dogjon:

what breeds are favored for low wet ground over there on the basis of their feet?

We are now crossing our ewes with ducks in order to breed sheep with webbed feet.

I wish I was joking.

Oregonians are often referred to as "webfoots". We are finally starting to dry out a bit after the wettest March on record.

Jon

dogjon:

The question I have is how can you select for natural resistance if you are vaccinating?

 

well you cant really, but if you have a vaccination programme for your flock then it doent really matter, just cheaper to have animals that dont need vaccinating. I know there a fair few guys in new zealand that wont use footvax because its a waste of time and money, but then they have a different attitude to breeding over there.

 

welshnwilling:

We are now crossing our ewes with ducks in order to breed sheep with webbed feet.

Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "having a gander at the ewes"!!

dogjon:

The question I have is how can you select for natural resistance if you are vaccinating?

You can't but if you had lameness problems like we had a few yrs ago you'd have no option but to vaccinate. Culling would have resulted in almost the whole flock going. Now that we have got on top of the situation we can now afford to cull the repeat offenders.

dogjon:

what breeds are favored for low wet ground over there on the basis of their feet?

Others may disagree but I think the hill breeds have better feet and also as they are lighter they are more suitable for wet ground. I also think that sheep with white hooves are more prone to lameness. For some reason hooves with dark pigment seem to be harder. Don't ask me why.

welshnwilling:

We are now crossing our ewes with ducks in order to breed sheep with webbed feet

Dont worry when I have got the hover cow to work I will sort the hover sheep out for you chaps just a smaller verson of the same thing really,

Should have it ready for er summer if we get one

welshnwilling:

dogjon:

The question I have is how can you select for natural resistance if you are vaccinating?

Once you have vaccinated then anything that doesn't get better or later develops foot rot gets culled.  We have been vaccinating and culling for about 6 years now and honestly do not get footrot in the sheep. Culled 10 % the first 6 months  2% the second year, now they are good.   Very rare to get scald.   I do have to trim excess growth on the rams feet annually but then they are bought in and I will cull for bad foot/leg conformation.  I have considered stopping the vaccine as we should be free of footrot,  but not brave enough yet. 

We have a survey live at the moment trying to gather information about sheep lameness, as part of the Stamp Out Lameness campaign. If you would like to get involved and would like to be put in to a draw to win one of 10 free tickets to NSA Sheep 2012 then go to www.fwi.co.uk/stampoutlameness

BrownCow:

welshnwilling:

dogjon:

The question I have is how can you select for natural resistance if you are vaccinating?

Once you have vaccinated then anything that doesn't get better or later develops foot rot gets culled.  We have been vaccinating and culling for about 6 years now and honestly do not get footrot in the sheep. Culled 10 % the first 6 months  2% the second year, now they are good.   Very rare to get scald.   I do have to trim excess growth on the rams feet annually but then they are bought in and I will cull for bad foot/leg conformation.  I have considered stopping the vaccine as we should be free of footrot,  but not brave enough yet. 

Go on, stop the vaccine.  It has its place: we used it after accidentally importing a new and very vicious strain of footrot, but it was only one year and some painful culling, and we now do no routine trimming on feet, having talked at length to Laura Green, and scald is a rarity now as well (treated a.s.a.p. with antibiotic spray).

 www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/lifesci/people/lgreen/

 

We have a small flock and they have been on some lush rented pasture for a few weeks now. The lambs have scald. The ewes are fine which leads me to think its the grass and nothing worse. Unfortunatly with only a small piece of our own grass we are powerless over alot of our grazing and have to take it as it comes.

I have been treaing them as i can catch them by cleaning (a bit of salty water) and with blue spray.

Keeping them on clean dry ground long enough for it to dry has been the biggest challenge and it is having limited success while being veryyy labour intensive! We are by a well used road and have nosey neighbours so need to get on top of it for the lambs and our sakes!

 The vet suggested oxyetracycline injections.

We have not used this before but the long grass with the continued we weather we are having is making us think it may be the answer.

Any one else used it or have any suggestions i would be grateful.

 

EmmaDale:

Any one else used it or have any suggestions i would be grateful.

Hi Emma,

Best thing for scald is to run them through a footbath with some tylan powder or similar. (3 teaspoons powder to 25 litres water) Ideally leave them to stand in it for a minute or two and if you have a clean dry area to stand them on for half an hour afterwards, all the better. You could do this perhaps twice a week to begin with and then as they get better maybe just once a week or fortnight would suffice. Make sure they put all their feet in the water by making them move about a bit.

Good luck.

Hi I'm sure footbathing is the answer though not all that easy if you don't have a very handy set up.

 We normally bring them in and catch every lamb and examine every foot spraying with blue spray as necessary then let them stand ib a clean yard for a while. It's amazing how many can be done in an hour.!!

