No farmer wants to have lame sheep but there can always be a certain percentage in the flock.

The target should be less than 2% lame. With multiple causes of lameness from infectious to mechanical or foot deformities, the most common type of sheep lameness continues to be footrot an infectious form of lameness.

Footrot is caused by a bacteria fusobacterium which can survive in the environment for seven to 14 days if the conditions are right (wet and damp).

It can survive on the feet of lame sheep and also sheep that are not lame but are carriers.

Footrot can cause lost production

This means there will always potentially be a source in the flock and the problem can flare up at key times like around housing.

This happens because you bring sheep closer together and also bedding is a great place for the bacteria to survive in if it’s wet.

Footrot can cause lost production (lambs can lose 50g/day) and it is thought that in addition, two-thirds of antibiotic use in sheep is used in treating lameness.

It is a serious welfare issue and can be one of the areas where public perceptions about sheep farming can be affected negatively.

Sheep with footrot can be very lame(

Lame rams can go infertile, which can be extremely costly, it also can predispose sheep to other diseases such as pasteurella, abortion or twin lamb disease because it affects intake of food.

Sheep with footrot can be very lame(it causes a lot of pain), lie down for long periods and may not bear weight on the affected leg.

When both front legs are affected, sheep walk on their knees. There is swelling and moistening of the skin between the claws, with this infection sometimes spreading up the foot.

Foul smell

There is a characteristic foul smell and it can develop from scald, which is a milder red swelling between the cleats with no smell.

The whole hoof shell may be shed in severe cases and chronic infection leads to grossly misshapen and overgrown hooves. These chronic cases are also the source of infection for other sheep in the flock.

When we deal with infections, we need to find out what it is. We then isolate it or we can have more animals infected.

We then treat it until it is better. Removing by culling may be necessary with infections that are not responding.

So let’s tackle a footrot problem in your flock in a systematic way, one step at a time.

1 Sort them

Treating sheep with footrot is a fire-fighting approach that has to stop. It will never really tackle the problem.

For a start we need to get the flock in and separate out any lame sheep. Go through the flock twice to pick out anything that’s lame.

Every time you gather lame and healthy sheep together, you increase the risk of spread

Let the sound sheep back out in the field after a good footbath to reduce risk of infections on clean feet.

Every time you gather lame and healthy sheep together, you increase the risk of spread. Then attention should turn to the lame sheep.

Turn over each sheep check all four feet and diagnose the exact cause of lameness. If it’s footrot, the next steps should help you.

Footbaths can play a role in stopping the spread.

2 Mark them

Proper treatment of individual cases is important, but also marking or recording numbers of treated sheep.

This is really important to see if treatments are working and to identify carriers of chronic footrot. These chronic sheep can keep the footrot problem going in your flock.

3 Treat them

Your vet should help you pick an antibiotic injection and it is no harm to use topical antibiotic sprays as well.

Get your treatments right for lame sheep that need them. Footbaths will stop the spread of footrot but will not treat the problem. Antibiotic footbaths will soon be a thing of the past so plan without them.

Some long-acting medicines avoid having to catch sheep daily but draw up a treatment plan with your vet.

Injectable antibiotics work well on footrot with antibiotic sprays also.

Even though we have no licensed painkiller in sheep, I strongly advise using them for very swollen feet (this can be done under cascade).

When you’ve finished treatment, this lame bunch of sheep needs to go to a separate field until lameness is resolved.

Keep them close to the yard and footbathe them once weekly with a zinc sulphate solution or a commercial preparation.

4 Cull

There is a genetic element to susceptibility to scald and footrot and some sheep can’t build an immunity to the infection.

We must take out repeat offenders or they will harbour infection and continue the problem.

Identify what is causing your lameness and consider vaccination when footrot is diagnosed.

Aggressive culling to remove sheep that have repeated lameness, are chronically infected or have severely misshapen feet increases flock resilience.

Don’t breed from rams that had cases of scald or footrot.

Some sheep don’t develop resistance so we must try and remove these carriers and source of infection from our flocks. So two, and maximum of three strikes, and they’re gone.

5 Quarantine

Prevent purchased or returning sheep bringing new strains of footrot or CODD on to the farm.

Do this by keeping sheep separate for at least two weeks. Inspect all feet and stand in a footbath for five to 10 minutes once over the first 48 hours.

Again, something like zinc sulphate 10% works well, with some washing up liquid through it to help stick it to the feet. There are some good commercial preparations also.

6 Protection

Avoiding infection is key. Ensure underfoot conditions minimise infection risk during gathering, handling and housing.

Move feeders and drinkers to clean areas regularly. Rotate grazing to prevent bacteria building up at pasture.

Housing is a footrot bottleneck

Improve gateways and tracks. Use footbathing at times of high risk as a prevention measure eg prior to housing and after gathering to reduce bacteria levels on the feet.

Housing is a footrot bottleneck. For ewes, watch stocking rate. Poor ventilation and drainage in sheep accommodation can be issues.

Where you have footrot, use cubicle lime, plenty of straw and improve ventilation.

7 Vaccination

Vaccination increases immunity to scald, footrot and CODD.

Footvax is designed to build your flock’s immunity to footrot. Sheep farmers who use it with the above recommendations should get excellent results.

The general rule with footvax is to give it before risk periods such as coming up to housing. In flocks really struggling it can be used every six months but most farms work well with an annual booster.

It needs to be injected with a clean needle on a dry day and will raise some lumps.

Summary

Tackle footrot head on. Get your flock in and separate the lame ones. Treat the lame cases, send the clean flock back out through a footbath.

Vaccinate your entire flock against foot rot (footvax) and repeat boosters before risk times such as housing.

Cull any sheep that need repeat treatments or breakdowns. Have a strict quarantine policy, don’t buy in lameness and improve hygiene.