General sheep thread

Hi all,

I have a dry hoggett who has been badly lame on a front foot for a fortnight.I suspected it might be footrot related as there was a bit of a smell from it.I injected her and a few other hoggetts with Draxin 10 days ago.All the other lame hoggetts are cured apart from this one sheep.

I caught her in the field yday evening, and she seems to have a soft tissue growth,

Just wondering with type of problem it is,should I give her Draxin again,,,,,,,or try something like aAlymycin LA 300?

Thanks for any replies.

Thanks for reply,don’t think it’s CODD.It’s more like the little pollop growth you see pedigree Suffolk rams having sometimes……which can be known as a granuloma..From middle part of underside of her foot there is a little growth protruding about a third of length of your little finger.

It was a good dry evening when I caught her so I sprayed Alamycin spray on it,to see if it might ‘dry’ it out.Didn’t want to repeat Draxin injection straight away as it can continue to work for up to 14 days after injection.Was just wondering if it might be an idea to try her with with more of a broad spectrum antibiotic.

I usually cut them off with the foot parer, spray with alamycin and inject with antibiotic and painkiller

Will be putting her in with comrades to check her so will see if Alamycin spray from other day helped at all.

Yea, they bleed a lot but it's a lot more painful to leave, I've never been able to cure it without cutting it off. It's caused by drawing blood when you're paring the foot, I've heard it called strawberry foot rot

Got the results from FEC test back there…

The original test showed

This test also listed “WORM EGG TYPE STRONGYLE 400 AND MONEZIA 800”

The test I did yesterday showed

This test lists “WORM EGG TYPE = MONEZIA”

Google tells me monezia is a tapeworm - so no impact on lambs? (I was told tapeworms don’t impact lambs?)

100% strongyle worm kill, which is good. The clear dose I used, doesn’t kill monezia - which is good I guess…

Now, coccidia went from 6000 to 1200, which still seems high. I was hoping it would drop more… The lambs are looking well, doing good enough I think. Some were a bit lose before the dose, but very clean now again - so happy with the dose overall.

The white dose I used a few weeks back for Nematodirus, does also kill monezia. But I am not sure it’s worth dosing them again…

The only thing is the coccidia, being a high count. But I am still inclined to leave them as is.

Thoughts?

Once the tapeworm eggs hatch out , numbers will explode into the thousands.

Coccidia shouldnt be a problem if the lambs immunity is good, the two parasites together might affect them though.

If they were mine I'd give them a yellow dose,,,, very easy lose a months thrive this time of year

had 1000 tapeworm count this week all others low, discussion with vet decided go in with white dose yesterday. We decided based lambs only average 12 weeks old

After getting the Sheep shorn today. A lot of them with a yellow tint in their fleeces now. Any idea what it might be

Wouldn't be overly happy with the condition they are in. All doubles sheared today and they were a bit tight

hi folks,

I have a fec count query , I dosed lambs here 13 days ago with cydectin. Dis morning I gathered a few samples and dropped them into lab .

Got results back saying 300 trichostrongyles present . I did not do a test before dosing but I’m pretty sure that figure is still high after only being dosed 2 weeks ago , do I have a resistance issue with moxidectin products? At what egg counts do people go in with a dose ?

Vet said 300 was high and need to dose again asap .

thanks in advance of responds .

only ever on lambs , don’t dose ewes atal , but those lambs that received it in the past would have been retained as replacement ewes , so they would enter flock as breeding ewes .

no was some way it targets the worms he had issue with

If a worm dose is used too much it becomes useless, Ivermectins have been made useless by farmers injecting for scab. The sheep being injected are treated for worms and they not needing it.

We've been FEC testing for the last 20 years and have no wormer resistance to either ivermectins or Levamisole just by good practise. Even the white dose is working reasonable

yea, 500,there's very little loss in thrive under 500 and a lot of vets have very little interest in sheep.

I see the advice for triple resistant flocks is alternating the dose between yellow and clear every time rather than alternating every year.

I use Zolvix for bought in animals only.

If the other wormers are working and that's proven up by FEC results, then there's no need to use Zolvix.

It's not cheap alright…

I wouldn't use zolvix unless the the other wormers weren't working, It's important to do everything bought in with zolvix and levamisole and leave them indoors for 48 hrs until they pass the worms.

I've 25 old ewes with not much flesh on them, few broken mouths and a few gummy. They're after raring lambs, would you be cut much for these in the factory or would I be better going to the sales. Getting to the sales is s bit of bother compared to the factory. Mostly hornies but a few mules in there too

oh god ye don’t bring them to the factory if they are that thin . Bring to mart or try fatten a little more

I would say its less of an issue in suckler herds alright from my experience, especcially those that are more extensive - more of an issue for Dairy I'd say given how intensive that has become and the ongoing issues with the sheer numbers of stressed unweaned calves(with poor rumen/natural immunity) that have to be dealt with on mainly monculture leys, wet weather issues etc.. Its a worrying trend alright and points to a lack of awareness and education in the sector cos I do see other folks locally and what us see posted on other agri forums suggesting meds in general are treated like smarties to be dolled out without much taught for the particular situation or medium to long term consequences:( - need better leadership on the subject from the likes of Vets and DAFM too