FOOT-ROT IN SHEEP.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 948, 20 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 gallon of water put Jflb of common soda, and when brought to a boil add £lb of arsenic. Continue the boiling, stirring meanwhile, till there is no sediment, and the arsenic is completely dissolved. Care must be taken that it doss not boil over, of which there is some danger, 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 movable, take it off the fire and let the liquid cool. When the flock is largo, it is a good plan to get a trough of several feet in length, and of just sufficient width for one sheep to pass at a lime. Hurdles may be placed on each side of the trough to form a passage. Put enough of the solution into the trough to fully coyer 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 fur 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 foot is an absolute necessity, and most careful paring. Every piece of hoof with disease it and which will bo found on examination to be detached from the foot must be cut away to the very bottom. Great patience is required in searching this out, and great care also in the opeiation of paring, so as to avoid cutting the foot and inflicting pain, as well as causing a flow of blood, which will interfere with the proper examination of the foot. If the sheep _are very bad give them a little 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 preventive. Ihe arsenic will harden the hoof and render it less susceptible to disease, and not unfrequontly cure disease in its -first stage before it 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 once a week, the diseased sheep being looked to and their feet thoroughly pared first. No one dressing can herelied on to cine a sheep badly foot-rotted. If convenient, the sound sheep should be separated from the others, for though footrot 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 1 believe lie would have been spared the scourge he has been troubled with. It is a. serious matter when it has got a thorough hold of a flock. It involves a great loss of time and loss of condition in Ihe sheep, and where ewes and lambs 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 vessels 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.