Managing foot abscess in lambing ewes

August 2020

Matthew Lieschke, Senior Agriculture Advisor

Due to the current conditions we are starting to see increasing numbers sheep with foot abscess. Normally this condition affects adult sheep (especially heavy, twin bearing ewes), but this year there’s even been reports of foot abscess in weaner lambs! This just highlights how favourable the conditions are at present for foot abscess developing.

Foot abscess is more common in good seasons when stock are heavy (i.e. in good condition) and grazing in long, wet grass. The high proportion of clover and capeweed in pastures this year is also keeping feet wet.

Unfortunately, management options become limited once you approach lambing. However, there are a couple of things you can do to help reduce the problem.

• minimise the movement of sheep through muddy gateways and yards
• move stock to a paddock where feet can dry and prompt treatment of affected sheep with foot paring and antibiotics.
• If ewes are already limping due to scald, it would help to put the through a zinc sulfate bath on the way to a paddock where their feet could dry as it will assist in drying up the scald and consequently less resultant abscess.  However this needs to be done in a way where sheep are not going through muddy yards in order to be footbathed, or go straight back into muddy paddocks.

If foot abscess is looking to be a big problem in your lambing ewes, select lambing paddocks based on foot abscess risk above all other factors, including shelter. The reason being is that with foot abscess there is a high risk you will lose BOTH the ewe and lamb. Losing both the ewe and lamb(s) will have a major impact on profitability, especially with the current value of stock.

So, what does a low risk foot abscess paddock look like?

• Paddocks that are well drained and don’t have wet, boggy areas.
• Select paddocks with shorter feed. This might seem counter-intuitive and against what you would normally do, but selecting paddocks with less feed means you will have a better chance of keeping feet a bit drier. For example, you would be better to lamb down on say 1200kg of DM/ha (approx. 4cm of green) than a paddock containing 1600kgDM/ha or more (6cm +). The shorter feed will also be of higher digestibility = better animal performance.
• If you’ve scanned into singles and twins and are struggling to find suitable paddocks, put the twinners on shorter feed as they are of greater risk of developing abscess.
• Look for paddocks that have roads, laneways, rocky outcrops etc in them – these can be valuable places for stock to camp and dry their feet.

Photo: Kristy Stone, Local Land Services Gundagai.

Note:

• Sheep can become lame for a range of reasons – the important thing is to identify exactly what the issue is. Your local District Vet can assist with this. Foot abscess is often confused with footrot (and vice versa) and there have been reports of both occurring.
• Virulent footrot is a notifiable disease. If you see lameness you have a legal obligation to inspect the sheep and to call your district veterinarian if you see underrunning of the hoof wall.
• Petrea Wait (DV at Cooma) recently wrote a “Lameness in Sheep” article which is well worth a read and available online.