The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Whittsend on November 17, 2014, 04:35:06 pm
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:'( Last Wednesday I was looking at my tiny flock ( 3 coloured ryeland ewes and a bottle- reared welsh mountain wether), and noticed one of the ryelands had raised wool over her shoulders. When I checked her, an area of wool, about three inches wide running across her shoulders and towards each front leg, just peeled away in my hands!! some skin was attached to the wool in places but the skin on the ewe was clean and dry. There were two hairline cracks in the skin which I sprayed with antiseptic spray. They are in the field next to the house and I see them several times a day from varous windows in the house so, I knew she had been acting totally normally over the past weeks. I called the vet out and she spent ages inspecting the skin and the wool, There were no signs of lice or flees. No oozing, redness or scabs. She took several skin scrapings, which showed that it was not scab, thank goodness. The ewes temperature was a tiny bit low , breath sounds a tiny bit rough but no indication of infecton. She is up to date with Heptovac P plus. The vet suspects that it is a homonal/ endocrine problem, from something that has happened in the past few months. The ewe did have a day about two months ago when she was definately out of sorts. I thought at the time she had been struck, but could find no evidence of eggs or maggots on her , so just treated her anyway and gave her a dose of multimitamins. The vet has left me 3ml of zuprevo injectable, in case she goes downhill, but so far she is eating/ drinking normally and runs down the field to me with the others if I go into the field. Has anyone out their had any experience of something like this?
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stress related wool loss is very common so no worries
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Thank you for that reply Shep. I spoke to the vet again today and she told me that, a few years ago, her father ( a sheep farmer) had a ewe that aborted twin lambs and lost her entire fleece. She assures me that even if a lot more wool comes away she is fine to stay outside with the others for company, even if the weather gets wet and cold. They do have a field shelter so I am hoping I will be able to leave her out as the vet suggests.
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IME they nearly always lose all or a substantial proportion of their fleece if they abort, and/or are very poorly for a while.
If she had a day being poorly a while back, and the vet can find nothing else, then :fc: that was it and she will be ok.
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I had a ewe which had a bad lambing and some weeks after lost all it wool exept for its head ,it looked more like a pig than a sheep, despite the cold march weather it lived out and has since grown a new fleece over the year.
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Thank you SallyintNorth and country soul for your encouraging replys. She continues to carry on as normal, l so I am assuming there is nothing ongoing that I need to worry about and she will grow new wool in time. :fc: