[CornishFarmer]

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[woollyval]

OK.....will try and answer this!

Both do a broad spectrum of worms and fluke however the combinex treats fluke at all stages of life and is what is known as a yellow wormer and has as an active ingredient levamisole whereas the rycoben is an albendazole based wormer which I think..only treats adult fluke. Rycoben is in the white wormer family of bendazoles.

Now the safety margins on both is wide with a very wide margin on the rycoben however if new sheep on new to you wet ground I would assume the worst case senario and worm the sheep with Combinex as it will clear out any little visitors that come with them....which may include fluke!

Without knowing the breed type of your sheep it is impossible to estimate weight as it could vary between 20 and 120kg!!!....more info please!

[Fleecewife]

I would add to that, that it is not so much weight you are looking at in sheep, but their 'condition'.  Condition is measured by feeling along the spinal processes ie the sticky-up bits, along the top of the spine and around the tail(in some breeds) for the amount of fat you can feel there. The condition score is measured between 1 and 5, 1 being unnacceptable skinny in any breed, 5 being pretty fat.  To learn how to assess the condition score, and thus how fit your sheep are, you can look in a number of sheep books, or maybe on U-tube.  The more primitive breeds tend not to store fat along their spines, so what is acceptable/normal for them could be too thin for more 'commercial' breeds.

[supplies for smallholders]

Before blamket worming you may want to get a worm count done - just to see if it is really neccessary.

[Freddiesfarm]

If you google your breed of sheep you may find info on their average weight.  My lleyns ewes are normally about 70kg.  The southdowns are about 55-60kg.  Big old romneys about 90kgs. 

[supplies for smallholders]

Hi,
 Im sorry but I strongly dissagree with this statement :

I believe only certain types of worm at certain stages of life can be detected in a worm count, which in my mind makes the whole thing a pointless scam.

Fistly the worm count does not count worms - it counts eggs and identifies how many of each type of egg per gramme of sample material.

Secondly, why treat with a wormer if you may not have a worm problem to start with?

Thirdly, if you do have a worm problem, then knowing what type of worms you have will help select the correct wormer to use.

Forthly (is that a word?) compared to the cost of worming products the £9,00 or so is money well spent if it shows that you dont need to spend £40 + on worming products.

Just blanket worming for the sake of it is an expensive passtime and leads ultimately to wormer resistance.

Thanks

[supplies for smallholders]

Also have a look at : http://www.nationalsheep.org.uk/images/stories/pdf/scopstechmanthree.pdf especially para. 6.5.4 which talks about FEC's

This document is produced by the National Sheep Association to make farmers aware of the implications of the proper use of wormers to prevent resistance being increased - now Im sure the NSA wouldnt class FECs (worm counts) as a Scam !

[SallyintNorth]

I'm very concious of worming/using drugs/medication unnecessarily and they haven't been wormed since about this time last year when they were moved onto fresh pasture, so I think it's time all their systems got flushed out, just in case, especially as most of their backsides have recently slowly started to become messy and they aren't on lush spring pasture yet.

Our ground is very wet so we have at least as much problem with fluke as we do with worms.  Generally we need to fluke autumn / winter and worm in the summer.
Not sure where you are WG, but messy backsides if it's still winter would certainly make me think fluke rather than worms.
With fluke the recommendation is to treat every animal every 6-8 weeks through the risk period.  In the very wet summers of 2007, 8 and 9 (we did wonder if there would ever be a dry summer again...) we were advised to continue fluking throughout the year.

[SallyintNorth]

I think I've narrowed it down to Rycoben SC for sheep or Combinex for Sheep, as some of my land can become quite waterlogged at times, I want to treat the sheep for worm and fluke at the same time.
They both seem to be quite broad spectrum and are effective against lots of different parasites, so I'm assuming the only difference is the active ingredient and price? Combinex is £37.50 for 0.8 litres and Rycoben SC for sheep is £37.20 for 2.2 litres!!!

Oh, and don't forget to do your price comparison on number of doses rather than price per litre - the dose of Rycoben for worm + fluke would be 16ml for a 50kg animal, of Combinex would be 10ml.  (Figures from Noah Compendium)