Author Topic: First brush with death... (Read 3917 times)

Bullseye · « **on:** March 19, 2013, 07:41:14 pm »

Very disheartened this evening, having been nursing one of our very ill Ryeland shearling ewes.
Having been slightly 'quiet' on and off for a couple of weeks, she started to go downhill on Sunday.
As the ewes have been fed in the past few weeks in the lead up to lambing, we noticed she wasn't eating as much as the others- gradually becoming less and less until last night when we noticed she wasn't eating at all and was listless. We drenched her with twin lamb drench and kept an eye on her (they are in the stables) and today she has been very lethargic, standing with her head in the hay trough.
She has been drenched again with twin lamb drench and syringe fed porridge with added honey and I plan to do the same tonight. I also syringed her water and gave her some calciject in case of Hypocalcaemia. She is very wet and foamy around the mouth but has been stood with her chin in the water bucket- she is also intermittently tooth grinding but I can't see any obvious lesions in her mouth.
I gave her some pen&strep in case she has any infection so my plan is to keep her supported and cross my fingers for as long as I can until its time to call it a day- I just hope she pulls through.

lachlanandmarcus · « **Reply #1 on:** March 19, 2013, 07:54:57 pm »

If it is TLD our amazing vet saved our ewe who was at deaths door despite all treatment by extracting rumen juices from one of his ewes and drenching our ewe with it! Lost the lambs, but saved the ewe.

Fingers crossed for your girl

Gunnermark · « **Reply #2 on:** March 19, 2013, 07:56:27 pm »

Sounds awful fingers crossed she pulls through!!

domsmith · « **Reply #3 on:** March 19, 2013, 08:05:58 pm »

Have you fluked recently? all problems this year for us, trace back to fluke.

dominic

Marches Farmer · « **Reply #4 on:** March 19, 2013, 08:19:17 pm »

Does she have bottle jaw? If so it's fluke, with a very poor outlook. Fresh grass cut with hedge shears from a verge or similar if you don't have any grazing left can often tempt their appetites when nothing else will.

Rosemary · « **Reply #5 on:** March 19, 2013, 08:34:09 pm »

for the ewe

Bullseye · « **Reply #6 on:** March 19, 2013, 09:06:17 pm »

They were all done about 2 weeks ago with a combination fluke/wormer as we had a couple scouring but that resolved- should I do her again with a different flukicide? I didn't notice any swelling around the neck.
We do have a decent amount of grazing left so I'll cut her some grass- she's too weak to turn out tonight but if she improves I'll put her out.
I've just been to feed her porridge and honey again and she has neither deteriorated/improved.
On the brighter side my favourite ewe looks just about ready to pop

Thank you all for your kind wishes

MrsJ · « **Reply #7 on:** March 19, 2013, 11:49:01 pm »

Oh dear. I cant think of anything that you're not already doing. Fingers crossed that if she hasnt gone further down hill she will turn the corner.

Rosemary · « **Reply #8 on:** March 20, 2013, 08:43:53 am »

Ivy leaves are good for tempting jaded appetites. And oatcakes or digestive biscuits.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #9 on:** March 20, 2013, 09:47:24 am »

It sounds very like TLD. For pre-lambing TLD our vet suggests blue top then green top 4 hours later (Dunlops bottles, sorry don't know what is the equivalent of the green top in other ranges) as well as twin lamb drench every 4 hours.

Bicarb of soda can help restart the rumen if you think that's part of the problem - and easier to do than harvesting rumen contents from another sheep.