54 BULLETIN 1089 V. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



BROKEN BONES. 



Broken bones are of common occurrence at round-ups, especially! 

 at marking time. Rough handling is responsible for most of these 

 breakages. Native herders particularly should be cautioned against 

 injuring the animals that are being marked. A heavy man can 

 easily crush in two or three ribs when he is throwing a fawn on the 

 ground, and legs at times have been heard to snap. Needless to say, 

 severely injured animals should be killed as speedily as possible. 



LONG HOOF. 



Without entering into a discussion on the probable causes of long 

 hoofs (PI. XXI, Fig. 2), which are still under investigation, it seems 

 advisable to urge reindeer owners to pay more attention to this over- 

 growth and to trim and pare the long hoofs so that the deer will bej 

 able to walk squarely on their feet. It has been noticed that many! "' 

 cases of lameness in the herds are attributed to this condition; the 

 long hoofs have been left untrimmed, causing the animals to walk 

 on their heels, and ending in the formation of sores. These sores 

 resemble those seen in foot rot. In an affected herd timely attention! 

 to the feet would certainly cut down the losses. f" 



FOOT ROT. 



All foot troubles are serious when they occur in grazing animals;! ie 

 for as soon as the animal has difficulty in walking it can not feedria 

 properly and soon becomes thin and worthless. If the lameness isi* 

 severe and likely to become worse it is the best policy to destroy the I'le]: 

 animal. The benefit in this case is twofold; first, if the animal is inj'.'oi 

 good flesh the meat can be used and, secondly, the risk of passing on-j ti 

 the disease is eliminated. Foot rot and dermatitis are among the 

 most troublesome of reindeer diseases. The percentage of lame 

 animals in a herd may be considerable. The treatment of advanced 

 cases is hopeless under present conditions where the sores can not he 

 attended to every day. |*e 



The most likely method of stopping the spread of the disease would| Id 

 be as follows : On the appearance of the first few cases, segregate or 

 kill the sick animals and collect the healthy ones and drive them 

 through a shallow trough containing a 5 per cent solution of one of 

 the recognized sheep dips. The dipping should be repeated every 

 second or third day. At least one herd owner in Alaska has madel 

 preparation to follow out this plan in its entirety. The Lapps have 

 known, probably for centuries, that one way of getting rid of the 

 disease is to drive their herds to a new ground. This is a practical 

 method, as the sick and lame animals were thus left behind and 

 consequently contagion in the herd diminished. 



