The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: ChalkyBee on April 25, 2019, 09:14:54 pm
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Hi, we finally had lambs this week after one of the two pregnant ewes we had ewe had twin lamb and aborted last month.
Now they are here I want to make sure they have the best chance. They are pet sheep, kept for wool and grazing. What vaccinations should we give? And also, do they need worming yet? Both were born outside, in a penned off corner of the meadow which is also used for dog training. Could dogs transfer worms?
Thank you. :)
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Great news!
Get an egg count done then you can worm, if necessary, as appropriate. You collect fresh droppings and take them to your vet or some feed stores offer the service.
Vaccinations - a lot of people use Heptavac. Ewe's generally get a booster prior to lambing so lambs get some cover from their mothers. Lambs need to be three weeks old to start the course so I suggest you do ewes and lambs in three weeks time if the ewes aren't in the system or have missed their booster. Unfortunately, the minimum bottle size is 25 doses and they need a course of two injections. Once opened a bottle is no good after 10 hours so you need to buy two bottles. See if someone locally will share with you.
Yes, dogs can give worms to sheep and it can be fatal. All dogs on sheep pasture should be regularly wormed.
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Your lambs may need worming at around 6wks old , if you collect fresh poo from them then and take to your vet and ask for a Faecal Egg Count they will tell you if they need worming . Plenty of choice for vaccinations HEPTAVAC P + / OVIVAC P + / COVEXIN 8 / BRAVOXIN 10 all do sort of the same job except the P+ covers some pasturella's . Yes dogs can infect sheep , mostly tape worm , but if they have never eaten raw sheep meat and are wormed reguarlly then shouldn't be be a problem
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It is worth reiterating that the worms sheep get from dogs cannot be treated in the sheep. The only way to control them is by worming the dogs. We also pick up our dog poo, because in the countryside, dogs pick up worms from all sorts of carrion, rodents, etc, and even though we worm our dogs every three months as recommended for dogs in rural areas, that doesn’t stop them getting reinfected within the three months after they ate a dead rabbit the day after you wormed them ::)
The dog worms create cysts in the sheep. Often there are no clinical signs, and you don’t know anything about it until you get some of the meat condemned with tenuicious cysts. Sometimes the cyst is somewhere it causes a problem - could be blindness, or fits, respiratory issues, etc - but unless you get a post mortem you wouldn’t know the cause.
When you see tapeworm segments in the sheep’s poo, that isn’t the worms they get from dogs. That’s the sheep tapeworm, which has the pasture snail as its secondary host, and doesn’t really cause the sheep or you any problems - except that the sheep need to eat more, as they have to feed their tapeworm as well as themselves.
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Okay so here’s my worry; I share the fields with a friend who has dogs which are fed a raw diet and treated homeopathically and not wormed. The dogs use the field for trials training, but unlikely to go to the toilet in there. My friend is unlikely to want to worm the dogs and will be difficult to approach so the more info I have the better.
Also other dogs may come and use the bigger field for trials training and I won’t know anything about them. Is there anything I can do?
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Sorry either get rid of the sheep or dogs or maybe fence of an area that is for sheep only
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Okay so here’s my worry; I share the fields with a friend who has dogs which are fed a raw diet and treated homeopathically and not wormed. The dogs use the field for trials training, but unlikely to go to the toilet in there. My friend is unlikely to want to worm the dogs and will be difficult to approach so the more info I have the better.
Also other dogs may come and use the bigger field for trials training and I won’t know anything about them. Is there anything I can do?
Is it your field in which case you can insist dogs are wormed. If not, it is a tricky one.
If your friend is your friend then he will understand your situation.
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You can ask the dog owners to pick up after their dogs. But it can be difficult to spot dog poo in amongst sheep poo, so it wouldn’t be 100%.
I’m afraid I’d be saying dogs wormed properly or not allowed.
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You can ask the dog owners to pick up after their dogs. But it can be difficult to spot dog poo in amongst sheep poo, so it wouldn’t be 100%.
I’m afraid I’d be saying dogs wormed properly or not allowed.
The dogs are trained to locate their poo and it is always picked up and disposed of in the ditch. I can certainly request extra vigilance for this.
I wonder how effective natural worming methods are?