The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Black Sheep on September 24, 2018, 10:32:21 pm
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It's that time to seek the wisdom of the forum again :)
We bought a shearling tup for our Hebridean flock just over a week ago. He is penned in the barn at present with three of this year's wethers in the adjoining pen. There are hangover hayracks on the dividing side.
They have been getting to know each other through the wire since he arrived so I am thinking about when to let them mix. There has been a degree of butting through the mesh but usually when the hayracks are getting low and they are eating from opposite sides.
I know to put them together in a small pen to begin with - but how small, and for how long? Any other tips on warning signs to look out for also helpful.
Thanks
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They shouldn't fight much at all as the wethers will quickly recognise the older entire tup as boss. The wethers might test the waters a little, and the tup will have to put them in their places a couple of times, but I don't foresee a problem, unless you have another entire tup.
We would keep the new animal in quarantine for 3 to 4 weeks anyway, before allowing him to mix with the rest of the flock, or put him in with the ewes.
The small pen business is for putting entire tups together, and then the size of the pen is such that they can't have a go at each other, including thumping with horns, so tight, but with enough room to lie down. Their water is best in a bucket of the type which is hooked onto the pen or it will be spilled. We would leave them in together like that at least overnight, then put out some food when they are released into the field to distract them. This can be enough to prevent immediate fights, but they will at some point fight to establish the pecking order. Occasionally a tup is injured, but without letting them settle their differences they will never settle together. They will fight far more near tupping time than at quieter times of year.
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I'd put them both in a 5or 6ft pen for 24hrs then let them out together. The wether should accept the Ram as being dominant and I don't think you'll have a problem.
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Just curious, what diseases are you quaranting for?
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Just curious, what diseases are you quaranting for?
Resistant worms and scab are the main ones to treat for in quarantine- anything entering the flock here gets Zolvix, Dectomax, Fasinex for fluke. Tipped up and all 4 feet inspected and sprayed in case of scald/footrot (or footbath). Any contagious diseases especially eye problems too.
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Resistant worms and scab are the main ones to treat for in quarantine- anything entering the flock here gets Zolvix, Dectomax, Fasinex for fluke. Tipped up and all 4 feet inspected and sprayed in case of scald/footrot (or footbath). Any contagious diseases especially eye problems too.
[member=25072]twizzel[/member] - note there is lots of triclabendazole resistance now (i.e. Fasinex), so quarantine treatment for fluke is more tricky. http://www.scops.org.uk/internal-parasites/liver-fluke/fluke-quarantine/ (http://www.scops.org.uk/internal-parasites/liver-fluke/fluke-quarantine/)
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I guess you could give flukiver (closantel) twice 6wks apart if you were worried about tbz resistance?
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Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
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Just curious, what diseases are you quaranting for?
Everything! We brought on a tup many years ago and he brought with him Infectious Conjunctivitis, Orf and a horrible footrot which took years to clean up from our land. If only we'd thought to quarantine that one, but it was in our early days.
With any new arrival, we dose for everything dosable, take our vets' advice and watch out for anything abnormal and go from there. We now run a closed flock, but occasionally a new tup has to be introduced.
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Generally my my thinking would be that an animal suffering from those types of problems has an immunity problem.
Particularly if there is a continuous cycle of problems.
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Resistant worms are more to do with over dosing certain wormer groups than immunity. And you don’t know the ewes are resistant until you come to dose them at lambing and find it doesn’t work- by that time they have dropped resistant eggs all over your pasture.
Likewise scab isn’t something you want to chance bringing onto your land !
Footrot and other infectious diseases could be an indication of lowered immunity but you’re trying to protect your sheep from being exposed to new strains of bugs that the new ones might be carrying.
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My point being that it isn't generally one problem but a cluster of problems in a particular animal often recurrent such as infectious conju ctivitis and scouring that seem to go hand in hand with the animals constitution rather than any indication of degree of disease circulating.
I ask as i do take steps to quarantine animals arriving and also test some older stock for disease. I am just trying to work out how long and for what diseases an effective quarantine period is. For example johnes would not seem to be affected by quarantining animals.
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Thank you for the helpful advice. Speaking to the vet for some quarantine treatment is on the list already before they go out in the field.