Quarantining the Quarantined

Poor Hazel had been limping occasionally since we got her. On Thursday she began to limp more often than not, was grazing on her front knees, and was laying around a lot. Alan and I were finally together and caught her to look at her hooves. Both her front hooves were a little over grown and had an area of redness and irritation and a smelly yellow/gray discharge between her toes. We trimmed up her hooves and treated her with a zinc sulfate solution. She got a repeat treatment yesterday and then today I trimmed her hooves again; then put a gauze pad soaked in zinc sulfate solution between her toes and put a small baggy with the zinc sulfate solution over each hoof. Then I wrapped each baggie in livestock wrap and loose duct tape. She is soaking now and due to have everything removed after one hour.

She looks very stylish in her little make-do treatment booties.

Yesterday I worked 16 hours so her treatment was done by my husband and daughter. I had not seen her hooves since my original examination 2 days ago. I was relieved to see great improvement. No more odor, no more redness, no more limping.

All the reading I did about foot scald and foot rot on the internet was very pessimistic. Hazel's symptoms were similar to foot scald, except for the odor. Though with her rapid recovery I am hopeful it is just foot scald. She is not very happy being separated from her buddies so I will probably let her out of the barn tomorrow. But this has allowed us to have some "quality bonding time." And I was able to get a good assessment of her condition. She must have not been grazing well for a while as she is very thin. I can now get her supplemented so she can improve her condition score.


Some helpful websites: 

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/asc/asc129/asc129.htm

https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/As/As-596-footrot.pdf

http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/pests-diseases-and-weeds/animal-diseases/sheep/footrot-in-sheep/footrot-in-sheep-2.-diagnosis

https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/410/410-028/410-028.html

Great post about using LA200 and DMSO to tx foot rot
 https://colliefarm.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/foot-rot-fight/

http://www.farmfoodcare.org/pdfs/animal-resources/sheep-foot-rot-june-2010.pdf