LAMENESS. DISEASES OF THE FEET. 235 



troubles mentioned. The overgrown or separated hoof will need 

 judicious paring with the knife to get a fair level surface to tread on, 

 and will need that the medicament be gently pressed into, or poured 

 into, the crevices. The worn foot may need protection with 

 a tarred rag for a few days before a caustic preparation is used to 

 arrest the decomposing horn. As with horses suffering from thrush, 

 foot-rot of the sporadic or accidental kind is greatly helped by 

 fair pressure upon the soft and diseased portions in weight bearing. 



INFECTIOUS FOOT-ROT. 



The peculiarity of this form of foot trouble is that its infectivity 

 is not direct, as between one sheep and another, for the diseased 

 horn has been repeatedly placed between the digits of sound sheep, 

 and there maintained by mechanical contrivances, without in- 

 fecting the animal This was taken to be proof at one time that 

 foot-rot was not infectious, but practical sheepmen persisted in 

 regarding it as infectious still. The explanation is to be found in 

 the soil. Where infected sheep have been pastured, clean sheep 

 will become infected. It has not yet been shown that the organisms 

 causing foot-rot pass an intermediate life or period of development 

 in the soil, but there is overwhelming proof that sheep do become 

 infected by the land, and not directly by association with the 

 diseased. Some minor differences in the manner of invasion are 

 recognised, or thought to be, by experts, but lameness is the 

 attractive one, and only sheep kept for experimental purposes 

 would be examined before this characteristic symptom became 

 apparent. 



Treatment and Prevention. The Irish Department of Agriculture, 

 in a leaflet issued on the subject, says : " The sheep owner will be 

 wise if he treats every case which may arise as if it were infectious." 

 The individual handling of a large number of sheep is often difficult, 

 or impossible in some circumstances, and we have to do the next 

 best thing. Sheep can be folded on a half -inch layer of slaked lime, 

 for an hour or two daily, or made to pass in single file through a 

 narrow gateway or hurdled space that will only admit one at a 

 time. The ewe flock must not be handled for foot dressing, as 

 abortion is easily provoked by fright, and for such, the narrow 

 way is less desirable than the folded yard. Lime mixed with 

 powdered sulphate of copper or iron of the cheap commercial quality 

 is found useful for a self -dressing of the kind. Solutions are pre- 

 ferred by many, as being less wasteful and perhaps more effective. 

 A good one may be made of 1 Ib. of copper sulphate, and 1 Ib. 

 of burnt alum, dissolved in twenty gallons of water. Arsenical 

 solutions are also used, but care is necessary in the subsequent 

 placing of the sheep, or water may be impregnated or grass killed 

 or other animals injured. 



