After a bit of advice and suggestions. Had some Wensleydale cross lambs for the first time this year. Was really pleased with them at birth. They were massive at birth, very very dopey to start but grew well. However the last 2 months they have been a bit of a disaster. Had a lot with flystrike despite a lot, and I mean a lot of crovect. Any slight patch the crovect doesn't touch they get swarmed on, but it is a big fly area.
However the biggest problem which has occurred over the last few days is that a large number of them seem to suddenly be going quite weak/lack coordination. They flop on their sides and have no desire to try and get up and no strength to do so if they do try. We are having to go around picking them up on a regular basis. Some alive, some dead. When they are up they potter around grazing happily for a bit then fall and just lie there. A couple have scoured but not all and most have been wormed quite recently. Its seems to be more the tup lambs that are affected but not just them. Only one has made a recovery so far, that was a gimmer and she seems to be doing fine, the rest, including her sister, have died.
We are unsure if it might be something on the land, although we can't find anything, maybe some sort of deficiency in the pasture - we moved here 4 months ago, something genetic or something else. At a complete loss. We have lost more lambs in the last 4 months than we have in the last 5 years and have less than a fifth of our previous stocking numbers.
The strange thing is we had two tups - a father and son combination which we bought that were the sires of these lambs. The father had been used before, the son not. Both of those perished in the same way these lambs are back in the winter. We should have had them analysed after death, but we didn't. We put it down to being stuck on their sides in horrendous weather.
The other strange thing is that we sold a batch to regular buyer. He has been keeping sheep 30 years to a very high standard and is completely stumped by these. He didn't like them from the start because of their fleeces being too open. He has lost 8 out of 10 and says the other 2 just won't grow or put weight on. Hes tried everything with them he could think of with them. Says they have all got to a certain size and just died. Hes had his vet have a brief look at them but they have no real suggestions. He hasn't had a problem with any of his other lambs.
We are have had a few suggestions from the vet and are ringing again later today to discuss things. We also have 2 on the garden in a weakened state for them to look at.
Does anyone have any suggestions? None of the ewes have had any noticeable problems whatsoever.