[silkwoodzwartbles]

Oh blimey, poor girl, sounds grim! Really hope it all drains out well now and that she's fighting fit again soon

[Womble]

Good news!  She's responded really well to the antibiotics. The swelling has all but disappeared now, and the wound has stopped weeping. I'm very pleased she's on the mend, and colleagues have stopped asking "what's that smell?" whenever I walk past!

Thank God for antibiotics though - we'll be really stuffed if they ever stop working. Good job that's not going to happen..... oh, wait.....

[Womble]

It was all going too well  . Everything healed up, and just left a small hard lump on the bottom of her jaw, which didn't seem to bother her.

However I noticed today that the abscess on her cheek has returned - roughly a month after the first infection cleared up  . I've lanced and drained it (getting good at that now), and have dosed her up with antibiotics.

I'm now worried that the lump on the bottom of her jaw might be indicative of CLA - it's right on the location shown in this picture for instance. I'm going to speak to the vet tomorrow. If it is CLA, I think she'll have to be culled, and if it isn't, I'll give her one more chance, but if it comes back again.....

Mrs Womble doesn't like talk of culling, and just accused me of being a heartless B****d.  Am I?  and if I am, why am I so utterly gutted? Maybe farming gets easier if you have a few thousand, and they're all just numbers. When you've only got eight though.......  

Edited to add photos taken this morning: The upper lump is squashy and contains salad cream. The lower lump is hard. Any thoughts on what the hard lump might be, and whether it's in the right place for a lymph node or not?

[pharnorth]

Sounds like time to test for it. I hope it isn't   

[Marches Farmer]

Not cheap to test but it's probably the only thing that'll put your mind at rest.  Could be it's time to start thinking about the quality of life for this ewe ....?

[Anke]

Definitely time to test for CLA...., and even if she is negative for that - I would also consider her quality of life as Marches Farmer says..., sadly as a livestock keeper you have to make these decisions for your animals from time to time...

[SallyintNorth]

Sorry to be blunt, but if it is CLA, you surely have no choice but to cull?  For the sake of all the others, and for all the flocks the shearer and the vet visit after you. 

And that's the thing about livestock.  It isn't all gambolling in the daisies.  (I know you know that - and your exploits with this ewe's face could hardly be classed as gambolling in the daisies!)

And of course you'll be gutted if you do have to cull her.  It's harder this time, because you haven't been doing this for long.  But it's still hard, ten years on, and even with hundreds of sheep.  One gets better at dealing with it, and one gets better at making the decision, and at being convinced you're doing the right thing in the best interests of the animal.  But it still hurts. 

And I think you're right, if it's not CLA, assuming the vet agrees too, give her one more chance.  After that, it's not fair on her to have to keep going through this.

Or the vet may be able to offer an operation to look for the seat of the infection - as one would for a dog. 

Good luck

[SallyintNorth]

Oh - and I would also keep good track of her offspring, and if they turn out to be a bit prone to abscesses, then I wouldn't breed from her again, nor any of her offspring.

[Womble]

Yes, agreed. Thanks folks! 


Edit: The vet has been. They don't think the lower lump is in quite the right place to be CLA, and is more likely to be a 'walled off' portion of the previous abscess. They've taken a blood sample to run a CLA test though, just to be sure.


The swelling is much less today too, so hopefully she's on the mend for a second time. Here's hoping it doesn't return, though I'm not holding out too much hope TBH.

[Womble]

Update:  Daily Betamox injections eventually saw to the swelling, though she still has a soft-ish marble sized lump on her bottom jaw. Fingers crossed it won't come back  .




The blood test came back negative for CLA, so at least that's one less thing to worry about. For future reference, the lab test cost us £12 + VAT + call-out fee, and was well worth doing in my mind, just to make sure we hadn't got something nasty that could transfer to our proper-farmer neighbours.

[TheSmilingSheep]

What a blessed sheep, with a committed, albeit increasingly alcoholic shepherd....

[Tim W]

The blood test came back negative for CLA, so at least that's one less thing to worry about. For future reference, the lab test cost us £12 + VAT + call-out fee, and was well worth doing in my mind, just to make sure we hadn't got something nasty that could transfer to our proper-farmer neighbours.

CLA test is £5.35 at SAC Labs (+tube cost @£2) I do my own sampling

SAC are by far the cheapest and best (most informed) disease screening service I have found)

[Womble]

Having been prompted by another thread, I just thought I'd report back on this, given that 18 months have now passed.

So I asked our vet for advice on whether to cull Bonnie for her own welfare, since she had a long-term weeping sore and we were due to start tupping shortly. To my surprise, he said "look, you've only got a small flock, and I think you're managing her welfare just fine. Even commercially speaking, she's your most valuable ewe, and gave you your best ewe lamb last year. So, if she was mine, I'd have her tupped and then manage her through it.

I had some misgivings about this, but we went for it anyway, and to my surprise, in mid November 2016 she must have ejected whatever foreign body was causing the recurring abscess, and everything cleared up completely.

She then went on to give birth to a cracking tup lamb, who is destined to become our new stock tup.

OK, it's not all roses, since she scanned empty this year, and will probably now be culled (especially since we now have her son in the flock), but on this occasion, the gamble paid off  .

[Marches Farmer]

Not a perfect outcome but a positive one ....

[Penninehillbilly]

How old she? Don't they get a second chance if they are empty one year? Maybe something happened early on and she aborted? If she is your best ewe I'd give her another chance, depending on age?
I started reading this from the beginning, nearly dropped the tablet when I read something about a heatwave, then I looked at the date of the post LOL.