# Hoof Rot Question



## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

I've heard there is contagious hoof rot, and non contagious hoof rot. Is there really any such thing as non contagious hoof rot? I'm thinking of rescuing a buck with hoof rot, he's a beautiful animal, and I have the room etc.. But I don't want to infect my herd of 5. Can you cure hoof rot?


----------



## keren (Oct 26, 2008)

it is easy to tell the two apart because really they are completely different conditions.

Contagious foot rot or virulent foot rot starts between the toes, not on the actual hoofs, thats how you distinguish the two.










See how the red raw patch is actually between the toes? Thats where it starts, and eventually as the disease progresses it works its way down into the hoof and you will get something that looks like this










The hooves need to be trimmed and antibiotics applied either using a topical spray or injected antibiotics or both. You can also run them through a formalin footbath. A good trick to see if animals have had virulent foot bath when you are buying them is if the skin between the toes is bald, because formalin takes the hair off.

The non-contagious foot rot has many names including hoof rot, hoof thrush and hoof scald (I tend to use scald). Basically it comes about from overgrown hooves and in wet conditions. The wall of the hoof separates from the sole, it accumulates mud which exacerbates the problem. It stinks to high heavens but there is no nasty red sores on either the sole of the foot or the skin between the toes. Sometimes there is a light pink colour to the skin between the toes and a whitish film of goo there, but very different to the red open wound of virulent foot rot.

Foot scald is treated by trimming and cleaning the hoof and usually that is enough.

Routine hoof care for preventing both the conditions is regular foot trimming and after trimming the use of a 10% zinc sulfate foot bath. Also allowing animals dry areas to stand and get out of the mud will help, as well as improving the draining properties of your soil.

Also practice good biosecurity - dont buy animals from herds affected by virulent foot rot and as a matter of routine run all new animals through the zinc footbath on arrival.

Here's a handy little quiz you might like to try:

http://www.sheepandgoat.com/Quizzes/Hoof health and diseases/quiz.html


----------



## janeen128 (Dec 31, 2012)

keren said:


> it is easy to tell the two apart because really they are completely different conditions.
> 
> Contagious foot rot or virulent foot rot starts between the toes, not on the actual hoofs, thats how you distinguish the two.
> 
> ...


Thank you for this info. I don't think I'm messing with this...so I'm not going to get the goat.


----------

