The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Gunestone on November 16, 2017, 09:11:45 pm
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Two of our ewes have gone lame, we brought them in today and after cleaning their feet their soles were more whiteish than usual and they looked almost as if something had been eating away at them, very pockmarked like. They had this on both front feet, but more so on the ones they were lame on. Pretty sure there's no scald, and it doesn't look like footrot, any ideas? Have sprayed them with foot spray.
Second question, I've never used a ram lamb before on ewes, but am this year. We put him in on Sunday afternoon, and so far he hasn't done anything (He is raddled), he is submissive to the ewes, could it just be that the ewes aren't on heat right now?
Thank you!
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Reads like early stages of footrot and yes the ewes are maybe not cycling yet , give him time
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Thanks for your reply. Your right, after a re-examination I think it is footrot after all. So good to know what is the matter with them :relief: What is considered the best treatment for footrot now? Golden hoof or Terramycin spray? Should we give them an antibiotic injection?
Thanks!
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There's a lot of footrot about at the moment. Blue antibiotic spray all 4 feet (preferably leave to dry on concrete before going back out), oxytetracycline antibiotic injection and a jab of metacam. Reassess in a 3-5 days. If you can separate them from the flock then even better but the main thing if they are in the middle of tupping/ in lamb is to keep stress to a minimum.
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If they're ewes they'll probably seek out the ram when necessary. This is a good time of year to vaccinate with Footvax if your vet will let you have a small amount.
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Footrot sorted; got some blue spray and antibiotic injections from vet. None of the ewes has been tupped yet though, he's been in there for 11 days.
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Just out of interest, Gunestone, what antibiotic did the vet give you? One of my ewes has front feet very much like you describe - pock marked and holey! However, she's not lame. But I have been spraying her feet with blue antibiotic spray. I've got L.A. Alamein if needed.
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She gave us penicillin. This and the blue spay is what she normally uses for footrot and has good results.
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Thanks for that. I've got Pen and Strep which would probably be ok. Hope your ewe will be fit and healthy now.