[tommytink]

I have a ram lamb that I’ve just noticed today has patches of hair loss on his lower legs. One other ram lamb has it on one leg. They are not showing signs of lameness.
Any ideas on what this is? I did think of CODD but the loss is above the coronary band and there’s no lameness. The other sheep in the field don’t appear to be affected.

[shep53]

Is the grass fairly long and wet ?

[tommytink]

These are two of our own lambs born in March. The bottom photo is just the rear foot of the second lamb. Definitely something new, they’re checked daily and I know I would’ve seen this before had it been there.
I’ve looked and can’t see any bug dirt in the area. Similarly I’ve walked the field and can’t see anything organic that may have irritated them. It’s a clean field in the respect of pricklies, with literally three or four stinging nettles poking through the fence. The only recent addition was some willow branches we put in for them, whether they caught their feet on the twiggy bits? But seems unlikely? Grass is relatively well-grazed as they’d been in there a couple of weeks or so no although it’s been wet with the morning dew it’s not what I’d call long.
I’ve isolated them as a precaution. Blue sprayed initially but then washed all legs  in hibiscrub mix. They’re both happy enough, grazing etc. Haven’t seen any foot chewing but obvs not watching them all day.
Checked the other rams and none of them have symptoms.
Will keep these two in the iso field and monitor. Wondered about sudocrem but wasn’t sure if this would dry the skin out more?

[shep53]

Have seen the same over winter when mud dries on their legs ,then when it comes off it takes the hair with it

[harmony]

Have seen the same over winter when mud dries on their legs ,then when it comes off it takes the hair with it

It does look like mud fever. Sudocreme is good enough for babies bottoms!


I would remain mindful of mites though.

[tommytink]

Ah! Looked up mud fever and that sounds feasible. It is slightly wet and therefore muddy so maybe they’ve frequented an area and got mud stuck on them. The hair was definitely rubbing off and it was a little scabby. They’re twins, and pal around together all the time, which may be why they have it and none of the others.
I usually think anything suitable for babies is okay for animals so will look at applying sudocrem tomorrow. Seems the chlorhexidine wash was the right way to go although I didn’t dry them off afterwards. Today the areas look a lot less inflamed, and even less noticeable. Will pop the sudocrem on tomorrow and hopefully they’ll be back with the others in a couple of days.
Thanks as always!