The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Hevxxx99 on July 23, 2015, 03:19:21 pm
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I've got a very nice NCM shearling who is in good health, but ever since I got her in May she has had very loose droppings and her back end is a mess despite being dagged. Obviously, this is a worry for fly strike.
Any ideas why this might be and what I can do about it?
The other 19 in the flock, who arrived from the same source at the same time, are all completely fine and have been from the outset.
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I assume she's wormed and fluked?
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They were all dosed just before they came to me and I'm about to do worm them again. I guess there's a possibility she was missed.
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Might be resistatnce to the wormer used. Can you find out which it was or take a FEC sample?
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Fec, like said above you could have some white resistance there
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Wouldn't it be likely that all the sheep who had been wormed with the same product and who came from the same location all be showing symptoms if the worms were resistant? :thinking:
I'll worm again, as I was intending anyway and see if she's still got a problem after that.
Thanks for suggesting worms: I was thinking gut flora imbalance or rumen problems or something along those lines...
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try changing her diet - my hebrideans all produce nice pellets year round on long unimproved grass land but 3-4 of them have downright dioreah on modern rye-grass leys, the others are fine.... these are also all related so I assume a genetic thing, not a problem on a mountain side but on a modern lowland field.... it is.
Put them back on rougher land or feed hay and they improve.
Had mules in the past similar - soft on rye dominated grassland but normal on older pasture / cocksfoot based leys.
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She's either missed or maybe the grass is going through her.get her dosed, vet may say white drench may go for a different one, depending on what they find.Either way may be worth giving her some multi vit , as the scouring will be compromising the nutrients she can absorb. If she looking a little down perhaps some electrolytes would help to replace salts n sugars. Trim her back and in this case I would put on crovect.
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My vet says that they don't need to be loose to have worms, it maybe well worth taking a group fec just to make sure.
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It is normal for them to have a worm burden, aiming for worm free is unrealistic. Adult sheep shouldn't need routine worming for run of the mill worms
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cocci? fec should help identify this as a possibility
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Affecting one shearling ewe?
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I have one 2 year old ewe with persistent scour, all the rest of my flock are clean. I took a sample to my vet in April before she lambed, vet said all worm counts were very low, and probably not fluke as she hasn't lost condition. His advice was she may have something like IBS and I should cull her after she's reared her lamb, which is what I plan to do. I did worm/fluke her (Endospec) anyway just in case, a few weeks ago, and it seemed to help but only briefly, she's now just as scoury as she was before.
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FEC to find out whats going on and then probably mark her as a cull.
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I don't think of a yearling as quite an adult yet..
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Cocci is usually a disease of young lambs, are people worming shearlings routinely then? Am I really mean? Mine get a drench after they lamb down if they are lucky. Shearling rams get nothing.
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I don't believe it is diet: she was messy when she was in on pellets and haylage and still is on my unimproved but clovery upland fields.
She seems fit and well - no sign of discomfort or loss of condition. No odd behaviour.
I wouldn't say she was scouring as such: she produces very sloppy doings which she seems to manage to get all over her back end somehow, but it isn't liquid, yellow or smelly. Just...cow-like...
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Neither do I me, I was thinking worming wise, we wouldn't dose them as often as a lamb but neither dose them like a ewe.
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I don't believe it is diet: she was messy when she was in on pellets and haylage and still is on my unimproved but clovery upland fields.
She seems fit and well - no sign of discomfort or loss of condition. No odd behaviour.
I wouldn't say she was scouring as such: she produces very sloppy doings which she seems to manage to get all over her back end somehow, but it isn't liquid, yellow or smelly. Just...cow-like...
Definitely cull, you don't want to breed from that.
Having said which, I had a last minute change of heart and kept Harry Potter because her fleece was so interesting. She's still a mucky one, but so far :fc: her lambs don't seem to be following her in that. They're both ewe lambs, so I'll be making sure I know which ones they are and monitoring them closely up until keeper selection time ;). I still have mixed feelings about HP though... she's done a great job, has a fabulously sproingy fleece, but she is, always, mucky at the back.
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"Sproingy! what a lovely and apt word ;D
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If she was put on high risk pasture after turnout she may have picked up worms which have damaged her gut. I, too, wouldn't breed from her. She may look fine now but struggle to raise lambs.