Moderate sheep scan

thelegend1979

Apologies in advance for long post. Have 131 ewes split into 3 flocks when put to ram. 59 ewes scanned at home farm with 17 singles 27 couples 6 tripletts and 9 empty. A few singles were couples with one dead. Majority empty all homebred ewe hoggets that were at an outfarm for the last 18 months. 42 ewes at second place scanned 30 couples 11 singles and one empty. Alot of comrade homebred hoggets in this group all fine. 3rd farm had 30 ewes. 13 doubles 6 tripletts 7 singles 2 empty and 2 carrying dead lambs. Scanner thinks home farm might be schmallenberg but im hoping it was taxoplasmosis. All ewes were raddled and he thinks in lamb at some stage. Could the homebred ewe hoggets have been infected when brought home for breeding as wudnt have immunity as were away from home.Could these sheep breed now as ram was taken away early december. 2 ewes broke after about 6 weeks and inlamb now. Will a blood test rule out schmallenberg and enzootic?? Opinions greatly appreciated.

razor8

thelegend1979 wrote: »

Apologies in advance for long post. Have 131 ewes split into 3 flocks when put to ram. 59 ewes scanned at home farm with 17 singles 27 couples 6 tripletts and 9 empty. A few singles were couples with one dead. Majority empty all homebred ewe hoggets that were at an outfarm for the last 18 months. 42 ewes at second place scanned 30 couples 11 singles and one empty. Alot of comrade homebred hoggets in this group all fine. 3rd farm had 30 ewes. 13 doubles 6 tripletts 7 singles 2 empty and 2 carrying dead lambs. Scanner thinks home farm might be schmallenberg but im hoping it was taxoplasmosis. All ewes were raddled and he thinks in lamb at some stage. Could the homebred ewe hoggets have been infected when brought home for breeding as wudnt have immunity as were away from home.Could these sheep breed now as ram was taken away early december. 2 ewes broke after about 6 weeks and inlamb now. Will a blood test rule out schmallenberg and enzootic?? Opinions greatly appreciated.

The empty young ewes probably got infected and absorbed the embryos. If it’s toxo they will be immune for life. I’d try & keep batch’s separate til lambing.

If it’s enzootic the vet may recommend injecting everything with engmycin

Have you bought any sheep in the last 2 years?

Getting bloods done as quickly as possible is best idea

Green farmer

Quiet often the obvious reason turns out to be the culprit. Get off to the lab, but chances are it’s toxo. If confirmed, biggest mistake would be not to get non effected sheep immunized before next year, because what ever wasn’t hit this year will get it next. That’s what happened here a few years back anyway. As razor said the ones hit this year are immune for life.

thelegend1979

Only bought seven hoggets last year and 9 this year. Had 4 mature ewes empty last year with the same sort of thing. Raddled once but empty. If its toxo would it not be ok to mix them. I was hoping to batch them according to scan.

razor8

thelegend1979 wrote: »

Only bought seven hoggets last year and 9 this year. Had 4 mature ewes empty last year with the same sort of thing. Raddled once but empty. If its toxo would it not be ok to mix them. I was hoping to batch them according to scan.

Possibly that they were exposed to something before you bought them and now they’ve infected your flock

It’s a lot of guessing. You won’t know for sure unless you test them. Get the foetus & placenta off to lab from the first one that aborts close to lambing

thelegend1979

Thanks for replies guys. Getting bloods done in morning. Empty ewes tipping again so let ram out to them. Going to keep flocks seperate. Vet thinks its toxo. Nothing aborted so far so hoping it passed early in pregnancy. Will be vaccinating next year.

kk.man

thelegend1979 wrote: »

Thanks for replies guys. Getting bloods done in morning. Empty ewes tipping again so let ram out to them. Going to keep flocks seperate. Vet thinks its toxo. Nothing aborted so far so hoping it passed early in pregnancy. Will be vaccinating next year.

Did you buy in sheep into your flock this year?

thelegend1979

Yes 9 hoggets. Scanned 7 couples 1 single and 1 empty. Hope they didnt bring in enzootic.

Green farmer

thelegend1979 wrote: »

Yes 9 hoggets. Scanned 7 couples 1 single and 1 empty. Hope they didnt bring in enzootic.

Chances are a cat or fox ate an infected mouse, who then urinated on a bale of hay or straw or a blade of grass that your sheep ate. It could of come from anywhere, but if you’ve seen a mummified lamb then it’s probably toxo.

thelegend1979

Ewes had great grass in each paddock during tupping but i forced them to graze out tight enough so might well be from the ground they picked it up. Nothing aborted yet so i hope it passed early in pregnancy.

razor8

If the scanner picked up dead lambs then the problem is active imo. Not what you want to here

thelegend1979

Vet took blood samples earlier. He thinks its prob toxo. He said the others will prob be ok at this stage and the few with dead lambs will prob carry them full term.Let ram out to empties as one of the ewes was tipping so hopefully the storm is over.

kk.man

thelegend1979 wrote: »

Vet took blood samples earlier. He thinks its prob toxo. He said the others will prob be ok at this stage and the few with dead lambs will prob carry them full term.Let ram out to empties as one of the ewes was tipping so hopefully the storm is over.

Better outside the door than in...keep her lit!

thelegend1979

Thats it. Will just have to carry on as normal. One of the ewes sampled was suppposed to have a dead lamb inside according to scan. Raddled today. How is this possible??

razor8

thelegend1979 wrote: »

Thats it. Will just have to carry on as normal. One of the ewes sampled was suppposed to have a dead lamb inside according to scan. Raddled today. How is this possible??

How long since scan?

thelegend1979

Scanned last saturday!!!

thelegend1979

Blood samples confirmed high level of taxoplasmosis infection. Likely to be losses at lambing time but wel just have to sit it out til then.

razor8

thelegend1979 wrote: »

Blood samples confirmed high level of taxoplasmosis infection. Likely to be losses at lambing time but wel just have to sit it out til then.

Not nice but at least you know what you are dealing with.