Feet Soundness

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  • THE ANNUAL INSPECTION: Now is the time to sort out feet. It has dried out so spreading of footrot should have slowed down. Making a good job of inspecting all feet is important. If you only do 1 foot inspection a year, post weaning is the time to do it. Drafting off limping sheep is not very effective at removing infection from the mob. Tipping over through a handler or conveyor to check feet, teeth and udders is ideal 1 month after weaning.

  • Antibiotic treatment of lame sheep is most effective when the affected foot is deprived of moisture. We still have good antibiotic treatment options available. Tenaline for farmer use and veterinary administered tilmovet is still available as the gold standard for targeted treatment.

  • If there are signs of scald and early footrot in your flock, 10% zinc troughing weekly for 2-3 treatments will break the cycle of disease transmission before rolling over for inspection.

  • Strain typing and custom footrot vaccine is available commercially. Some promising signs are coming out of our trial work.

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