The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: threelittlesheep on April 18, 2015, 11:28:53 am
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In a bit of a dither and would appreciate some advice!
Ewes FEC report from Mole Valley from samples taken on 1st April shows strongyle - 250 epg, Nematodirus - less than 50 and Coccidial Oocysts - 300 epg.
Lambs are now aged between 3.5 weeks and 6 weeks.
They are Southdowns and ewes and lambs are all in good health and clean behind. They have been on current pasture for 5 weeks and nothing has been wormed yet.
Do I need to worm? I am keen to move them on to new pasture before grass gets away with us but am aware I should worm onto dirty pasture. I can wait another week so the question is, if I do worm, should I use something like Rycoben that I have in, or an alternative, eg Vexocan given the Cocci risks at this time of the year. Would I be best to get a FEC report on the lambs first?
Current pasture was used by last year's lambs. FEC counts on last year's lambs were all low when tested last autumn.
Thank you.
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From what I learnt from our vet the worms would allow cocci to have a party so to speak, if that makes sense, so we would worm first
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If on your turnout field last year the nematodirus hatch will be getting into gear right now. By the time you see a mucky backside a lot of damage has already been done. I follow SCOPS guidelines on switching wormer groups and turnout fields and overall I tend to view worming in much the same light as vaccination - better safe than sorry. The way to reduce wormer resistance would be to make FEC kit much cheaper and give free farmer training.