Footrot, caused by Dichelobacter nodosus, accounts for 70% of foot lesions in sheep in the UK. There are two clinical presentations: interdigital dermatitis (ID) and severe footrot (SFR) where hoof horn separates from the underlying tissue. Neither D. nodosus load in relation to the severity within ID and SFR, nor the effects of footrot treatments on D. nodosus load, have been investigated. A previous study used cultivation of D. nodosus from a limited number of samples, however, D. nodosus is notoriously difficult to culture. D. nodosus load was investigated using molecular techniques, on the feet of 99 ewes from one farm previously analysed predominantly by culture, then compared with disease severity and treatment. Both culture- and molecular-based results were analysed. Each ewe was assigned one of two treatments; foot trimming plus topical antibiotics (FTA) or parenteral plus topical antibiotics (PTA). The interdigital skin was swabbed, and ID and SFR severity recorded, on at least 16 occasions over 10 months. Two feet of 25 of the ewes were analysed (~950 swabs) and D. nodosus load quantified using qPCR. Of these, only 5% of samples were positive for D. nodosus by cultivation, whereas 68% were positive by qPCR. As ID score increased D. nodosus load increased. D. nodosus load decreased one week after treatment with either FTA or PTA, but not with parenteral antibiotics alone (administered for a separate health reason). This indicates that topical antibiotics reduced D. nodosus load on feet. Mean D. nodosus load was higher in samples where an isolate was cultured than that of all D. nodosus positive samples (p<0.01). This implies that culturing is not suitable for accurately detecting D. nodosus presence on feet, while topical antibiotics are important in reducing D. nodosus load on feet, with a reduction in load being associated with less severe disease.