[Louiseanastasia]

Please help I'm so confused totally new at this sheep keeping lark .... pedigree ryelands we have gone for and I'm confused on vaccinations do you do one of heptovac p plus or ovivac p plus iv no idea when to vaccinate or worm please help seem to have thrown myself in at the deep end and all the info I find is conflicting even from the vets ! ? Should have stuck to arable ? Just feel lost thanks in advance any advice is much appreciated !!

[Gunestone]

Welcome to the world of sheep!
Firstly I would recommend that you buy a copy of the Sheep Book for Smallholders by Tim Tyne, this is an excellent book and has helped me a great deal, it also goes through the seasons and what you need to do when.

Secondly how old are your ewes and are you going to breed from them? Do you know if they have been vaccinated before?
If they are already vaccinated then they will need one booster per year, usually done a few weeks before lambing in breeding ewes. If they are not vaccinated then they will need a first injection then another 4-6 weeks later. Then after a yearly booster per year. Sheep are most often given Heptivac-p.

Some people will worm regularly but the best option is to get fec tests done and worm accordingly. This will also depend on how "clean" your land is and weather you are rotating them.

Hope that helps!

[twizzel]

Heptavac P covers a few more diseases than Ovivac, lamb dysentry and black disease being 2 of them. Ovivac is normally cheaper but doesn't come in a small 50ml bottle so if you have small numbers of sheep or lambs to do then you might as well use Heptavac as that comes in 50ml (25 dose) bottles. Ovivac smallest bottle is 100ml which is about the same price as the hep 50ml. Neither keep so once opened must be used that day.


There's 2 types of internal parasites to be aware of- worms and fluke. Try not to use a combination wormer as it can lead to resistance-  breeding sheep very rarely need worming more than once a year at lambing (when their resistance is weakened) but need fluking more often throughout the aututmn and winter. There are 5 groups of wormer all with different active ingredients, orange and purple wormers are used as quarantine wormers and should NOT be used regularly as there is currently no resistance to them. This is a really useful document on types of wormer and what they all treat, plus the combination products currently on the market and the single action flukicides too. Your vet should have more up to date info on worming but the scops website is really useful and current
http://www.scops.org.uk/news_pdfs/AnthelminticsLeaflet_lssc_webversion16050606052016114137.pdf

[Marches Farmer]

Suggest The Sheep Book for Smallholders by Tim Tyne.  Straightforward introduction without frills.