The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: crobertson on March 10, 2017, 09:48:57 pm
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Do folks have antibiotics on hand for lambing ?
Its our first time lambing our ewes, we have everything ready in our lambing kit but don't have any antibiotics as we've never really needed them. We've only needed to use antibiotics once on a ewe where the vets measured it out in a syringe and we could only collect and use that. Is it something to have at hand in case of any poorly lambs in the middle of the night ? Do we just ask our vets for some and explain why ?
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Most people have them on hand and the vets are generally happy to prescribe them knowing you have sheep to lamb.
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Antibiotics keep reasonably well as long as they are refrigerated but a bottle is quite expensive so if you only have a few sheep (say a dozen or so) to lamb then ask for a couple of syringes full and they will keep fine for several weeks. I used one jab yesterday on a ewe that I had internally examined as I wanted to be sure she had not retained a lamb it is always useful to be able to jab soon after that rather than put it off if you don't have any.
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Always good to have pen strep on hand just in case. Usually lambing isn't too bad a time for to require AB's. You can always purchase from the vet if you need them the same day. :)
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Yes we have pen strep and an oxytet long acting- either alamycin or cyclosol. Not had to use the pen strep yet but have used the LA on anything that needed help lambing. If we need anything different the vet will generally come and see them, our first ewe had a major infection/bleed and had a bottle of synulox- we don't keep that in stock at home as it's very expensive (around £45/bottle) and only needed if infection is particularly bad. Also worth having some metacam in stock (again not a whole bottle as it's very expensive).
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Can depend on how many ewes you have. If I have to help out a lamb without too much trouble (I always scrub up well with Hibiscrub) I don't give an antibiotic jab as I reckon almost everything I've touched will pretty soon be voided along with the afterbirth anyway.
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Our vet said no to giving us antibiotics or painkillers to have on hand. They said if we have a problem we can call and they will draw some up for us and we can drive to pick it up. Unfortuntely they are just over an hours drive away from us :-(
Dans
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I always have a bottle handy, I usually get 1 bottle a year and use when required (even though your meant to disguard 30 days after opening I think).
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Our vet said no to giving us antibiotics or painkillers to have on hand. They said if we have a problem we can call and they will draw some up for us and we can drive to pick it up. Unfortuntely they are just over an hours drive away from us :-(
Dans
That's all very well until you get an emergency on the Saturday night of a bank holiday, (or any night for that matter.) I would imagine that the cost of the vet going to the surgery to give you your 5mls or so of antibiotic would far outway the cost of buying a bottle yourself so you have it in an emergency. And same applies to a painkiller. Not only that, but you're likely to think twice about ringing the vet in the early hours merely to ask for some medication. Sounds a bit like they're trying to drum up business. I'd be inclined to see if you can get a more amenable and closer vet.
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Our vet said no to giving us antibiotics or painkillers to have on hand. They said if we have a problem we can call and they will draw some up for us and we can drive to pick it up. Unfortuntely they are just over an hours drive away from us :-(
Dans
Agree with landroverroy, if a vet wouldn't dispence antibiotics for sheep I'd assume he was either; drumming up business, didn't trust you to use them propperly, or just being difficult. In any of those circumstances I'd find a different vet!
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. I used one jab yesterday on a ewe that I had internally examined as I wanted to be sure she had not retained a lamb it is always useful to be able to jab soon after that rather than put it off if you don't have any.
If you use an arm length glove then there should be no need to give ab's . You don't have to put your hand inside to check for a lamb , if you press on the stomach in front of the udder then you can feel a lamb or not
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Vets would be irresponsible if they let everyone with a few sheep have a bottle of a/bs, irrespective of the person's training and experience. (The press is full of antibiotic resistance scare stories, mostly blaming farmers.).
I would expect the vet of a new sheepkeeper to perhaps be prepared to supply one or two syringes in case of the late night necessity, provided the vet is comfortable that the person would be able to judge when and when not to use it, and has the skill and knowledge to do so. With your background, Dans, I wouldn't have thought that ought to be a problem - assuming you've told the vet you're an expert on fluke!
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As I've mentioned in another post I've faced similar challenges with our vets over lambing. I got the same response of 'if you need antibiotics or painkillers, ring us, we'll draw some up and you can come and fetch them'. I had only asked to have a couple of syringes drawn up to have on hand and typically we had a very difficult lambing late evening, the ewe was sore and uncomfortable afterwards, reluctant to let the lambs suckle but had to wait until the vets opened in the morning.
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Yep, I can totally understand not giving bottles out here there and everywhere, but given the distance and competancy I'd have thought they would do at least a couple syringes. I've had several conversations with them, each time knowing exactly what I needed from them but they are still insistent that they can't prescribe until there is actually an issue. I would actually love to go to a different vets but they seem to be the only vet that covered our area. There were two but one stopped doing large animals at the start of the year. Time to check again and see if anyone else has increased thier coverage.
It has made me aware that different practices can have very different policies and to value a close practice that has policies you agree with.
Dans