The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: macvity on January 16, 2015, 08:05:25 pm
-
ewe not able to walk she lay down not able to get up.eating and drinking water ok.someone please help.
-
Is she in lamb? Age? Number of lambs?
-
First thought - listeria, in which case give a dose of antibiotic, eg tetracycline ASAP.
Classic signs of listeria are legs paddling the ground but animal unable to get up. In the early stages the animal remains alert and eats and drinks well.
-
Id call your vet asap. Could be any number of diseases, including listeria, hypocalcaemia, ketosis.
All of which require rapid treatment to prevent death.
-
give 80ml cmpd (calcium magnesium glucose mix) under the skin & phone your vet asap
-
Do we have a result/diagnosis?
-
sorry for late reply.she is not doing two bad.still eating and drinking water.cant call vet she is no good.she did a operation on my dog charge me lots of money dog died.she came out to my 2 sick ewes last year they died so im not ringing her again.i gave here calcium glucose.so i see how she gets on
.thanks guys
-
Find a new vet asap!
Not always easy I know. I am on my third vet since I moved here and not sure this is the one I am going to stay with. To be fair I don't think the others have been bad vets but just not experienced in the animals I need them to know about. You do need to find a vet you have some faith in as you must have someone who can administer to your animals when unwell.
-
Its not on to take your Veterinary advice from the internet chat rooms with a vague description of the problem as you see it. Find a new Vet Monday for the sake of your animals welfare. If you wait until it is chronic and going to die anyway no one will be able to save it.
-
If you've given her calcium and not got a fairly immediate improvement, then that is not the problem.
Have you tried antibiotics? The reason I suggested listeria is because you said she's still eating and drinking, and with the other suggestions the animals go off their food rapidly.
There's nothing wrong with asking other people's advice before calling a vet, out but in order to get a meaningful answer you need to give some useful details. Rosemary asked a number of fairly vital questions which you didn't answer, so based on the information we've got she could just have a couple of broken legs!
-
I hate to say it, but perhaps if you left it too late with your dog and the other two sheep you mentioned, trying to treat yourself via the internet, then the vet didn't have a chance to save them.
Unfortunately big operations on animals cost money (google the chap who compared the cost of cruciate surgery in himself to his dog for a more realistic idea of what value for money vet operations actually are!) and you would have been told that there is always a risk of losing an animal when operating or the few days after. If the vet was willing to perform the surgery, its because they thought the dog had a chance of recovering. We don't do surgery on animals that are going to die anyway to charge owners money.
Sheep are prey animals so they try to hide illness so as not to appear weak. This means when you see they're ill, they may not have a lot of reserve left before they die. Thus you need to get correct medical treatment for them quickly. It also makes it extra hard for the vet to diagnose as they really hide their pain and other symptoms.
I hope for her sake that your ewe is not suffering while you find a new vet.
-
We found our excellent farm vet from the breeder that we got our first lambs from. Could you do something similar? :)
-
You need to find a new vet .... no one should keep animals if they don't have a vet at the end of a phone.
a one line comment on a forum is not the way to treat any animal. Unlikely to be lack of calcium if she is eating OK.
Please get a vet out now ... and don't blame the vet if this sheep dies, she has been down for 3 days now.
-
Once you've loads of shepherding experience or a farming neighbour you can call on you may well have a fair idea of the cause of a ewe being recumbent. Otherwise you really must call the vet straight away. Sheep don't show they've a problem until it's serious.