Praise be to God

To the tune of Joy to the World

Praise be to God

The foot rot is gone

Let sheep...run forth...in joy

There's no more foot baths

And no more injections

And shepherd and shepherdess sing.
And shepherd and shepherdess sing
It's such a, it's such a great relief!


Thanks especially to my facebook friend Nicole for her priceless help in all of this!!

We do still have to trim every two weeks, but we are working on putting them in the lower field where it is more rocky and weedy.  The upper field is used for hay production and seeded.  The lower field is used, but is more suited for sheep than cattle.  See cattle eat tall grass, sheep eat short grass.  Cattle like lush pasture, lush pasture causes foot trouble in sheep.  We'll have to put them with the cattle in the upper field during the winter due to coyotes and mountain lions.  The cattle should protect them.

So, what exactly happened?  I'm not sure they had foot rot to begin with, but it they did God certainly helped us out I am sure.  Foot rot starts in between the toes with rotted meat smell and hair loss and such.  Ours started from the outside with hoof wall separation from the actual padding  That is backwards from foot rot.  We had Shelley toe, shelly hoof, or white line disease.  It has many names.  White line disease is more often than not diagnosed by shepherds as foot rot.  But it is not.  It is where the white line that is between the wall and the hoof is replaced with dirt and manure.  This can lead to infections, of course, but is not one to begin with.  Simply dig out the dirt and clip off the wall to open up the pocket.  Continue this until the pocket grows out.  If you want, you can foot bath or treat with Koppertox as a preventative measure.