The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: MelRice on January 10, 2014, 10:39:29 pm
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Just had last years babies killed and was told that the fleeces were full of Keds. Am I right in thinking that it is no use doing the two mums untill their coats come off later on?
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what are keds?
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insect
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You can treat for keds with a pour-on but for keds, ticks and lice you have to get the med right onto the skin. You need some fleece so you have something to part to get the skin exposed, but obviously some sheep have such thick and/or long fleece it is hard to get down to the skin when they are in full fleece.
We had keds causing a problem in the hoggs on the moorland farm in the winter, and it was causing too much distress to leave it. So we got the vet to prescribe an injectable.
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KEDS are brown hairy wingless insects that can live on sheep sucking blood once per day, but more importantly cause serious damage to the fleece and the skin , not very common , ive only seen them once . VERY easy to treat either coopers spot-on direct on to the skin mid shoulder or crovect/ectofly dysect/zermasect all applied to the natural parting down the spine on top of the wool . Allow up to 4 hrs to dry and no torrential rain for aday or so
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Looks like its possible now.....I'd rather do them before any lambs arrive. Thanks all.
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The only other thing to mention is to make sure that when you come to clip these sheep, you tell the shearer, and make sure these fleeces go into the Wool Board sack and don't end up with crafters - Crovect is noxious stuff, and persistent ;)
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Sally I only have 2 sheep and clip them myself to spin etc.......would It last if I kept the wool a year? Or should I just compost it this time?
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I'd shout for a more experienced answer from Fleecewife, actually. The general rule of thumb is that you don't want to be handling fleece that's been Crovected within 4 months of its being Crovected - and that's 4 months weathering on the sheep, not 4 months stored ;)
If you keep the Crovect down the midline, and are sure you can determine which fleece was the midline, you could just chuck that part away?
Personally, being super-sensitive to Crovect, I wouldn't take the risk. But otherwise, other folks say that a good hot scour with plenty of detergent should sort it out okay - look for threads on Ravelry that mention Crovect by name, barberblacksheep would've been one of the contributors. And me, of course (castlemilk on Ravelry.)
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Thanks sally.....looks like I will have to wait tll after lambies though.....see other thread