crbearden
Mon, 03 Oct 2005 20:20:20 -0700
I am sure some others on the list have had this problem. In fact I researhed the archives today and found a discussion about sore hooves and wet pastures. Perhaps this will shed a little more light on the subject. I have a large blackbelly ewe, with dwarf ears. She has lambs that are larger at birth than an other ewe, and she is a great mother, so I put up with some trouble... She started laying around a lot about a month ago. I started feeding her some horse feed with extra granulated molasses because she had ketosis just before last lambing. She started getting around better, but seemed to walk like she was hurting.. I watched her for over 2 weeks and found nothing when I caught her and examined her. I did not notice that her feet were hurting until she started walking on her knees for about 6 feet before she would get up on her feet. I caught her and found that the center of her hooves were soft like a dog's toe pad and the outside was still hard. This was not foot rot. There was no infection or smell. We have had a really wet summer, the grass is like a wilderness around here. I contacted an old local vet who has worked with sheep in the 4H and FFA for over 50 years. He now has a Vet consulting practice where he sells supplies. He said that I needed to add Biotin to the feed. He gave me a feed additive called SKY HI H that had Biotin in it to make available Vitamin H. It is a horse feed additive. I also got a new sack of mineral, I had been using TSC sheep and goat blocks, but he said these do not have enough mineral in them to be worth carrying home. (this guy does not mince words) I added the compound to the mineral and put it out in a large tub. My wife had a collection of potato chips and Cheetos and crackers and bread that had gone stale and she put that in with the mineral!! The sheep attacked! They were hilarious when they looked at us with orange noses from the Cheetos!! We did this on Saturday and also on Sunday. This evening, my ewe with the sore feet was getting around fine. The stuff doesn't really have any taste to it. The mineral is not much worse than Lawrey's seasoned salt, I may start using it on my hamburgers instead of Garlic.... My vet said this was a problem from the late rains creating so much grass but not enough minerals in the forage. He also said this was usually a problem with sheep on feed. Just thought this might be the answer to an earlier posting about wet pastures and sore feet. It might not be hoof rot, just nutrition... Cecil Bearden Piedmont,OK _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info mailing list Visit the list's homepage at Blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info@lists.blackbellysheep.info http://lists.blackbellysheep.info/listinfo.cgi/blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info