[bloomer]

found this video whilst looking for something else but thought there solution of how to get the foot bath solution into contact with the foot was quite clever...


obviously only suited to small numbers but hey it might help someone


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_wueWT2j_I


enjoy

[Backinwellies]

Like the wellie idea .... but please note the foot trimming is totally against all current recommendations.

[Foobar]

Any tub or cut down bottle will do, I've done that in the past if it's just for one animal.  Just keep hold of it otherwise they might send it flying...
But yeah, perhaps she needs to stop trimming and then she'll have less rot .

[bloomer]

is that don't trim at all or just for foot rot?

[Ladygrey]

I find that with my sheep that have never been lame, they usually have that outer wall curling underneath and perhaps protecting the softer sole, dont seem to get anything trapped underneath it 

I also agree that she may help her sheeps feet by not trimming back like that and so often, although those look like friesland sheep, which are known to have different feet

[fsmnutter]

Advice from above is to only trim if necessary.
Routine trimming of all sheep is very much frowned upon as trimming often will make the hoof grow faster so needing trimming more often, and if overzealous can lead to inflammatory tissue forming and 'strawberries' or toe granulomas.
Trimming of lame sheep is only recommended to diagnose whether it is scald, white line problems or footrot.
If an infectious problem, it is best to give antibiotic - usually spray for scald, spray + injectable for footrot, and anti-inflammatory painkiller, and then GENTLY trim back the loose dead horn after a couple of days, by which point it should be less painful and the disease on the way to healing. This seems to help them recover more quickly and with fewer recurrences.
Hope that helps

[Womble]

Advice from above is to only trim if necessary.

But when is 'necessary'?  For example, would you have trimmed the first foot in the video, or left it be?

Routine trimming of all sheep is very much frowned upon as trimming often will make the hoof grow faster so needing trimming more often

Now I'm confused!  I bite my fingernails, but since they're not alive, they don't know they've been bitten, and don't grow back faster as a result?

I like the wellie idea though Bloomer - nice and easy to hold the sheep's foot in there without all the splashing around you get with a bucket or similar  .

[Backinwellies]

Vet recommendation at talk I've just been too ................A sound but overgrown hoof can be trimmed but leave 2mm of hoof proud of foot .... on video she trimmed to level with foot.

Any trimming a foot with rot will slow healing
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/research/greengroup/farmersandvets/footrotinsheep/

[fsmnutter]

Necessary = very overgrown eg. corkscrew claws, or lame (but after treatment with antibiotic as above)
The difference between animal feet and our fingernails is that we don't walk on ours! If feet are trimmed, the pressures on the hoof change and encourage growth of hoof, but fingernails don't get that.
The first foot in the video did not look like it needed trimming.
The second foot looks to me more like a white line type issue than footrot, as between the toes and the sole of the foot look ok. This problem may even be secondary to having overtrimmed a toe in the past, causing a toe granuloma, and therefore deformed toe horn, which allows dirt and infection to track up the white line. The affected bit should be cleaned out and I would recommend antibiotic spray for that one and anti-inflammatory injection.

[Treud na Mara]

I know this is technically the wrong place but.....what about Angora goat hooves ? We have a real problem with our wethered seven year old goat - could we be making the situation worse by over trimming do you think ?

[Bex]

Oh bugger!

I clicked on the link and then accidentally went on a massive youtube smallholding binge.

I blame Bloomer   

[Dogwalker]

I put the foot dip into a spray bottle for sheep and goats.
The angoras have improved alot since I started doing it regularly.
Now it's the odd one or two limping instead of all of them.  Still a problem but not such a big one.  And I cut down on antibiotic use, thank goodness.

[SallyintNorth]

Just goes to show that if you don't know which YouTube videos to watch - and which blogs to read - you can end up seriously misinformed and potentially doing harm to your livestock.

She overtrimmed that first foot to an alarming degree, cutting the horn back well above the level of the sole so that the sheep would be walking on the sole of its foot.  The horn is meant to protect the sole, just like a horse's hoof.

She also cut off horn from the front of the toe for no good reason, which would probably lead to a mis-shaped toe and eventually - since she would keep trimming this off each time she had the sheep upside down - could well lead to a granuloma.

Tsk tsk