Mixing early and late lambs

Username John

Hello,

As some of you may know - I had a few early lambs the start of the year. They are doing ok.
They have access to creep, but they havent had super grass most of the spring, and to be honest - its showing...

I only have a few, and its a bit of a pain trying to manage two separate groups...
So I am debating weaning em in a few weeks, and putting em in with the young lambs (born over the last month)
As I only have one creep feeder, I was thinking it wouldn't do the young lambs any harm to get a bit of creep for a few weeks...

What are peoples thoughts on this?

There's something in the back of my head that its a very bad idea, from a worm perspective? But I cant say why exactly

AnFeirmeoir

Coccidiosis is caused by a small parasite called
Eimeria
which is not visible to the
naked eye. While there are many different species of coccidia, only two are
considered pathogenic, namely Eimeria Ovinoidalis and Eimeria Crandalis. It is not
actually a roundworm. All sheep carry a small number of coccidia. Lambs become
infected orally from faecal contamination of bedding, water troughs or feed troughs.
The principal source of infection for young lambs is lambs born earlier in the season
that contaminate the environment (bedding/ drinkers/ feeders, areas where they
congregate) with a large number of oocysts (coccidial eggs). Very young lambs,
younger than two weeks old, are not affected due to the immune protection received
via the colostrum. The greatest risk period for lambs is between 3 and 8 weeks of age,
with clinical symptoms most apparent from 6 -8 weeks of age. Once exposed lambs
develop quite a solid resistence to coccidia and lambs over ten weeks tend to be
resistant.

3

Symptoms:
A severe scour which may contain blood or is black in colour is common. Affected
lambs will strain and if untreated mortality can be high. Lambs that are badly affected
but subsequently survive will have irreversible damage done to their digestive tract
and will be ‘poor doers’. Stress, poor nutrition and simultaneous infection with
Nematodirus
can increase the severity of infection.
Prevention:
Coccidiosis is best prevented by keeping the level of challenge low. The parasite
needs water to hatch in to the infected stages. Therefore avoiding overcrowding
(indoors) and maintaining clean and dry bedding is useful in reducing exposure.
Avoid faecal contamination of feed area and drinking troughs and keep these at a
raised level. These should be moved frequently to a clean area during the risk period
of 3-10 weeks. Young lambs should be kept in groups within a two week age range.
They should not be mixed with older lambs until they are at least 8 weeks old and not
graze pasture where older lambs have been.

Username John

AnFeirmeoir wrote: »

Coccidiosis is caused by a small parasite called
Eimeria
which is not visible to the
naked eye. While there are many different species of coccidia, only two are
considered pathogenic, namely Eimeria Ovinoidalis and Eimeria Crandalis. It is not
actually a roundworm. All sheep carry a small number of coccidia. Lambs become
infected orally from faecal contamination of bedding, water troughs or feed troughs.
The principal source of infection for young lambs is lambs born earlier in the season
that contaminate the environment (bedding/ drinkers/ feeders, areas where they
congregate) with a large number of oocysts (coccidial eggs). Very young lambs,
younger than two weeks old, are not affected due to the immune protection received
via the colostrum. The greatest risk period for lambs is between 3 and 8 weeks of age,
with clinical symptoms most apparent from 6 -8 weeks of age. Once exposed lambs
develop quite a solid resistence to coccidia and lambs over ten weeks tend to be
resistant.

3

Symptoms:
A severe scour which may contain blood or is black in colour is common. Affected
lambs will strain and if untreated mortality can be high. Lambs that are badly affected
but subsequently survive will have irreversible damage done to their digestive tract
and will be ‘poor doers’. Stress, poor nutrition and simultaneous infection with
Nematodirus
can increase the severity of infection.
Prevention:
Coccidiosis is best prevented by keeping the level of challenge low. The parasite
needs water to hatch in to the infected stages. Therefore avoiding overcrowding
(indoors) and maintaining clean and dry bedding is useful in reducing exposure.
Avoid faecal contamination of feed area and drinking troughs and keep these at a
raised level. These should be moved frequently to a clean area during the risk period
of 3-10 weeks. Young lambs should be kept in groups within a two week age range.
They should not be mixed with older lambs until they are at least 8 weeks old and not
graze pasture where older lambs have been.

Aha - that article now is sounding familiar all right - thanks for that.

Altho - I would be in trouble anyways, where it states "and not
graze pasture where older lambs have been" - as my lambs will be grazing some paddocks where the earlier lambs have been. But I would work to minimise this...