Well done, Leo
Posted: Wednesday 5 January, 2011
Well, Leo seems to have done his stuff. All six ewes have scanned in lamb, although the vet couldn't see if they were singles or multiples. He did say that a "proper" scanner would be able to, which made me smile.
He advised me to give them a salt lick as well as the molassed vitamin / mineral lick that they are currently getting. They'll also get a bit of hard feed in the run up to lambing, although he suggested keeping it low and increasing it after they lamb, to bring milk on.
We discussed worming and fluke. Faecal worm counts have been low and we didn't give a flukicide in the back end, so we've been advised to give a combination treatment to the ewes as they move through the lambing pens from the "waiting to lamb" field to the "lambs at foot" field.
The vet also advised that we should use a different field for new lambs next year (we're using Sheepfold this year) to avoid problems with Nematodirus. This is a worm to which new lambs are susceptible; this years lambs will shed eggs to infect next years lambs, if they are on the same grazing. Fortunately, by the time lambs are about six months old, they are resistant.
Most adult sheep can tolerate a moderate worm burden, but lambs can't. However, lambs don't get infected until they eat grass at about 4 - 6 weeks, then it takes 3 weeks for the worm to develop, so the vet said not to worm lambs until three months old or you just waste the wormer.
So much to learn - looking forward to the 25th March and the start of lambing. Hope the weather is kind to us.
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