The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: ladyK on May 15, 2014, 09:26:10 am
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hello all
One of my heavily pregnant Soay ewes suddently appeared lame on one front foot this morning.
I can catch her but she is not one of the tamer ones, so I worry that wrestling her to treat her foot will stress her too much in her heavily pregnant state (I don't know their due date exactly as the ram is in with them permanently, but it must be imminent the way they look!)
What would you do?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
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Same happened with my Soay ewe, she was lame for about 4-5 days before she gave birth - probably either heaviness of belly or more like udder getting bigger and she's not used to the feeling around her legs area. My girl is fine now she has a wee one to divert her attentions.
My big sis used to pretend she had a limp when she was a wee girl as an attention seeking device. ;)
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Firstly, give it 24-48 hours to see if it goes away :) .
If it doesn't, gather them as a group so as not to stress her. Treat the foot whilst the ewe is standing up, don't turn her over (tether her, or get someone else to hold her).
Alternatively, if she's only a few days off, wait until she has lambed.
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Don't do owt that involves turning her, any stress at all, could cause a whole new set of issues. If she were here, we d keep an eye, get her lambed down and if she ll settle a nice enclosure with a pal maybe for a day or two let her bits settle back down, then do them x
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Personally I don't tip up or otherwise stress heavily pregnant ewes unless the alternative is worse. If she can still get about and feed, and is doing so, I'd leave it until she's lambed.
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we had a couple the same and although they looked terribly uncomfortable we decided the stress of catching them wasn't worth it. typically it was two of the wildest who hate being caught and would undoubtedly have got stressed out. luckily they were close and it was just a few days till we could have a better look and sort it out. if its weeks to go then prob have to do something unless it sorts itself in a day or so
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Thanks to everyone for your input.
My gut feeling too that I shouldn't do anything drastic and just keep an eye on her for now (I moved them next to the house yesterday) but feeling much better having had the reassurance from all of you experienced people! :wave:
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I wouldn't touch her till she has lambed - usually it then miraculously gets better.
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where i was working lambing, we have a fenced off bit of the garden temporarily for lambing season and put triplets, lamb ewes or anything else that needs an ewe kept on it. if it were to be down to me i would gently drive her down into this part of the garden and keep a close eye on her until she has lambed and the lambs are up on their feet and dry and all and then turn affected ewe over on her bum and check and trim and spray if need be all feet
report back when she has lambed, please
Cheers Ed
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Yep, they are in the garden now, so I watching her. The limping seems worse today, but she still moves around with the flock and is eating and looks OK otherwise, so just keeping fingers crossed that the lambs will come soon!
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I would also leave her until she's lambed - when they're heavily pregnant, the stress and handling is far worse than a sore foot"
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She's getting worse, hardly putting any weight on the foot now, hobbling about on 3 legs. I find it very hard to watch and do nothing. They do look very pregant but for what I know lambing could start tomorrow or still be 2 weeks away...
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If you have to catch up a heavily pregnant ewe then it helps to plan as far ahead as is possible, be prepared to abort an attempt if its clear the ewe is getting stressed at any point and catch up a small group together. Is there a way you can get the sheep used to being in a smaller area before catching up?
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If it was me I would gather them all up into a confined space, squeeze myself in, lift the sore foot and give it a quick spray with engymicin or whatever the blue spray is called. Then at least I would feel that I had tried you may also be able to check how big her udder is so how close to lambing she may be
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If it was me I would gather them all up into a confined space, squeeze myself in, lift the sore foot and give it a quick spray with engymicin or whatever the blue spray is called. Then at least I would feel that I had tried you may also be able to check how big her udder is so how close to lambing she may be
good idea if she still hasn't lambed in the next few days and it only gets worse
as for OP, as in quoted post can you see her udder to see how big it is and thus how close to lambing she is? without even getting too close to her?
Cheers Ed
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Had a few of my ewes have sore feet throughout the year but all have cleared up without me going near them. I think we intervene too quickly in some cases. If the ground is dry then give it a chance
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As in humans, the immunity of pregnant ewes is reduced so as not to reject the "foreign body" foetus. So ewes with previously excellent foot health are mor vulnerable to infection and sometimes suddenly go lame with an infected foot. I agree with others that say leave her until after she's lambed and then wait to see if her foot recovers as her immunity is restored to normal. It is a worry, but she is best left alone.
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How is she?
One of our Soay ewes started to limp when heavily in lamb. Luckily one of the very tame girls. We just caught hold of her at the food trough and lifted her foot, like a horse, couldn't see anything and decided to leave her rather than risk upsetting her. She wasn't terribly lame and was eating/ moving around as normal.
After lambing we still couldn't see much wrong. We did clean and spray as a precaution but she stopped limping more or less straight away.
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Still the same, hobbling about. Keeping my hands off...
Thanks for all your similar stories at least it gives me some reassurance that it may not be too serious.
I read heavy ewes sometimes get a heel abscess - this would be very painful and explain the bad laming but it would have to clear/burst by itself anyway.
Her udder is not as big as one of the others - but then that one has had a huge udder (well what I think feels huge on such a small ewe) for nearly 2 weeks now.
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:fc: for her.
The bag sizes on our Soay varies a lot anyway. One ewe always has an enormous udder , before and after birth, and her lambs always get sticky bums ::). She has twins but must have loads of milk.
Hope lambing goes well and great if you could post lambie pics. We missed lambing this year for various reasons and really missed it. Could do with a Soay lamb 'fix'. ;D