The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: bigchicken on October 17, 2015, 09:54:14 pm
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One of my castlemilk moorits lambs has died suddenly, she looked fine and healthy one day and dead the next. Where can I get a post mortem done I'm in Fife.
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Very sorry x,, have you wormed for autumn yet? Was she scouring x
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Ask your vet.
They can either advise you of your local sac or animal health lab or do a basic one themselves.
So horrible when they show no signs for you to treat.
Most likely sudden deaths could be clostridial disease depending on vaccination status, pasteurellosis or possibly acute fluke.
Most vets should be able to give some idea whether any of these are likely.
Hope you get some answers
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Sorry to hear this :( Hope you get an answer and don't have any more sudden deaths :fc:
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Hi,
Could have been Braxy, we sometimes get the occasional store lamb dying suddenly, usually the best ones, if we don't get them sold before the first frosts, the lambs we are keeping for breeding or eating get vaccinated with heptavac hopefully before the frosts start.
Regards
Sue
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Oh no! Hope you get to the bottom of it
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A similar scenario happened with us. The five month old Castlemilk Moorit ewe lamb was right as ninepence in the evening and desperately ill the following morning. We immediately took her to the vet who said she was too far gone to be saved and he went into the surgery to get a drug with which to put her down. By the time he got back, all of two minutes, she had died. The vet then did a rudimentary post mortem and found her chest cavity was full of blood. He said the most likely cause was braxy, one of the clostridial diseases. He recommended vaccinating with Heptavac which we have done ever since. But the vet did add that he kept a flock of pedigree Suffolks and did not vaccinate them. All the local commercial farmers round these parts do not vaccinate as the cost outweighs the value of the occasional dead sheep.
Regards, David
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Around here it's generally pasteurellosis. First symptom - sudden death. Heptavac doesn't work against everything they'll encounter in the field, especially at this time of year when the weather conditions can vary so widely from day to day.
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I've come to suspect Polioencephalomalacia (CCN) as the main cause of deaths to my hoggs at this time of year, especially after some research (for example) (http://www.organicvet.co.uk/Sheepweb/disease/ccnweb/ccn1.htm) suggests a connection with bracken.
Assuming I can get a dead beast to a lab that can do a post-mortem in time for the results to be meaningful, what kind of cost are we looking at for a PM?
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My money would be on pasturella, warm days and cold nights are perfect conditions for it. Lost my very expensive ram to it a few weeks ago, had a pm done.
He was vaccinated with hep p earlier in the year.
Just bad luck that out of hundreds of sheep it as the very best ram that died. Fighting fit one day, dead by lunchtime the next >:(
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To late to get a meaningful result from post mortem, vet says it's probably clostridial braxy ect. My fault as I thought she was treated with heptivac p but on contacting breeder she was not. Will have to do her sister straight away.
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There are so many things that can cause sudden death - and unless you are able to take the sheep almost immediately for a post mortem it can be a waste of money. I had three die suddenly over one winter, I took them all for a post mortem but because two were over 24 hours old and partially scavenged the results were inconclusive, however worms weren't involved. The only one that I managed to get earlier did have a high worm count although again, it wasn't an absolute cause of death. So having paid for three PMs I didn't get one totally proven cause :-\
At over £100 a time for a PM sometimes it's better to count your losses!
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When nags get bracken poisoning they have to be jabbed with b12, so yes there's a link with ccn as you'd jab with b vits x
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I've come to suspect Polioencephalomalacia (CCN) as the main cause of deaths to my hoggs at this time of year, especially after some research (for example) (http://www.organicvet.co.uk/Sheepweb/disease/ccnweb/ccn1.htm) suggests a connection with bracken.
Just curious do your sheep regularly eat bracken?
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I've come to suspect Polioencephalomalacia (CCN) as the main cause of deaths to my hoggs at this time of year, especially after some research (for example) (http://www.organicvet.co.uk/Sheepweb/disease/ccnweb/ccn1.htm) suggests a connection with bracken.
Just curious do your sheep regularly eat bracken?
There is so much of it about that I suppose it is inevitable that the young animals are going to nibble it out of curiosity. Some definitely do eat more than an occasional nibble. It seems to be attract them most when it is turning brown, although several years ago I had two hoggs that developed a serious taste for dead bracken during the winter. One became completely blind and the other partly so.
This year's dead hogg was nibbling bracken when I saw it last, then on Saturday some walkers found it lying in a burn and unable to stand. I made it comfortable in the shed and got it to drink a little but it died during the night. It was fully vaccinated with Covexin 8 so clostridial disease is unlikely.
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Interesting, I've known mine to eat the tips of young bracken ( stubborn patch that I can't seem to get rid of) But not caught them eating mature or dead bracken something to watch out for . thank you
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If you have braken you will always loose a few, Even in tiny amounts its like a shotgun to their livers, and every organ takes a hit too.
Best bet is to roll the braken with a roller with some angle iron tied round it, roll is every couple of weeks and mow it when its over 4 ft. You should kill it off in a couple of years.