The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Tish tosh on October 22, 2017, 08:39:45 am
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I'm currently looking at the worming range and it baffles me! I have 9 pet sheep who stay on our own grazing. The last two times they have been wormed with Benzimole. I was looking at possibly using a wormer to cover the most worms as possible, possibly Fasimec duo. All of my sheep are in good condition although there is one that never gains much weight throughout the year but is lively. Any advice would be very welcomed. Thank you.
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If their pet sheep and in good condition I woudn't worry too much about it, adult sheep have a 'resistance' to worms and as long as their burden isn't too high are quite healthy. My breeding ewes are wormed 4/5 weeks pre lambing and as they lamb and thats it. Any that look poor after weaning might get another dose but I wouldn't worm them all routienly. Lambs are a different matter though and I worm those every 6-8 weeks.
You could have an egg count done and see what they recomend.
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Probably worth getting a FEC done and following your vet's advice - they'll know what's a problem in your area. If you're not buying in sheep the risk of bringing in wormer resistance would be minimal but if you use the same one each time you risk building up resistance to one class of wormer in your own stock. The SCOPS website is helpful.
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Combination wormers can lead to resistance so try to use a narrow spectrum wormer if possible, speak to your vet for up to date advice
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Do a FEC and include fluke eggs , then go from there , as others say non breeding sheep should be fairly worm tolerant and if you have no fluke then why Fasimec duo ?
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agree dont worm if you dont need to. You'll set in resistance and waste money. A farm vet can do fecs for £12. For us its better also you shouldnt worm all of them. You keep the best one back.
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Lambs are a different matter though and I worm those every 6-8 weeks.
As Im organic I really cant see the need to worm lambs that dont need worming the only time we have had to worm was last 3 weeks due to increase in worms over July/Aug.
Also putting a wormer onto your ground/watercourse is something that shouldnt be done as a norm if you want to improve ground with dung beetles and insects.
We never have an issue with healthy ewes, issues over lambing late, poor grass, poor minerals, and lack of rotation is something we have learnt from. Regular worming of lambs can only be a bad thing for resistance and expensive plus time. My pet hate is seeing super healthy big weaned lambs being dosed to the hills killing off every worm which can only be counterintuitive for next batch of worms. Plus worming every lamb shouldnt be done either.
The problems of worms is down to poor land, poor rotation 90 days, lack of minerals coupled with not worming correctly. Goes without saying that some seasons are higher risk but FECs are ideal to confirm this - visual inspections if you are experienced also confirm issues.
Worth doing FECs on both ewes and lambs to consider issues before getting the dosing gun out.
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Thank you all for your advice, I have spoken to my vet and I am going to do a worm count on them and from there we can work out a plan of worming.