[Ladygrey]

Hi there,

I dagged some of the lambs the other day as I was worried about flies, and as some of them pooped I noticed some white segments  so I have to worm them,

however my field that they are in is yet to be split in half and they have recently come of out the small paddock which is now grazed to next to nothing. So if I worm them, wont they just pick up the worms that are already in their field?

The ewes were last wormed in feb, some lambs have been wormed but the ones I recently bought in came with no worming history and I didnt get round to worming them yet  so yes its all my fault but not sure what to do.

1 acres of the field they are in is very very long, it was meant to be hay but it went over and now its too old for hay, If I mow this all down short will it help? will the wormer still be affective if I cant move the sheep onto clean grass? 

Thanks, jess

[Fleecewife]

The Mordun Institute recommends that you don't move wormed animals onto fresh pasture.  The thinking is that they are going to pick up more worms anyway, but if you put them onto fresh pasture, those worms will be the ones which have survived the wormer - so they are wormer resistant worms.  With only those in the gut, the resistant worms have no competition and can multiply away to their hearts content (don't know if worms have hearts  )
 
As you have realised, it's always a good idea to worm any animals which come onto your property, before you let them onto your land.  It is also sensible to quarantine them for at least 2 weeks in case they are carrying something else such as pink eye.  Too late now of course.  I would suggest hitting the worms you have inherited with something strong this time around - your vet will advise.

[Fleecewife]

I should have said a bit more.  It would help your vet to determine just which worms your sheep have if you take along a faecal sample for him/her to look at.   White bits implies tape worms, but there are likely to be various species in there.
 
By carefully timed wormings you can use your sheep to clear their own pasture of those worms. As they graze they will pick up the larval stage, so by timing worming to catch them as they have developed inside but before they have reproduced, there will be fewer eggs dropped.  You will probably have to worm them frequently at first, until the pasture is clean.  Eventually you can get to the ideal situation where your land is relatively worm free (it's never completely free) so worming can be less frequent.
 
If you have other species of animals they can help to clean the pasture too.  Our hens free range over our sheep fields and pick over the droppings.  Sheep worms don't affect them, so any larvae they eat are killed.  Cattle don't tend to share worms with sheep, nor do horses as far as I know, so they can take them in at grazing with impunity, but goats do, so keep any goats off pasture contaminated by sheep worms.   There may be some worm types common to sheep and cattle so please check that with your vet.

[plumseverywhere]

We've just had tapeworm in our goat kid. Started by me spotting white 'rice' in his droppings so I wormed him and the amount of tapeworm that has come out over a period of a few days was scary!
I heard something on the news that a lot of sheep are badly affected with tapeworm this year and an appeal went out to dog owners to responsibly worm/pick up dogs/poo so that they can help try to beat it. 

[Ladygrey]

Thanks for your great (and informative) reply

I have two sheep paddocks, 1 small one for orphan lambs ( 2/3rds of an acre) and then the main one (2 1/2 acres)
When I got in the 3 ewes and thier lambs I put them in the small lamb pen for 2 weeks before putting lambs out into main field with my others and then the ewes joined them a week later. (I did this to make sure they had dried up properly with no mastitis)

But then I noticed the lambs had worms a few days after being in the big paddock, so therefore both paddocks are now contaminated  The small pen is now shut off and will remain so for a few months to get rid of worms and grow the grass back.

I have kunekunes and these I suppose could share grazing with the sheep, but I cant let them into sheep grazing untill I have more solid fencing and the field has been topped. They are very tidy grazers and keep the grass looking like a cricket pitch! they are tidier than the sheep and will graze it nice and short so I may mix them with the sheep when I have bettered the fencing

I will ring the vet up and get all sheep (and maybe kunekunes aswel) wormed at the same time just in case  

[tizaala]

I found this on Google ,  just type in tapeworm eggs lifespan,
apparently a tapeworm can live as long as it's host
"How does this larva get into beef? The tapeworm inhabits the small intestine of humans, more commonly in developing countries and only sporadically in the U. S. and Canada. The tapeworm usually does not cause symptoms of disease in humans. It grows to a length of more than 15 feet. This tapeworm has a long life span, usually as long as the person it infects. These adult tapeworms release about 6 to 9 eggs packets (proglottids) each day. Each of these egg packets contain 100,000 to 150,000 eggs. These egg packets are passed in the feces of the infected humans. These eggs do not survive dry conditions very well; however, they do survive in manure (human manure in this case) or moist pastures for 60 to 70 days at 75 degrees and 6 months at 40 degrees. When carrier humans defecate on pasture or in feeds consumed by cattle, the eggs can be ingested (eaten) by cattle and measles can occur. The eggs swallowed by cattle hatch in the small intestine of cattle and circulate throughout the animal's body. The eggs develop into a larval stage and mature as cysts, or "measles", in the tissue of cattle. These cysts are about the size of a large pea and are easily seen in the muscle tissue. A "measley" carcass can contain thousands of these cysts which remain infective for about 2 years. Carcasses
"
makes you feel good all over
eggs can lie dormant in soil for forty years.

[woollyval]

It is NOT a good idea to graze pigs with sheep! Pigs need copper and however little you feed them of commercial pig feed it will have copper in it so if your sheep ever get hold of it you may find it poisons them  Also due to the fact that pigs then excrete the copper in their poo, the ground becomes copper rich and can be fatal to breeds sensitive to copper.

Regarding worms, I suggest you sepatate your bigger field into 3 and rotate the grazing. As FW said...get a dung sample tested. If your pigs have never been wormed may I suggest you worm them with some pig wormer and see if they are wormy....they can get some of the same type of worms as sheep.

I prefer to keep my pigs and sheep seperate.....

[Fleecewife]

Thanks Tizaala     I think I will carry that around with me and present it to the next chef who refuses to cook my steak til its done.  Maybe folk who like their meat rare are nice and slim, but now we know what's living inside them 
 
Hopefully not too many humans s#@8 in pasture or cattle feed    in Britain.  All the more reason to eat only home-produced and cooked meat.
 
I agree about not pasturing pigs and sheep together and I'm now wondering if it's true that cattle and sheep don't share parasites.

[Ladygrey]

Woolyval, yes that is true but my pigs have never eaten a scrap of commercial food in thier lives.

They sustain themselves on grazing and a small amount of sugar beet, with fruit and veg thrown in. when they arent growing/pregnant/flushing they can maintain body weight purely on grazing alone.
Would this cancel out any copper problems?

Yes I aim to put the field into paddocks, but at the moment lack funding/man hours, these will then be rotated

I have three pig paddocks which I rotate around and this works nicely, my pigs are regulary wormed plus grazing is rotated.

Tizaala that is very interesting about the tape worms! although slightly scary!  I used to have nightmares about tape worms when I was little....

[Rosemary]

I agree about not pasturing pigs and sheep together and I'm now wondering if it's true that cattle and sheep don't share parasites.

My understanding is that cattle and sheep don't share worms but liver fluke is common to both and therefore isn't affected by muliti-species grazing.

[suziequeue]

By carefully timed wormings you can use your sheep to clear their own pasture of those worms. As they graze they will pick up the larval stage, so by timing worming to catch them as they have developed inside but before they have reproduced, there will be fewer eggs dropped.

Very interested in this FW. Can you tell me more..... or signpost me to where I can find out more about this?


I don't think we have a huge worm problem but anything we can do to reduce the burden is worth doing.


We are lightly stocked, rotate two weeks on six weeks off in the summer and worm twice a year - once before tupping and once after lambling.