The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Clive on June 10, 2014, 10:50:53 pm
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I've perused the forum and think I may be on the right track but ...
This evening I saw one of my Wiltshire Horn ewes scratching her head with a hoof. After a recent unfortunate incident I suspected flystrike. She's the most nervous of the girls so in the late evening I tried to pen her to check. Everything went well an I actually succeeded in getting her into a pen of hurdles. Just as I was about to celebrate, she swung her head around and knocked a horn clean off! Lots of blood and the bud is also slightly damaged. I cleaned and disinfected the wound which also removed the maggots (at least my diagnosis was right). I have treated the area with crovect and used purple spray liberally. Obviously I am worried about further flystrike but hope the crovect will keep them off?
Not sure if I need to do anything else?
Should I be getting antibiotics from the vet?
Thanks in advance
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I always think it's a bit rough when nobody replies - perhaps they are all out enjoying the sunshine :sunshine: I have a friend with a little Dorset ewe who knocked her horn off - it bled like anything. She got the vet out the first time who used Aluspray - brilliant stuff for stopping bleeding and acts like a tin foil bandage. The horn grew back from the bud - a little misshapen but it grew - until she caught it in a hurdle and did it all over again! This time I came armed with the Aluspray and a metacam injection instead of the vet.
Sounds like you've done a good job but I would definitely get some Aluspray - as she's almost certain to do it again and a little knock will easily make it bleed again. Whether you need anti-biotics prob depends on how bad the strike was - but if you've cleaned and disinfected it then hopefully you'll be ok. She's probably too wild to do this - but a quick sniff at the wound lets you know how it's doing - or is it just me that does that? :D
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Errr... It may just be you ;)
Thanks for the reply. I will try to get hold of aluspray. The wound was drying well but I needed to take advantage of having her penned to do her feet. It bled a bit but not too bad. Purple again now :). The strike wasn't too bad and actually the horn being knocked off meant I was able to clean it thoroughly.
Would you believe that I got Wiltshire Horns because "they hardly ever get fly strike"!
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:D Like I got Ryelands cos they don't tend to get footrot !
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I had fly strike twice in 10 days on my Soays...
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I had one last year knock a horn off, an older ram lamb - 6 or 7 months old, and I made the mistake of putting him back outside once it had stopped bleeding, where upon he immediately got struck. Doh.
Lots of bathing in salt water etc fixed it in the end. Don't think I bothered with antibiotics, but I had to keep him in for at least a week. Disaster really just before he was due to "go off", as he lost weight and condition during that time. The worst bit is the bleeding, once that stops and you can keep the flies off, it'll be fine.