Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Cure for 'Fowlds'
Here is 99 year old Nan Cardiff of Monmore, Ballygarrett talking to me about a cure for 'fowlds' (foulds) in cattles feet a few weeks ago.
I grew up near Nan and heard the exact same story from my late grandmother. Basically a cow would often get a bacterial infection which would become scaldy and she’d get lame. The land around us was very wet and back in her day antibiotics weren’t popular like now so they followed this old belief.
So if you had a cow with a lame foot, you’d watch where she’d walked and you'd watch where she put down the sore foot. Then you’d get your spade and turn the sod where she stood and with the spade mark the sign of the cross and then turn the sod back over again.
That was the cure she had and changed slightly with people but not that much. Nan has a lovely but where she says you have to look at the cow before you turned the sod.
Text: Michael Fortune
Cure for 'Fowlds'
Here is 99 year old Nan Cardiff of Monmore, Ballygarrett talking to me about a cure for 'fowlds' (foulds) in cattles feet a few weeks ago.
I grew up near Nan and heard the exact same story from my late grandmother. Basically a cow would often get a bacterial infection which would become scaldy and she’d get lame. The land around us was very wet and back in her day antibiotics weren’t popular like now so they followed this old belief.
So if you had a cow with a lame foot, you’d watch where she’d walked and you'd watch where she put down the sore foot. Then you’d get your spade and turn the sod where she stood and with the spade mark the sign of the cross and then turn the sod back over again.
That was the cure she had and changed slightly with people but not that much. Nan has a lovely but where she says you have to look at the cow before you turned the sod.
Text: Michael Fortune
