As treatment, first isolate all affected animals. Mild cases are best treated by making the sheep stand for several minutes daily in a trough containing a disinfectant, or, better still, by arranging the trough of suitable length with fenced-up sides and a widened entrance, so the sheep can be easily started into the inclosure and made to wade through the disinfectant.
In bad cases and where the hoof is underrun with pus, the horn and all overgrowths must be cut away so as to expose the diseased parts to the action of the disinfectant. The foot should then be dried, dusted with finely powdered burnt alum, and bandaged to keep out the dirt. This antiseptic treatment of the feet must be kept up daily as long as the disease exists. Any of the following may be used: 1 pound chloride of lime to 12 quarts of water; 1 pound of pure carbolic acid to 4 gallons of water; a solution of creolin; a coal-tar disinfectant of the same strength; or any good sheep dip containing these substances in the proper amounts.
FOUNDER.
—An inflammation of the sensitive or soft structures between the hoof and bones of the foot. The popular belief that founder is to any extent in the legs and chest is probably an error. The disease is in the feet, and those symptoms which make it appear as a stiffness in the legs and shoulder are but the natural results of soreness in the feet. The same statement might be made regarding those cases which are popularly described as “stove up in the shoulder.” Instead of the soreness being in the shoulder in these cases, it is generally in the feet, or at least below the knee.
It is somewhat difficult to explain how those influences or causes which are known to produce founder bring about that condition, but observation shows clearly that an irritation of the digestive tract, or in fact, any extensive irritation of any mucous surface, may produce an inflammation of the sensitive laminæ of the feet; that is, founder. Therefore founder may be produced by a change of feed or excessive feeding, a change of work or excessive work which results in exhaustion, large quantities of feed or water when warm or fatigued, sudden changes of temperature such as cooling too fast when sweating, and a long drive on hard roads, especially without shoes. Excessive purging or diarrhœa may also produce it. Founder also occasionally results from irritation of foaling, but this is not common.
There is no essential difference in the nature of the disease determined by the particular agent or condition which causes it. “Water founder,” and that produced by over-feeding, concussion, or extreme fatigue are, in so far as the character of the disease is concerned, one and the same thing.
FOUNDER
In bad cases of founder the foot shrinks from the wasting of the sensitive substances. A typical foundered foot is pictured here.