Remedies for Foot-rot in Sheep.

Bush Advocate, Volume XI, Issue 832, 16 September 1893, Page 5

Remedies for Foot-rot in Sheep.

By "Manatoa," is " Nirw Yoke Weeklt Pbess." I believe foot-rot is considered to be a fungoid growth, and I have often noticed when, mushrooms aud other fnngi are plentiful iv tha autumn, foot-rot abounds. Spring and autumn, are the times when the disease seems to spread rapidly and to get more malignant, especially ia the autumn when warm northerly rains fallen heated ground, and when the vegetation dried, up through tha summer begins to decay. Tet I have known on heavy land a very bad attack spread rapidly in a not over wet summer. A cold winter with plenty of frost seems to Btop the contagion. It may also he that the ground being comparatively hare at that time of year has something to do with this*, for long feed Beems to be one of the chief causes cf the spread of foot-rot. But however that may be I hava always found if the disease iB well got under late in the autumn and a frosty winter follows* , foot-rot will not give much trouble until spring. Since the invention of long concrete troughs and the arsenic cure, foot-rot ia not tha formidable disease it was when I firat tackled it. In fact, if it were not for the spring attacks, when the ewe flocks cannot be knocked about for some mouths on account of lambing, no one who has his sheep in paddocks need have mnch more trouble with it thau having to run them through a weak solution every six weeks or two months - Many thousands can go through a trough in a day, and when they ara used to it will inn themsplves. But to b^ible to do this at regular intervals there must he a battened floor for muridv weather, or it is put off until the rot ha. got into the foot too far and then comes trouble and tho knife. The woolshed floor can be used in most cases. Ou a sudden outbreak I havo run eyres through ths trough whilst they were lambing by getting in small mobs at a time aud picking out all the lambs by hand, putting them into a separate pen until the ewes had been through and keeping them (ewes and lambs), when done, in a fresh paddock until the whole flock was through. But it ia a great trouble: for the owes lamb in tbe yards, lambs are lost getting them in and go bank on to their old ground, and perhaps the mother is dry before you can <>ot her hack again. Where cheep aro subject to foot-rot. the ewe flook when near lambing must be always separated from tha other sheep, which can be dealt with at any time. I hnvn tiled a great many remedies for lootrot, many of which, if applied by haud very carefully, are good— a tooth brush is the best iustruiiiPiit to apply most of them with— but the trouble they nil give iv any but very small Socles, and the waste of material (often costly) prohibits their u-e; moreover, nouo of them will cum like arsenic. Carbolic acid applied br haud 1 found of little n«e in bad cusps. It did not penetrate, and when put. on a decayed foot, which had the hoof cti-efully pared away, it would juit burn a crust over it; under which, when looked at again a short time after the foot-rot. would bo iv full vigor. Butter of antimony was better, but too dear for anything but perhaps a mob of rams, whose feet the arsenic and some other remedies seemed to irritate. In fact, long woolled rams, on account of the great weight on their feet, should be treated with the above or one of the advertised remedies, aomo of wbich are very good. A pen on tno sea boach in which the tide rises nearly a foot, has been found a good reinody for rams whose feet must bi treated very tonderly : but this cannot be applied with advantage on estuaries, etc., where rivers render the water not salt enough. Coal tar, common salt and kerosene I haveeach found would euro loot-rot, and I believe tho latter, though I bave not i.sod it much, to be one of the best hand remedies, as it is very penetrating, is death to all aerms and is cheap. But the bail part of all these that cannot be used in a trough is that tho hoof has to he pared to effect a cure, and this, with the trouble of applying. prohibits their use in large flocks. Arsenic or btueatone will effect a cure in crossbredfl or long-wool 3 without paring at all, if the disease has not gone too far: indeed some people object Btrongly, except in the case of a very long hoof, to a knife being allowed to touch a sheep's foot unless the disease, having been allowed to go too far, makes it ahsolutely nocesJary to go over the flock with a knife. Bluestone is a good remedy, but comes dearer than arsenic at 275. Od. per cwt., nor has it, I thiuk, such a lasting effect. It should never be mixed with arsenic, for the reason that it is & strong acid and that arsenic has to be dissolved in soda or mmc other alkali ; this soda neutralises the acidity of the bluestone and renders it of litlb or no uss. To cure a flock far gone with foot^rot I employ a far stronger solution of arsenic than ia ganorally used, viz., Üb. of arsenic and Ulb. of soda to !>sjal. of water. I run the sheep through this twice ; then leaving them fourteen days, bring them in agaiu, aud paring the had cases run them through once. The sheep leaving the trongh should run up a hollow concrete incline, which brings tho solution carried out hack into the trough. Concreto should be used if possible for tbo trough, ns ou wood there is » good deal of splashing by slipping sheep, and the solution is carried out in their wool. The above will cure old Merinos ior gone, but is very severe on the sheep ; b'so, if done agaiu too soon will hurt them, drawing up the sinews and producing breaking out at the udder and inside the knee joint. When brought in the second time to pare it will be seen tha arsenic has followed the rot and dried it np, separating: the hoof from the diseased parts, making it much easier to get the hoof away withont cutting the flesh. If the foot is badly cut it is permanently disfigured nnd forma hard lumps of horn, which are very hard to cut away, and. which no sheep can keep worn down. Such sheep are better sent to tho butcber when fat. I do not recommend so strong a solution of arsenic a3 the above. I can only say I have used it to advantage for many years. It seems to givo the sheep with foot-rot great pain for a dav or two, whilst the sound ones appear to feel 110 effect whatever, unless cut in paring. I nm quito open to conviction that a weaker solutionis an good and lsa3 painful. I put in moro water when sheep are only juat showing signs of lameness: anrl. as a preventive, use •loz. to tho pal. only, boiling it as I want it, and using it warm if convenient. I have always found these arsenical solutions act best when warm.