Kneeling for daily clover prayer struck me as rather odd, but I still delayed several days before sweeping Chop #37 over into my lap to take a look at his hooves. Sure enough, the abundant rainy days and resultant wet field conditions have contributed to the development of some hoof rot; the two bacteria required to bring this about got plenty busy, now requiring me to step up my care level.
Admittedly a bit of a self diagnosis, my nightly reading of The Veterinary Book for Sheep Farmers, by David Henderson, helped confirm the diagnosis. As did a quick trip to a local vet, and with that money out of my pocket, I immediately checked the other lambs’ hooves and moved into control tactics. Unfortunately I don’t have the means to separate the two with hoof rot signs from the other two, but what I lack in logistics I can try to assuage with intense grooming.
Thus, daily foot baths! These guys will never appreciate the love and time this takes. Most larger sheep operations will group large amounts of sheep into a foot bath area in order to soak they tootsies and get at all that bacteria. Me, Michael and some Betadine cut in half with water can do the trick around here. Neighbor Steve further helped the cause, perhaps with visions of lambchops sitting atop his dinner plate, by demonstrating much better hoof trimming. My first attempts were apparently too cautious. Steve showed me how to see the ‘baby’ hoof and the mature hoof growing down to replace it, as well as interpret how to shape the whole thing so as to not encourage poor hoof growth patterns and odd balance stuff for the sheep.
After 5 days of this routine, and a break in the 9-day rain stint, I note a marked improvement – decreasing amounts of sore pad areas, and much less of the odd smell associated with this stuff.
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