The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Rosemary on February 02, 2012, 01:33:15 pm
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I'm sorting out my lambing box. Tim recommends stuff called Thermovite for kick starting lambs. I can't find it anywhere to buy - can anyone help?
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I've never seen Thermovite so can't help, but I've used Collate Lamb Kick Start and a product called Lamb Boost and both have done the job.
When do you start ? :) :love: :sheep:
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It looks as though it was made by Protexin who are now marketing a product called Lifestart. http://www.protexin.com/products/protexin-lifestart/20 (http://www.protexin.com/products/protexin-lifestart/20)
I have used Kick Start as well and it did the job brilliantly last year.
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I've got Kick Start - never used it though except on a ewe that passed out being shorn ;D
If it's good enough for you good folks, it's good enough for me and I'll stop stressing about Thermovite ;D
OK, off to find something else to stress about ::)
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Made me smile as my father in law used to use easy start!!! those were the day's...note I did not say "good"
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sandy it is a different use easy start is for engines not for lambs in austrailia easy start is marketed as
start ya bas***d google it and see :farmer:
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;D ;D ;D, I know but my then farther in law used it for multi purposes....he was one of those farmers with bailing twine on everything, always empty lemonade bottles with teats on and a yard full of old rubbish, poor mum in law used to be driven mad as he did not care about tr-apesing hay in..in fact, when I was "courting", my then boyfriend used to borrow his dad Morris Traveller (so love them) and it had hay all over the seats so I got out looking like we had been rolling in it, once though, I was surprised to see my boyfriend turn up onto our new housing estate driving an old rusty tractor as he lived about 6 miles away.......my dad used to know all the local farmers and my ex father in law was certainly a well known charactor!!!!! One of the funny things he did was to put a scrubbing brush onto an old fence panel fixed with bailing twine and used it in the bathroom to scrub his back...I think I mentioned this before but he did some odd things......I had sore hands due to washing powder and he sprayed them with that purple stuff for sheep!!! they were like that for days!!!
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;D ;D ;D my Hubby still uses baler twine for everything!!! not in the bath though
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I saw that in the book too and was worried about where to get it from. I love the great info I get from you experienced guys ;D
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Thermovite is made by Tithebarn, you have to buy it direct from them, i bought mine 2 years ago after doing tim's course. it was expensive and only came in a large quantity. Hopefully they will have made a smallholder size by now as mine is still almost full and it must go off.
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I'm sorting out my lambing box. Tim recommends stuff called Thermovite for kick starting lambs. I can't find it anywhere to buy - can anyone help?
The only UK supplier is Tithebarn http://www.tithebarn.co.uk/ (http://www.tithebarn.co.uk/). You can either get it from you local rep which should be listed on their website or if there is not a rep for your area, ring the main office and they can send it out by post.
Having spent many years trying all these lick start type things, I can say hand on heart, that thermovite is the nearest thing to a miracle you will find anywhere (and no, I don't get commission ;) ).
It does come in quite large dose packs but will last from one season to the next if kept in the fridge - at least we haven't noticed any drop in its efficacy as a result of keeping it.
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The website's down - new one coming ::) but I've emailed them.
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Tithebarn say Thermovite has a shelf life of 18 mths so will last two seasons. 200ml is a 50 lamb dose is about £50 incl VAT and delivery. As I posted earlier you can multi dose every 12 hrs as a pick me up for a poorly lamb. It includes colustrum. It does seem expensive but as a newbie I find it very quick to administer and less intrusive for both lamb and mother than tubing. Don't know enough to know if it is straight substitute for all other products (colustrum powder, vitamin drench, kick start etc). If it is, it is probably cost effective.
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One of the best things about thermovite is it is quick and easy to give the lamb a squirt. Then if you are too busy to mix colostrum or have to attend to something else, the lamb you gave the thermovite to will be OK for a while, until you DO have the chance to go and sort something out.
I don't like stomach tubing - I can do it, but I prefer to leave it to Tim, so if something is born on my shift that needs tubing, I can give it some Thermovite and be content that it will be OK until Tim is about. All triplets are given thermovite as routine and also anything that is weak, slow to get up or suckle or if the ewe is flighty and won't let the lamb feed.
If you have got pedigree sheep (which are worth more) you can probably justify giving a dose to every lamb born.
It works for calves too.
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Goat kids too...
Only problem with that size tub is that my fridge is already full to bursting... and the garage is just too cold in winter to run the fridge in it...
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we used thermovite a few years back, the farm I was working on used it for calves so it was already in the tack room for when we had weak lambs. (so long as we remembered to change the dose setting on the applicator gun!)