Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: spectam  (Read 9471 times)

mebnandtrn

  • Joined Mar 2014
  • lower whitley
spectam
« on: February 25, 2015, 02:53:22 pm »
Its the first year of lambing for us. A friend let us help with their lambing earlier this year to get some experience. They gave every newborn lamb spectam as an injection.  Do other people do this too? We are trying to avoid as many medicines etc as possible, but obviously not to the detriment of the sheep and lamb's health. The ewes all had a Heptavac booster 4  weeks ago. Thank you.
« Last Edit: February 25, 2015, 02:55:13 pm by mebnandtrn »

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: spectam
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2015, 04:14:25 pm »
People who lamb large numbers of sheep indoors often find it best to use something as a prophylactic against E. coli infections.

If you lamb outdoors, or have very tiny numbers and excellent hygiene, you probably won't need it.

We lamb 200+ ewes outdoors and keep Orajet (which is a squirt-in-the-mouth prophylactic) on hand. Where ewes are brought in to lamb, because they're having trouble or the weather is bad, for instance, we give Orajet to the lambs, and also to any lambs being brought in within an hour or two of birth.

To use it as a prophylactic, it must be administered within a couple of hours of birth. Once past that, it can be used as a treatment but not as a preventative. When you have a number of lambs about, infection can take hold and run through them all horribly quickly, so we find it better to prevent the problem than to deal with an outbreak if we should get one.

As this is your first year, maybe use one of these products for lambs born indoors or brought in soon after birth, just to make sure you don't have a problem?  Then another year, with experience under your belts, you'll be more equipped to make informed decisions about what and when to use?

Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

mowhaugh

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Scottish Borders
    • Facebook
Re: spectam
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2015, 05:00:48 pm »
We give every lamb oral Spectam at birth, at the same time as spraying their navels with iodine.

Buffy the eggs layer

  • Joined Jun 2010
Re: spectam
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2015, 06:22:28 pm »
I administer it orally as a preventative and I lamb a small flock indoors. Its a belt and braces approach along with good hygiene. Also, my ewes are very woolly so the lambs stand a good chance of sucking on a lump of dirty fleece until they get the hang of the udders. So it prevents scours as a result. I use iodine on navels too to prevent absorption of bacteria resulting in joint ill and staldren powder to disinfect the lambing shed during the time the ewes are indoors.


It's a bit like insurance really. Some people dont insure and never get burgled. Some people get burgled and then take out insurance. Some people take out insurance just in case they get burgled......, It's up to you really.

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: spectam
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2015, 06:32:07 pm »
We give every lamb oral Spectam at birth, at the same time as spraying their navels with iodine.
Quote

We do too, although I prefer to dunk the navel in a small, wide-necked plastic bottle of iodine.

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: spectam
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2015, 07:06:47 pm »
We give every lamb oral Spectam at birth, at the same time as spraying their navels with iodine.
Quote

We do too, although I prefer to dunk the navel in a small, wide-necked plastic bottle of iodine.

Dunking gives better coverage.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: spectam
« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2015, 08:11:24 pm »
Re:iodining the umbilical cord, the important things are to ensure that the cut/open end is immersed and to not spread infection.

It is perfectly possible to achieve both with a spray - and perhaps somewhat easier to achieve the second, as you are not dunking second and third umbilical cords into the same solution.

So long as people realise that the important bit is the end of the umbilicus, and not the navel, any technique should work.  I suspect that most people cover the entire umbilicus, and navel - I know I do.  It seems to help the externalised cord to dry up and shrivel.

But no question, you are certain you've covered the open end if you dunk it ;)
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

charls

  • Joined Oct 2013
Re: spectam
« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2015, 05:00:37 pm »
We iodined, spectam scour halted and Kick Started all our 15 lambs last year and they all survived! We lamb outside but bring them in with their mums for 1 or 2 nights, so would recommend at least iodining and using spectam if you are bringing them in at all.
« Last Edit: February 27, 2015, 05:03:28 pm by charls »

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: spectam
« Reply #8 on: February 28, 2015, 08:49:38 am »
Is Spectam an antibiotic?

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: spectam
« Reply #9 on: February 28, 2015, 09:11:15 am »
It is; Spectinomycin (spelling!) I'm dead against using antibiotics on such a massive scale prophylactically (it must be 10s of thousands or millions of treatments per year that didn't need it) and try to do without myself (I appreciate it is sometimes difficult, particularly if lambing drags on)

Great money spinner for the cash-crazed Vets though...

Rosemary

  • Joined Oct 2007
  • Barry, Angus, Scotland
    • The Accidental Smallholder
Re: spectam
« Reply #10 on: February 28, 2015, 09:27:52 am »
I did wonder - given all the publicity around the routine use of antibiotics.

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: spectam
« Reply #11 on: February 28, 2015, 10:04:43 am »
Yeah, it makes me uncomfortable. It is personal choice at present though. I can see that changing in the mid-term and these drugs being taken away.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: spectam
« Reply #12 on: February 28, 2015, 10:23:44 am »
Yes, it's an antibiotic, as is Orajet that we use.

I don't think anyone on here is more vocal than me about not using antibiotics prophylactically.

In this case, a squirt of Orajet (or Spectam) to newborns born indoors or coming indoors is a sensible precaution, in my view.  I have experienced a sudden, unexpected outbreak of E.coli in the lambing shed, when bad weather meant keeping lambs in longer than usual and the usual practises failed to maintain hygiene under the increased stocking, longer stays and wet conditions. 

The reason for advocating Orajet is that, once an outbreak starts is too late - lambs already more than 2 hours old cannot then be protected, only treated if they succumb.

Experienced sheep-keepers will work out routines and practises that further minimise the likelihood and impact of an outbreak, and will use the prophylactics sparingly and when their experience leads them to believe it necessary.

Inexperienced sheepkeepers have enough to do learning basic lambing practises for the first year or two, and in this case I would advocate being prepared and avoiding the possibility of a catastrophic outbreak.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Tim W

  • Joined Aug 2013
Re: spectam
« Reply #13 on: February 28, 2015, 11:25:41 am »
It is; Spectinomycin (spelling!) I'm dead against using antibiotics on such a massive scale prophylactically (it must be 10s of thousands or millions of treatments per year that didn't need it) and try to do without myself (I appreciate it is sometimes difficult, particularly if lambing drags on)

Great money spinner for the cash-crazed Vets though...

I despair at the short sighted idiots who use AB and anthelmintic routinely----there is no excuse for it and is entirely down to laziness and lack of good planning/hygiene/stockmanship
Plan your lambing----clean the pens out,....have ample pens for the stock ---get them outside asap

I visited a dairy farm recently where every new born is given an AB jab within 2 hrs of birth, repeated at 2 weeks and again at 5 weeks!!! I asked about resistance worries---'well it's been ok so far' was the reply  >:(

Me

  • Joined Feb 2014
  • Wild West
Re: spectam
« Reply #14 on: February 28, 2015, 11:39:48 am »
I got the Vet dig in there early, its strangely liberating!  8)

 
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