 I wouldn't worry about it washing off as it's not that easy to remove.

Forget about washing feet first.

Also check you are using proper alamycin/terramycin blue spray as there are some blue sprays that are only antisepticand don't contain antibiotics and are fairly useless for scald.

EmmaDale:

Any one else used it or have any suggestions i would be grateful

I'm guessing you have a small number in which case take the advice you've paid for and inject them.  If you are gathering them in the field, spraying and letting them go in the pen straight away you might actually be making it worse as it could provide ideal cross contamination conditions.  Oxytet LA for all the lambs will break the cycle and give you a rest plus you will know that they are all "covered".

Good point with the blue spray, will check that one tomorrow.

Thought about the cross contamination. Have been cleaning between lambs to try to prevent this and they stand in a dry shed as long as i can do to let it soak in and dry before they go back with the rest.But yes i had thought am i doing more harm than good! But you feel you have to try dont you!

We do only have a small number this year as we culled out some older ewes and have some of our own replacements coming through for next year.

Will be jabbing tomorrow i think and in future maybe footbathing before they go on this field as its by a stream and is always quite lush.Hopefully wont need to jab in future years then! Its tricky footbathing as we dont have a permenant set up or a fancy alligator jobby! a few hurdles and a concrete area are all we can manage!

This is why i love keeping sheep (most of the time!) your always learning!

My assisted lambing skills are getting better each year and now it seems im on a foot learning curve!

 

EmmaDale:

Good point with the blue spray, will check that one tomorrow

I think I'm right in saying that you can only get the proper antibiotic spray from the vets ? I'd agree with Browncow though, if you only have a small amount of sheep it's best to jab them all and be done with it (hopefully).

Do any of you use that bluestone powder like the foot trimmer uses on the cattle?

Good Good..am picking it up later on along with a shopping list of new blue spray and wormer!

Im going to need another job!! Im looking at some of the ram lambs with pound signs in my eyes!!!!

Its always helpful to talk to other people and they dont like me taking the kids in the pub!

 

the kling on stuff?

The vet said alot now use that and its suppost to be quite good.

I just thought with the continuing wet weather we were better to jab and be done with it hopefully as its a bit of a family effort when we need to get the monkeys in! They let you rub them on the nose when you have the bucket with you but set up some hurdles and they are off!!! Who said sheep were stupid!

 

I dont no what its called but he will through a load in the hole after trinning a lame cow at it puts it right most times

I must ask what it is a where I can get some

i think it will be kling on blue paste, you put it on with a wooden stick ( or whatever else you have!)

It has copper and zinc sulphates in and is suppost to penetrate well and umm..kling on.

just done a hay run...one field too long and the other no grass at all!!!

 

EmmaDale:

a few hurdles and a concrete area are all we can manage!

To make a race for the footbath you just need 3 strips  of 2" flat the width of a footbath with a bit of bar welded upright at each end.  The hurdles slot over the bar and then will stay close to the footbath.  They learn pretty quickly that the only way out is through the bath.

1)  Irresponsible breeders who sell sheep for breeding which have had footrot in the past.An animal which has had footrot should only go for slaughter.

2) Any sheep with footrot should be culled as soon as possible.Cripple ewes should be culled as soon as their lambs can survive without them.The fact that a cripple sheep cant be sent for slaughter is a big problem and a major hinderance in the eradication of footrot.So its neccessary to have a cull field,where lame sheep can go until they are able to comply with transport regulations.Sheep which enter this field should on no account be moved from that field except onto a lorry to the killing house.

peesie:

1)  Irresponsible breeders who sell sheep for breeding which have had footrot in the past.An animal which has had footrot should only go for slaughter.

2) Any sheep with footrot should be culled as soon as possible.Cripple ewes should be culled as soon as their lambs can survive without them.The fact that a cripple sheep cant be sent for slaughter is a big problem and a major hinderance in the eradication of footrot.So its neccessary to have a cull field,where lame sheep can go until they are able to comply with transport regulations.Sheep which enter this field should on no account be moved from that field except onto a lorry to the killing house.

 

trim the bad foot and put them on a clean dry yard for the day, should clear up most problems enough to get them on the lorry. getting to them early is the key i think, obviously easier said than done but its pointless waiting until the ewe cant walk when you know shes lame

 

That is exactly what we did with a sufflok ewe last year!

Put her in a paddock alone and treated her foot until well enough to go for slaughter.

Shame she was a nice ewe but like you say you have to breed out the problem.

We have no lame ewes or ewe lambs and only trim feet when really need to.

The lambs are uffering from the wet weather but we jabbed tonight so hopefully they wont develop anything worse and the jab will clear them up.

We had horrendous problems with foot-rot a neighbouring suffolk breeder suggested vaccininating with FOOTVAX job done after 2 jabs. That was 4years ago.No excuse for footrot.If We could clear it up anyone can