Treating the Feet

We've had a lot of rain this year.  So much so that we have become accustomed to mud even more so than we normally are.  Just a big mess!  The past couple of weeks it really dried out.  It was timely as it allowed us to drive right up to the bard to load the hay into the loft.  Wet or dry, you can count on one thing with animals -foot rot.  The poor goats struggle with it mightily.  We watch them gingerly walk around on sore feet.  You can smell the stench of infected feet when you get near them.  Yuck!

Tricia tries to keep the goats' hooves trimmed.  She diligently works at it, pouring Hoof and Heel over the affected area.  It will work for a few days and then we'll see Annie and Buckwheat limping around.  You just can't help but feel sorry for them.  They are miserable.  So we decided this weekend to give them a good treatment.  

We mixed 1 teaspoon of copper sulfate per cup of water into a bucket.  We put Annie up into the milking stanchion and tied her front legs and back legs together.  Then we lifted her feet up and put them in the bucket of copper sulfate solution and tied the bucket to the front of the stanchion.  We made sure the solution was high enough in the bucket to cover all the areas of her feet. We used our phones' stop watch to time the treatment for 15 minutes.  Then we repeated for the back feet.  

It was hot and uncomfortable.  Annie kicked.  I'm guessing the copper sulfate was going to work on the infected areas.  Sweat ran down our backs as we fought to keep her feet in the bucket.  It was a LONG 15 minutes.  

After much kicking and fighting and only minimal spillage of the copper sulfate, we were done.  All four feet treated.  By the next day, she was walking much better.  I think she might have even tried to tell us "thank you," but I cannot speak the goat language to interpret.

In Oberlin, Louisiana, where our family farm is, there is a road that my buddy lives on called Dipping Vat Road.  I'm told that it was named that because back many years ago, there was a cement (I think) trough-like structure that they would run livestock through to treat them.  It might have been flies, it might have been foot rot, but whatever the malady, the animals were run through for treatment.

I wish we could fabricate something like that at Our Maker's Acres for our animals.  We've read some about having them walk through tubs of lime.  Trouble is, with cows, goats, and chickens moving in and out, it would be very hard/expensive to do. We will keep researching to see if we can formulate an idea that would work a little better than tying up feet and shoving them in a bucket!  (But if it works, it's hard to knock it, right?)  We're always looking for an easier way.

Treating Annie's Hooves

Goats on our farm present us with an on-going problem each year, particularly in the summer - hoof rot.  You can see it coming on as they tend to begin limping and then, a day or two later, won't even place any weight on the foot.  You can also smell it.  It is an infection and it smells pretty doggone bad.  Goats have cloven hooves that must be kept trimmed.  Even when trimmed, a bacteria (or two) will get between the hooves and before you know it, foot rot has set in.  The bacteria lives in the soil and the animals pick it up in the pasture.  Foot rot is even contagious.

So we treat their feet.  It is not a pleasant job as it is hot in the barn, but it must be done.  We coax the goat into the stanchion and close the head gate.  We'll put some ration for the goats to eat on as this distracts them.  The stanchion isolates the goat and just makes things more manageable during the treatment. 

We've tried commercial products like Hoof 'n Heel, but have recently switched to purchasing Copper Sulfate crystals.  We mix 1 cup of water to a teaspoon of copper sulfate.  We then give the affected goat a foot bath.  The easiest way we've found is to pour the copper sulfate solution into a tall plastic cup.  We have a bunch of these that we caught at parades.  They are the perfect size for it.  Then we hold the goat's leg up and dunk the entire hoof into the copper sulfate solution so that the hoof is submerged.

We'll hold the foot in the solution for as long as we can.  Then we move on to the next hoof and repeat.  Finally, when we are done, we pour the remaining solution over the hooves.  We release the goat, but following treatment, we leave them in the barn overnight where the ground is dry.

It is pretty amazing how copper sulfate works.  When the goat comes in, sometimes they are putting no weight at all on the foot.  The following morning after treatment, they are walking around like nothing ever happened.  The only problem is that once your animals contract hoof rot, it seems you find yourself treating over and over and over again.

Treating Hoof Rot on Annie, The Nubian Goat

We started noticing that Annie, our Nubian dairy goat was limping.  After closer inspection, we could smell a powerful stench.  Yep, you guessed it, foot rot.  Foot rot is a condition that goats and cows get between their hooves.  It is caused by bacteria and high temperatures and humidity causes the skin between the hooves to crack and then the bacteria infect the foot.  Moist, warm conditions make a perfect environment for the bacteria to grow and that is exactly what we have.  Hoof rot makes the animal feel really bad.  They stop walking and spend a lot of time sitting down because their feet hurt.  Therefore they don't eat and become skinny and sickly.

Annie exhibited all of these symptoms and ALL of her feet were infected.  Tricia was very concerned about her.  We quarantined her in the barn as we didn't want her out walking in the ankle deep mud.  Tricia brought clippers out to the barn and began clipping privet and other browse from the woods in back to feed her.  At first she wasn't eating very much.  We drenched her with a molasses/water solution to get her rumen active.  Then we mixed up a 10% solution of copper sulfate with water along with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and gave her foot baths for 10-15 minutes a night.  The ACV is supposed to increase absorption.

There is likely a much easier way to give the foot baths, but we normally choose the most difficult way, unfortunately.  Tricia mixed up the copper sulfate solution with apple cider vinegar and poured it into a yogurt container.  Then we put her in the goat stanchion and hobbled her legs to the side with a lead rope. 

• Yes, she kicked a lot and carried on, but we dunked her feet in the cup of copper sulfate solution and held her feet submerged in the solution for between 10 - 15 minutes.  Opportunistic mosquitoes swarmed and bit us menacingly as we held her feed down with both hands.  Unable to swat the mosquitoes, we resorted to blowing them off of each other as sweat trickled down our noses.  Each night we repeated the process, but on different feet.  All this for a smelly goat.  You've GOAT to be kidding me, right?

Each night we would trudge out to the barn and repeat the process and we'd sprinkle lime down on the floor of the barn.  Over the course of 3-4 days, we're seeing great results!  Annie's feet don't have a foul odor any longer, she's no longer limping and she's begun eating again with great vigor and is even being bossy again to Oreo, our La Mancha goat.  Thank God Annie is back to her normal self again.