The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: kaz on May 12, 2011, 06:53:12 pm
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Had our first ever case this year of Pasteurellosis.
Checking sheep yesterday evening and there in the field my oldest ewe lamb was laying down very listless, her breathing very laboured and a snuffly nose.
Just picked her up slung her over the quad bike seat (she weighs 17 kilos) then transfered her to car and rushed her down vets, (as luck would have it, it was surgery time) The vet on arrival, after examining her gave her two injections straight into the vein after weighing her to make sure right dose. Then another injection under the skin. Normal instructions to keep her propped up as breathing so bad. Also given more injection for next five days if she pulled through. Outlook not good...
Up into shed this morning and there she is with Mum looking as nothing had happened, other than her breathing still a bit laboured.
So just be aware if they are vaccinated it might not work in time. She had her first injection at three weeks and was due for her second today at 7 weeks. I hasten to add that she could not have that, as vet advised this morning to leave that for several days until she was totally over it.
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Are you sure it was pastuerella pneumonia? There are lots of other bacteria that cause pneumonia and without taking swab samples and having them analysed in a lab, it would be very difficult to say definitively that it was pasteurella that caused it.
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I can only go by what the vet tells me as not qualified to diagnose, but he is pretty good normally.
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No vaccine for animals or humans is 100% effective , plus as VSS says pneumonia has many causes and HEP P only covers a few of the most common in sheep.
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We have a lamb that is 24 hours into her first dose of antibiotics for Pasturella too, quite a worry :( poor thing had very labored breathing
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We've just lost one to it.......post mortem showed it up no previous signs......what seemed to be a perfectly healthy robust lamb literally laid down and died.......we scoured the cctv for clues as to what happened
on top of that we lost a second......signs of pasturella....and post mortem unveiled coccidiosis oh happy days
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2 Years ago we were shutdown for a suspected case of bluetongue ( we are on Southcoast) and DEFRA vet called in.Turned out to be pasturella, All our ewes are vaccinated but vet said if conditions right this disease can strike at any time, I think sometimes sheep just get these things and it's something we have to accept. some live ,some die that's life.
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We now dose for coccidiosis as routine. At 3 weeks then again 3 weeks later. It is a silent killer and normally strikes the older healthiest lambs first and you can lose a lot of them within a very short space of time as I found out to my cost the year my hubby had his dreadful accident and I wasn't on top of everything and lost several within days of each other.
PM showed coccisiosis.
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kaz what do you treat with for coccidiosis? We've had a drench from vet and done all the lambs today We lost a ewe yesterday for apparently no good reason she was pm'd at vet who rang today to say 'an immaculate sheep......perfect...' so whilst nothing insidious as we feared no reasonable explanation either ??? :sheep: :sheep:
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I treat them with Vecoxan. They have to be weighed and dosed by weight. This product is expensive so if your vet can supply it would probably be cheaper.
I would recommend dosing them as it can save their lives.
Hope this helps.
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I think on the Heptavac instructions it says something about not being fully effective until 2 weeks after the 2nd dose - could be wrong as I have been looking at all of those vaccines recently to consider efficacy of each versus cost
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Thumbs up for vecoxan, it is brilliant stuff and well worth the price :
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If you vaccinate the ewes four weeks before lambing the lambs are born with protection from the mothers antibodies. It keeps them safe until they are old enough to start the programme.
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If you vaccinate the ewes four weeks before lambing the lambs are born with protection from the mothers antibodies. It keeps them safe until they are old enough to start the programme.
We always give booster vaccine to the ewes three weeks before lambing and then make a start on the lambs when the youngest one is three weeks old…… so we take a bit of a risk with the older ones but once we've got the bottle open then I prefer to use it all rather then having an open bottle in the fridge for weeks and vaccinating the lambs piecemeal. Maybe this year I will rethink things a bit if conditions are such that pasteurella and other pneumonias are possibly more rife. Ours aren't due to start until the 5th April so thanks for this early warning.
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Vaccine should be ok for a wee while if you don't contaminate it. use a new needle every time you fill a number of syringes and keep it in the fridge. I know vets who do this and I've always used mine this way. They won't recommend it because of liability but vaccine doesn't go off that quickly if you handle it properly. Heptavac discolours as it deteriorates.