Folks, please help me get to the bottom of this - some of our sheeps' feet are cracking up, and it's driving me mad!!
The symptoms vary from developing pockets that fill with dirt (shelly hoof)
through to this poor lamb who has cracks right along and up the hoof wall.
I know at the time, people said that the first hoof had been over-trimmed (possibly, although not by me). However, the hoof in the second picture has never ever been trimmed, yet has well developed pockets and nail detatchment along with a horizontal crack right along the top of the hoof, just below the hair-line.
Also, we bought a four-shear ewe, who came to us with good feet and no history of foot problems, who again developed horizontal cracks within a couple of months of arriving here. It really looked as though the hoof she grew after arriving was weaker than the existing hoof, which caused it to crack and then get infected.
So what's going on? Is it something in the water? A mineral deficiency in our grass? (I've put out some zinc rockies, but the sheep don't seem to touch them). Something I'm doing? Something I'm not? All ideas are welcome, as I really have no idea how to fix this, and neither does the vet I'm afraid
.