The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: mojocafa on June 01, 2014, 02:48:40 pm
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I have a soay that's acting oddly, thoughts appreciated....
She is sitting down, gets up moves quickly a short distance sniffing the ground, then sits on all fours again, it's really bizarre behaviour.
Two days ago she was fine and was shedding her fleece and was looking a real mess so I managed to catch her, held her with one hand by her horn whilst pulled off dragging fleece, was this the wrong thing to do
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This sounds like fly strike. get her in a again and have a really good look over her entire body. You can pull off the rest of her fleece too, or shear it, which will make it easier to keep her clean, and to see if there are maggots.
If not then maybe mites?
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Why I was removing the fleece I didn't see anything but at one area there was some sticky yuck
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Better check her again as soon as you can - fly strike can happen so fast... (I just had a case of fly strike on my new Soay lambs). It's hard to see anything before the maggots hatch, and then suddenly you have a wriggly messy horror and a real emergency. :fc:
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Never had strike on mine :fc: but have read that an area of strike looks 'wet'. Perhaps that is what the sticky area was. Would get her if you can and check carefully. Hopefully some experienced folk will be along soon to help.
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I have ivomec drench, would that be a good place to start
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If you have fly strike you need to find and clean off the maggot-affected area (you can use specific fly strike products but if none to hand a Savlon solution or tea tree in water has been recommended to me here).
I'm not aware there is an 'internal' treatment for fly strike though someone more experienced might know better. (Depending on severity of the wounds caused you may need antibiotics, but this is to keep infection at bay, not the maggots as such).
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:wave:
Check down her sides, just in front of the hind legs. We had a sheep a couple of weeks ago who was getting the strike right on the skin there, down both sides. It was really hard to spot and took a number of attempts to clear them all off.
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I was going to say flystrike too, when I read your post - and I see others think the same.
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I lost a ewe to fly strike yesterday :gloomy: . Her lamb is 4 weeks old and won't take to a bottle :( . I thought she was acting oddly and drinking a lot but didn't think more of it till she was collapsed when it was too late. Flys are awful this year. I've now dagged the flock and crovect'd the lambs. My shearer says he'll be with us in a day or two but that'll be too late if they strike again. Crovect is the only treatment and preventer but shearing reduces the risk by miles.
Sorry, a bit off subject, just unloading. I'm livid with myself :rant: for not doing something sooner. Fly strike is easilly prevented and cured but only if it is caught early - really early. In summary - assume its fly strike until you're certain its not. Sheep don't act oddly for no reason.
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So sorry to hear that DartmoorLiz. We've come close. It does happen incredibly fast. One year, a poor ram was covered right down his spine and rump in writhing maggots. Bless him, he let us work for ages on him whilst we scraped them all out and covered him in maggot oil. We've never got that bad since. It only takes one to get you twitchy for them being twitchy. I've been told that Dectomax can help but not had experience of it personally. Another cause of the same kind of jumpiness in sheep (though ALWAYS check for flystrike first) is just before a storm the electricity in the air affects them.
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Acting more normal this evening as I can't catch her :rant:
This behaviour that I have noticed has only been the last 2 days , in the afternoon when it has been quite sunny and warm, it's obviously now cooler although I'm not. :innocent:
Would that be a factor as well. I will try again first thing.
I will also try to get photo as I think her fleece is now very short.
Are maggots generally white?
Thanks everyone
Mojo
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As far as I know maggots (and eggs) are white. But they bury in the fleece so it's not obvious until you look closely - my 5 day old lambs have very short fleece too, still I only saw the maggots once I caught them. and really looked for maggots (I saw the flies though).
If you can't catch her try to observe her for a while if you see flies buzzing around you definitely have a problem, if you can't see any flies then the issue may not be fly related (as far as I understand it anyway, my experience is limited but I've just been through a fly strike case).
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Behaviour too, like taking hem selves away from the rest of the flock is sometimes a sign, on looking for them I also listen for them too, they sound like rice crispies when the milk hits them, disgusting things, no good to man nor beast!! X
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Managed to get her...
...had a look through but didn't see anything moving, whilst I had her applied ivomec. How small would the eggs be ? are they minute and dry like headlice eggs or wet like larvae eggs.
Please excuse my ignorance
Mojo
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Pretty little thing. Don't apologise, we all learn for the first time sometime.
Can't tell much from pics but eggs are like tiny grains, off-white/creamy in colour and in clusters adjacent to one another a little like a bundle of fine grass seeds. They'll be under the wool or between flaps of poo generally in a warm, wet darkish area. Maggots start not much bigger but feed and grow at an astonishing rate. Sticky dark patches of fleece only really come when the maggots have established.
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Fortunately I don't seem to have a big problem with fly strike ( ? position on a hill) but certainly a sheeps behaviour does alter even just with flies being present. in this case it may be that the sheep isn't struck but is avoiding flies. They tend to keep their heads down into the grass ( it looks like they are sniffing but its not the case) and they will dance if flies continue to buzz around them.
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We've had exactly the same behaviour in our soay flock several times, I think it may be reactions to biting flies, midges maybe, we treated ours for mites and biting lice, they had recently been crovected. It certainly wasn't flystrike... I shouldn't worry too much unless the sheep begins to 'act ill' - go quiet etc...