[shearling]

Our ewes are due to Lamb in the next few weeks. They are very woolly and have overgrown hooves. I have read the other posts about leaving the feet until after lambing. My question is do we have a go at dagging before they give birth or not? if not when after lambing should we dag and do their feet. Some of them are very overgrown. I am a newbie to all of this and do not want to distress them or allow them to suffer because of my ignorance. I am not that good at either aspect, but could possibly get a local sheep keeper to help.  Any advice greatly appreciated by me and very defiantly them!

[bigchicken]

I would be very loathed to dag now I could be to much of a disturbance at this late stag of pregnancy, you could dag and do the feet when you check the ewes over after they give birth,

[shearling]

Thank you, this is what I was thinking. How long after giving birth do you do it? straight away after she has licked the lamb?

[Freddiesfarm]

Either dag them in the autumn/winter months or about a week after lambing and do feet at the same time.  If you wait a week or so after lambnig you can combine it with checking the udders just in case of mastitis or poor milk production.  I am doing my main batch of ewes now about two weeks after the last one lambed and I have had 1 case of mastitis out of 140 ewes but always worth checking for.

[Fleecewife]

Somewhere else on here there is a mention of clearing the 'wheel arch' ie just in front of the hind legs, on very woolly ewes so the lambs can find the teat easily, but there is a stretched piece of skin there which it is very easy to cut accidentally.  

For dagging, if the back ends are very dirty with a mass of wet lumpy dags this could create issues during lambing itself, especially if you have to assist.  

For feet, we have the occasional ewe who has drying mud stuck between the two halves of the foot - this is easy to remove if you can take hold of your sheep easily, and can prevent the development of foot rot.  For seriously overgrown feet - firstly, it's always good practice to trim the feet when the ewes go in with the tup at the end of the year and most will get through from then to lambing without major problems, but there are always one or two who can't quite last that long.  Here, we pick out that sheep individually at feeding time and trim her feet, just about up to lambing.  Our sheep are fairly used to being handled (except one or two who we have no chance of catching up on their own so they would just have to hobble until they lamb  .  

It is perfectly possible to handle in-lamb ewes without stressing them, but when you are doing it for the first time then now is not the time to practice. I suppose it's a question of just how daggy your ewes are and just how overgrown their feet - if they are down on their knees and unable to walk or feed properly then that is a problem, whereas if you have simply noticed that their feet are overgrown but they are walking ok then there is no need to intervene.

In my experience, bringing someone else in to handle your sheep is not always the answer - they may well not treat them as gently as you would wish.

[shearling]

THank you so much, I feel much more re-assured now

[Sylvia]

Either put your daggings in the bottom of your runner bean trench or put in a mesh carrot bag and suspend in a barrel of water for a few weeks. Dilute 1 part to 3 parts water as a plant feed. (Sylvia's top tips )

[SallyintNorth]

In my experience, bringing someone else in to handle your sheep is not always the answer - they may well not treat them as gently as you would wish.

Not to mention that someone they don't know handling them could well be stressful for them - they absolutely do know their usual handlers and will be concerned if they don't know one or more of the people handling them.  Having said which, some very experienced shepherds, shearers and vets seem to exude sheep-calming vibes and be able to handle almost any sheep with no apparent stress at all.