The following is a posting from a woman who, with her vet husband, runs one of the oldest and best free range deer farms in Scotland. As a supporter of fully sustainable agriculture, her credentials are impeccable. It strikes us as really odd that so many people seem to imply that FMD is not a serious disease and that somehow it is not an animal welfare issue. Veterinary Record has a paper from Pirbright indicating that the current strain is a particularly virulent one which seems to have outclassed other FMD strains. But they can indeed recover.
Cattle suffer worst.
When cattle get FMD they start with a high temperature, loss of appetite and severe dejection, followed by acute painful stomatitis. They salivate copiously, saliva hanging in long ropey strings. Secondary infections can also occur though these can betreated. Vesicles also appear on the feet, especially in the clefts and on the coronet. Rupture of the vesicles causes acute discomfort and the animal is grossly lame, often recumbent and often with painful swelling.