The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: mebnandtrn on February 25, 2015, 02:53:22 pm
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Its the first year of lambing for us. A friend let us help with their lambing earlier this year to get some experience. They gave every newborn lamb spectam as an injection. Do other people do this too? We are trying to avoid as many medicines etc as possible, but obviously not to the detriment of the sheep and lamb's health. The ewes all had a Heptavac booster 4 weeks ago. Thank you.
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People who lamb large numbers of sheep indoors often find it best to use something as a prophylactic against E. coli infections.
If you lamb outdoors, or have very tiny numbers and excellent hygiene, you probably won't need it.
We lamb 200+ ewes outdoors and keep Orajet (which is a squirt-in-the-mouth prophylactic) on hand. Where ewes are brought in to lamb, because they're having trouble or the weather is bad, for instance, we give Orajet to the lambs, and also to any lambs being brought in within an hour or two of birth.
To use it as a prophylactic, it must be administered within a couple of hours of birth. Once past that, it can be used as a treatment but not as a preventative. When you have a number of lambs about, infection can take hold and run through them all horribly quickly, so we find it better to prevent the problem than to deal with an outbreak if we should get one.
As this is your first year, maybe use one of these products for lambs born indoors or brought in soon after birth, just to make sure you don't have a problem? Then another year, with experience under your belts, you'll be more equipped to make informed decisions about what and when to use?
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We give every lamb oral Spectam at birth, at the same time as spraying their navels with iodine.
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I administer it orally as a preventative and I lamb a small flock indoors. Its a belt and braces approach along with good hygiene. Also, my ewes are very woolly so the lambs stand a good chance of sucking on a lump of dirty fleece until they get the hang of the udders. So it prevents scours as a result. I use iodine on navels too to prevent absorption of bacteria resulting in joint ill and staldren powder to disinfect the lambing shed during the time the ewes are indoors.
It's a bit like insurance really. Some people dont insure and never get burgled. Some people get burgled and then take out insurance. Some people take out insurance just in case they get burgled......, It's up to you really.
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We give every lamb oral Spectam at birth, at the same time as spraying their navels with iodine.
We do too, although I prefer to dunk the navel in a small, wide-necked plastic bottle of iodine.
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We give every lamb oral Spectam at birth, at the same time as spraying their navels with iodine.
We do too, although I prefer to dunk the navel in a small, wide-necked plastic bottle of iodine.
Dunking gives better coverage.
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Re:iodining the umbilical cord, the important things are to ensure that the cut/open end is immersed and to not spread infection.
It is perfectly possible to achieve both with a spray - and perhaps somewhat easier to achieve the second, as you are not dunking second and third umbilical cords into the same solution.
So long as people realise that the important bit is the end of the umbilicus, and not the navel, any technique should work. I suspect that most people cover the entire umbilicus, and navel - I know I do. It seems to help the externalised cord to dry up and shrivel.
But no question, you are certain you've covered the open end if you dunk it ;)
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We iodined, spectam scour halted and Kick Started all our 15 lambs last year and they all survived! We lamb outside but bring them in with their mums for 1 or 2 nights, so would recommend at least iodining and using spectam if you are bringing them in at all.
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Is Spectam an antibiotic?
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It is; Spectinomycin (spelling!) I'm dead against using antibiotics on such a massive scale prophylactically (it must be 10s of thousands or millions of treatments per year that didn't need it) and try to do without myself (I appreciate it is sometimes difficult, particularly if lambing drags on)
Great money spinner for the cash-crazed Vets though...
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I did wonder - given all the publicity around the routine use of antibiotics.
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Yeah, it makes me uncomfortable. It is personal choice at present though. I can see that changing in the mid-term and these drugs being taken away.
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Yes, it's an antibiotic, as is Orajet that we use.
I don't think anyone on here is more vocal than me about not using antibiotics prophylactically.
