either.
Anybody seen anything like this before?!
To me it looks a bit like mud fever on horses heels, which I know can sometimes spread up the leg. Do sheep get that too? If it's something similar to this it would be something fungal.
For now I sprayed it with antiseptic spray and smothered with antibacterial/antifungal oitment. Not sure what else I should do. I don't think antibiotics are indicated as it's not infected.
Horrified I didn't notice this before but he is not limping, nor bothering/scratching/biting his foot, nor behaving unusually in any way...
Grateful for any ideas/advice.
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Mine lost patches of foot/leg hair and the skin started to go pink because of excess mud. I moved them to better pasture for lambing and it cleared up. They did have it on two or more legs though, and it didn't go scabby. I guess it might if done if left? They were on very wet and muddy land. Good luck with sorting it.
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I wonder if it's some sort of mite? Chorioptic sheep mites are also known as 'leg scab' or 'foot mites'. ;)
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Thank you both for the pointers.
Mites yikes... in that case my antiseptic treatment is not going to get me very far...
Just looked up chorioptic mites - while I can't find any photos that match well what I see, I guess this could be a likely cause. What info I can find online, including NADIS, seems a bit unclear about effective treatments for these chorioptic critters (as opposed to psoroptes mites i.e. 'regular' sheep scab). Apparently scab treatments like ivermectin injections 'will not always eradicate' the chorioptic mite.
Anybody out there who has tried this this?
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it looks very like mud fever. Seen a bit this year in cattle & sheep on neeps. I'd email these pics to your vet to see what they suggest. Terramycin spray can help but in my experience a course of antibiotics is usually best. The scabs lift off eventually to show new hair growing underneath. These are infective though so if you try & loosen and remove them avoid doing it in eg lambing pens. The bugs involved are quite mobile & slide along wet macerated skin which is why often 1 leg is very affected but the others less so.
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Thank you Farmvet too.
I have to correct myself, mud fever is not fungal, it is a bacterial condition (I read a lot about it some time ago, as I had a donkey with it, but got it muddled up since).
This particular one is the only wild one in my flock - tame/greedy enough to catch but he totally panics once confined - would be a bit embarrassing to have the vet about and him freaking out just to check his feet... he'll probably clear the hurdles from standing when he sees a stranger approach.
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To keep wild sheep such as Soay in hurdle pens, lay a hurdle or two over the top, tied on with string. Slide them over quietly from the sides once the sheep are in. To keep them a bit calm, have other sheep in with them.
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I believe the bacteria causing mud fever are in pretty much all soils; but only those animals who are sensitive to them or one with a depressed immune system are the ones to develop the condition. I have one horse who is very prone to mud fever and in the year before I got him he lost all the skin on a large section of a rear leg, so do take it seriously.
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I've treated mudfever quite succesfully last winter in my donkeys just applying external antiseptic often and thoroughly (they never got it this winter, so far at least!()
So I'll try this first on this poor guy's foot - if it doesn't get better (or if it gets worse) it will be hurdles over the top of the pen and the vet!
Thanks again for all your input :thumbsup: