The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: shetlandpaul on May 14, 2011, 02:57:58 pm

Title: tick bite pyaemia
Post by: shetlandpaul on May 14, 2011, 02:57:58 pm
hi has anyone delt with this desiese the lamb is on noroclav. this will teach me to get in a second caddy for ours.
Title: Re: tick bite pyaemia
Post by: shep53 on May 15, 2011, 01:26:52 pm
Pyaemia and tick borne fever tend to occur together, both if treated have good survival rates but will suffer a set back, the swollen joints will never go away but lambs seem to cope. Treating ewes and lambs with a pour-on keeps tick nos down, cutting rough vegitation gives ticks no home and no way to quest
Title: Re: tick bite pyaemia
Post by: shetlandpaul on May 15, 2011, 03:05:06 pm
thanks shep. we don't seem to have the bugs it was on the caddy. the story is that it was dumped at a crofters shed. we took him treated him for hypothermia and everything was going ok then he went lame on one leg so we treated with the normal antibiotic. however later on friday the wool started dropping off and it stank. we took it to the vet and she treated with noroclav and vits. plus a four day course of jabs. we then found the tick. the main site looks orrid but not much worse there are a number of other small abceses draining from two other legs. it can't stand or walk. but its still drinking and alert. we were going to see how the 4 days of jabs did and take him back on tuesday. its there anything that we can do to treat the abceses(which of course stink). we feel really bad that the lamb is in such a bad way but if we had not taken it in it would have died of starvation. the people who found him did not bother to treat or even feed him.
Title: Re: tick bite pyaemia
Post by: Hermit on May 15, 2011, 05:53:26 pm
Who on earth would dump a caddy round here?? If they did not want it there are three licenced slaughtermen as our neighbours and several experienced flock men who would have just shot it, they could have just asked one of them to dispose of it. One set of neighbours takes in caddies, they advertise for them! All sheep folk round here know how to dispose of lambs and who to go to .  If they did not care they would not have bothered to dump it and leave it for the ravens, sounds like you have been given a story to me. No one I know of round here would treat a lamb like that or anyone I know of in Shetland,a tourist probably found it and thought it belonged in the shed or someone would find it there, even that sounds daft they would have contacted someone. There must be an explanation.
Anyway, the best I find for abcesses is iodine but that maybe too strong for a lamb. Savlon liquid is a good gentle wash one. The vet should have given you advice on them but I believe they should be left to heal from the inside out so no scabs or dressings. Check for maggots if they smell as they could be gangeanous . I would ring the vet in the morning and ask for something first thing, but sounds like blood poisoning may be setting in. POOR THING. you will have to PM me with names than we know who is not upto scratch.
Title: Re: tick bite pyaemia
Post by: shetlandpaul on May 15, 2011, 09:41:35 pm
pmed. its not from around here.
Title: Re: tick bite pyaemia
Post by: shetlandpaul on May 16, 2011, 11:10:10 am
sadly oscar developed a abcess on the brain last night. we had to take him to the vets to be put down. a real pity he was a real fighter but he just lost the fight. if you get a weak lamb please give it a good look over the sooner its found the more chance the lamb has got.