In this case, a squirt of Orajet (or Spectam) to newborns born indoors or coming indoors is a sensible precaution, in my view. I have experienced a sudden, unexpected outbreak of E.coli in the lambing shed, when bad weather meant keeping lambs in longer than usual and the usual practises failed to maintain hygiene under the increased stocking, longer stays and wet conditions.
The reason for advocating Orajet is that, once an outbreak starts is too late - lambs already more than 2 hours old cannot then be protected, only treated if they succumb.
Experienced sheep-keepers will work out routines and practises that further minimise the likelihood and impact of an outbreak, and will use the prophylactics sparingly and when their experience leads them to believe it necessary.
Inexperienced sheepkeepers have enough to do learning basic lambing practises for the first year or two, and in this case I would advocate being prepared and avoiding the possibility of a catastrophic outbreak.
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It is; Spectinomycin (spelling!) I'm dead against using antibiotics on such a massive scale prophylactically (it must be 10s of thousands or millions of treatments per year that didn't need it) and try to do without myself (I appreciate it is sometimes difficult, particularly if lambing drags on)
Great money spinner for the cash-crazed Vets though...
I despair at the short sighted idiots who use AB and anthelmintic routinely----there is no excuse for it and is entirely down to laziness and lack of good planning/hygiene/stockmanship
Plan your lambing----clean the pens out,....have ample pens for the stock ---get them outside asap
I visited a dairy farm recently where every new born is given an AB jab within 2 hrs of birth, repeated at 2 weeks and again at 5 weeks!!! I asked about resistance worries---'well it's been ok so far' was the reply >:(
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I got the Vet dig in there early, its strangely liberating! 8)
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In this case, a squirt of Orajet (or Spectam) to newborns born indoors or coming indoors is a sensible precaution, in my view. I have experienced a sudden, unexpected outbreak of E.coli in the lambing shed, when bad weather meant keeping lambs in longer than usual and the usual practises failed to maintain hygiene under the increased stocking, longer stays and wet conditions.
The reason for advocating Orajet is that, once an outbreak starts is too late - lambs already more than 2 hours old cannot then be protected, only treated if they succumb.
Inexperienced sheepkeepers have enough to do learning basic lambing practises for the first year or two, and in this case I would advocate being prepared and avoiding the possibility of a catastrophic outbreak.
I agree.
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Well, in view of this suggestion, I asked my vet for some Spectam 'in case'. Would not prescribe as a prophylactic :huff: , so I'm upping the hygiene even more! The lambing pens are now cleaner than my kitchen :roflanim:
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Well, in view of this suggestion, I asked my vet for some Spectam 'in case'. Would not prescribe as a prophylactic :huff: , so I'm upping the hygiene even more! The lambing pens are now cleaner than my kitchen :roflanim:
Oh, my lambing pens are always cleaner than my kitchen :roflanim: ;)
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Well, in view of this suggestion, I asked my vet for some Spectam 'in case'. Would not prescribe as a prophylactic :huff: , so I'm upping the hygiene even more! The lambing pens are now cleaner than my kitchen :roflanim:
Oh, my lambing pens are always cleaner than my kitchen :roflanim: ;)
Same here!
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Well, in view of this suggestion, I asked my vet for some Spectam 'in case'. Would not prescribe as a prophylactic :huff: , so I'm upping the hygiene even more! The lambing pens are now cleaner than my kitchen :roflanim:
Oh, my lambing pens are always cleaner than my kitchen :roflanim: ;)
Same here, but that says more about my kitchen than anything
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Well, in view of this suggestion, I asked my vet for some Spectam 'in case'. Would not prescribe as a prophylactic :huff: , so I'm upping the hygiene even more! The lambing pens are now cleaner than my kitchen :roflanim:
Oh, my lambing pens are always cleaner than my kitchen :roflanim: ;)
Same here, but that says more about my kitchen than anything
'Zackly.
I hold with the adage, "You don't use it, you lose it", and we keep our immune systems well exercised! lol