[candpdoyle]

 

Hi There

 hope someone can help, one of my ryelands has recently been ill, the vet said it was probably pnemonia and gave her an antibiotic..  she was very sorry for herself for about 3 days and then seemed to make a full recovery

now a week later she has patches of wool falling out???  there are 2 patches about the size of my hand where the wool has totally gone... clean pink skin showing..  skin looks healthy and i cant see any lice or other nasty critters...  also does not look like mange???

Anyone have any ideas before i spend some more money on the vet ??

Will take a couple of pics tomorrow and put them up here

Many thanks

Chris

[candpdoyle]

forgot to say... she seems fine and is moving around as well as ever with a good appetite

Chris

[HappyHippy]

I'm afraid I know nothing about sheep  and could be way off the mark, but it's just a thought.
Could it possibly be stress related - as in alopecia in humans ? or perhaps some kind of deficiency leading to the hair loss ?
If she seems well in herself and is eating it might not be anything to worry about - maybe even a side effect of the antibiotics 
I'm sure some more experienced sheep owners will be able to help more than me, good luck with her Chris

[VSS]

HappyHippy, who claims to know nothing about sheep, is right.
Stress plus large dose of antibiotics = wool loss. Don't be too alarmed if it all falls off!

[shetlandpaul]

yuck bald sheep.

[candpdoyle]

Ahh... that makes sence   thank you very much.. she is a bit prone to stress as when i first sheared her (By hand and my first time ) it took a good 3 hours of snip snip struggle.. and she needed an injection from the vet next day as she had gone lame from the stress of my not very good shearing technique


Thanks Again

Chris

[dixie]

We had a ewe flystruck once, got her sorted then shed shed her whole fleece, due to stress! she looked a bit strange I must say!!  If she loses lots you may have to think about keeping her warm now the weathers turned.

[kaz]

Had a ryeland ewe a few years back that shed all her fleece after lambing. She wasn't a first time lamber, but obviously she found it rather stressfull. It all grew back in time.

Sad to say we lost her this year at the ripe old age of 15, she just died peacefully in her sleep.

[Canadian Sheepfarmer]

Yep, I had one do this. She was flystruck on the udder, went on to have mastitis and was very sick. I managed to save her with antibiotics, she shed all her wool but went on to have twins last spring.