TREATMENT OF FOOT-ROT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20827, 20 March 1931, Page 16

TREATMENT OF FOOT-ROT.

EFFICACY OF BRINE. There was a recent request for advice about the treatment for foot-rot (writes Mr. Frank M. Pensley in tlio Rurhl New Yorker). Several years ago I liarl eight of my 50 mill? cows suddenly afflicted with foot-rot. They were not exactly family pets and their treatment was a hazardous undertaking. After several days of endeavour and worry the idpo came to-me that if those sore feet could he immersed in a strong brine for a time they might be benefited. I constructed a concreto partition across the trench of the end stall of the stanchion line, thus providing the end stall with an individual trench. I then arranged the stall so that a cow would have to stand with her hind feet in this trench. After cleaning this four-foot part of (he trench I dumped into it half a pail of cheap hay salt and enough warm water to make four inches of brine. I then had each of the eight cows take a half-hour stand with her hind feet in the brine, and I repeated the treatment every morning for three days. On the third day each cow walked away without any trace of lameness. Thereafter as soon as a cow showed first signs of foot-rot lameness she was given the three-day treatment, and in every case tho cure was fully effected on or before the third day. After adopting this practice the trouble soon ceased to occur except at long intervals with one or two case«.