General sheep thread

Have dry hoggetts that I got faecal tested in middle of March before letting out of shed after 2 months in to grass and results meant they did not need a fluke or worm dose…

They will be moving to avg ground that gets wet when weather breaks for next few months….wonder should I just give them a fluke dose now…..or go for a combination dose to cover fluke and worms?

Thanks for any thoughts…..dosing them tomorrow morning and will give them a mineral dose then as well.

Thanks,would I not be as well to give them a fluke dose?

As they will be going to bottommy type ground and some of them were on that type of ground for last month.

They are dry hoggetts and are in good shape.

No point in giving a fluke dose unless they already have fluke now. It won't cover fluke picked up in a couple of weeks.

Fluke have a life cycle too involving the mud snail, the fluke hatch and have to infect the snail before it can infect sheep.

Autumn and winter are the higher risk period for sheep so I'm not sure how much risk there is in the next few weeks even if land tends to be wet.

We've often had a ewe with 2lambs die of grass tetany and it's nigh on imposible to get them to take milk.

We usually put them with the pets on adlib meals.

What about feeding the ewes, we had to feed the ewes a kilo meal for a fortnight when the grass stopped growing in april and got a great response.

Can you put the 12 ewes and lambs in a group on their own and feed them. we gave them .5kg twice a day

On good grass at the moment want to put them to hill with one lamb Other option would be to keep until shearing in July and remove on lamb. Did this last year and worked ok, but sheep were on land for two months when they could have been on hill.

Cockchafer - its not a parasite!!

Any of the white doses, nematodirus is easy killed

They swarm during fine weather at this time of year and can end up anywhere - noticed a few in the house and on the cattle in recent days myself

Went out to look at ewes and lambs yday,got a lovely 6 week old Suffolk lamb dead as a door nail…..they were done for Clostridial diseases…..and were seen the day before.

Sheep great for dying!!

Congratulating myself last week on how well lambing had gone and no pet lambs about the place and the bag of milk replacer I bought at the start of lambing hadn't even been opened. Neighbour called to take the bag on Friday evening and of course nothing would do him but he had to give the kids £10 each for the bag of milk powder, despite my protestations.

Had the ewes with twins in a bare field beside the yard on Saturday just for handiness as I was bringing the lambs in to scabivax them. Got all the singles done in the morning and then planned to do the twins in the afternoon after taking the kids to their match. Back home and a ewe had jumped out of the field over a sheep wire fence with two stands of barb into a silage field and munching away contently. Went to gather her up and she just lay down and promptly died in front of me leaving a set of 2 week old twins to rear.

Have to go now and buy a bag of milk replacer and I doubt the kids will be handing back their tenners anytime soon. Ah sheep, gotta love their inventiveness for dying.

No issue whatsoever. I have often done it.

If they're april born they're still living on mainly milk and if the ewes have enough to eat they'll feed them grand. lambs will be eating grass too from a month old.

Lambs will thrive on on good grass but if you want them finished quicker, feeding meals is necessary.