FOOT-ROT IN SHEEP.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3526, 26 October 1882, Page 4

FOOT-ROT IN SHEEP.

Every farmer of course knows that there are many remedies for this disease. The remedy I have found most successful, cheap, and easy of application is arsenic. The manner of preparing it for use is this : —'To every gollon of water put ilb. of common soda, and when brought to a boil add .jib. of arsenic. Continue the boiling, stirring meanwhile, till there is no sediment, and the arsenic is completely dissolved. Care must be taken that it does not boil over, of which there is some clanger, as a heavy froth is almost instantly produced on the addition of the arsenic. When ready, if the boiler is fixed, remove the fire; if the boiler is moveable, taken it off the fire and let the liquid cool. When the flock is large, it is a good plan to get a trough of several feet in length, end of just sufficient width for one sheep to pass at a time. Hurdles may be placed on each side of the trough to_ form a passage. Put enough of the solution into the trough to fully cover the hoofs of the sheep. If the trough is long, it is enough to pass the sheep once through. They should be confined, if possible, on bare ground for a short time afterwards. For a small flock a trough of this kind is an unnecessary expense. A shallow box square, or otherwise, capable of holding ten or twelve sheep is good enough. Fill with sheep and let them stand a minute or so. If the foot-root is in an advanced stage, paring the feet is an absolute necessity, and most careful paring. .Every piece of hoof with disease under it and which will be found on examination to be detached from the foot must be cut away to the very bottom. Grivat patience is required in searching this out, and great care also in the operation of paring, so as to avoid cutting the foot and inflicting pain, as well us causing a flow of blood, which will interfere with the proper examination of the foot. If the sheep are very bad give them a litttle more time in the trough. It is well to pass the whole flock through, unsound and sound, in the first case as a cure, in the second as a pi'eventive. The arsenic will harden the hoof and render it less susceptible to disease, and not unfrequently cure disease in its first stage before if; has become apparent to the shepherd. If the weather is pretty continuously wet for some weeks, and the sheep are pasturing on longish grass, it will do no harm to put the whole flock through one ea week, the diseased sheep being looked, to and their feet thoroughly pared first. No one dressing can be relied on to cure a sheep badly foot-rotted. If convenient, the sound, sheep should be separated from the others, for though foot-rot is not always contagious, there is no doubt it is contagious under circumstances favorable to its development. Had " Subscriber" used this remedy when he found two of his sheep foot-rotted I believe he would have been spared the scourge he has been troubled with. It is a serious matter when it has got a thorough hold on a flock. It involves a great loss of time and condition in the sheep, and. where ewes and. lamb? are concerned, the almost certain contraction of the disease by the lamb from the ewe. I need hardly point out the danger of using for any other purpose vesssels employed for this work, also the prudence of covering the trough or draining off the liquid and putting it away for subsequent use.' —N.Z , in the Agricultural Gazette.