[gadge]

Had a few of my ewes have sore feet throughout the year but all have cleared up without me going near them.  I think we intervene too quickly in some cases.  If the ground is dry then give it a chance

[Slimjim]

As in humans, the immunity of pregnant ewes is reduced so as not to reject the "foreign body" foetus. So ewes with previously excellent foot health are mor vulnerable to infection and sometimes suddenly go lame with an infected foot. I agree with others that say leave her until after she's lambed and then wait to see if her foot recovers as her immunity is restored to normal. It is a worry, but she is best left alone.

[in the hills]

How is she?

One of our Soay ewes started to limp when heavily in lamb. Luckily one of the very tame girls. We just caught hold of her at the food trough and lifted her foot, like a horse, couldn't see anything and decided to leave her rather than risk upsetting her. She wasn't terribly lame and was eating/ moving around as normal.

After lambing we still couldn't see much wrong. We did clean and spray as a precaution but she stopped limping more or less straight away.

[ladyK]

Still the same, hobbling about. Keeping my hands off...
Thanks for all your similar stories at least it gives me some reassurance that it may not be too serious.
I read heavy ewes sometimes get a heel abscess - this would be very painful and explain the bad laming but it would have to clear/burst by itself anyway.
Her udder is not as big as one of the others - but then that one has had a huge udder (well what I think feels huge on such a small ewe) for nearly 2 weeks now.

[in the hills]

  for her.

The bag sizes on our Soay varies a lot anyway. One ewe always has an enormous udder , before and after birth, and her lambs always get sticky bums  . She has twins but must have loads of milk.

Hope lambing goes well and great if you could post lambie pics. We missed lambing this year for various reasons and really missed it. Could do with a Soay lamb 'fix'.