[holz306]

So....since i was last on here for a good natter a lot has changed....i'm now 20 weeks pregnant.  i have 15 texels/beltex due to lamb and whilst i know that pregnant ladies shouldn't handle sheep at lambing time - how long do i have to stay away from the sheep for? Anyone been in the same position?

[SteveHants]

Toxoplasmosis.


Pregnant women should not only not lamb sheep, they shouldn't be anywhere near them. Ask your doctor for advice.

[SallyintNorth]

Congratulations!! 

And as Steve says, you stay right away, you don't even handle the clothes of anyone who has been lambing. If your OH is doing the lambing, he wears latex gloves whenever he so much as looks at the sheep, and he scrubs his hands to within an inch of their lives before he touches anything else in the house much less comes near you.  Ditto anyone else helping with the lambing - use gloves, if you can stop them coming in the house at all so much the better but if they do, they do not touch anything in the house until they have thoroughly cleaned up.

Also, lambing staff - including OH - should use waterproof trousers, boiler suits, etc so that the clothes they are wearing if / when they come into the house haven't been in direct contact with any lambing fluids or newborn lambs.

But the doc should tell you all that.

Congratulations again !   

[Old Shep]

Congratulations!
don't want to hijack this thread, but is the danger still there when the lambs are born but the lady still pregnant?  or if the baby has been born but the sheep still pregnant?  and if so how long after both baby and lambs are born?

[Sbom]

I lambed whilst pregnant although didn't realise I was for a while. The docs tested me for toxoplasmosis and said I'd had it in the past and built up an immunity, more luck than judgement though on my part.  The person I was lambing for also lambed literally up until she drove herself to hospital to give birth and two days later parked the pram in the lambing shed and carried on!
On the other hand I also heard of someone who lost there baby due to the sheep  . Best to be on the safe side if you don't have to be involved.
Congratulations!! 

[Marches Farmer]

Congratulations!  Our vet wore double disposable gloves every time his wife was pregnant, kept his waterproofs in the car and put all his dirty clothes in the washing machine himself all through her pregnancies.

[VSS]

It's not only toxoplasmosis you have to worry about - you can also get this from cat s**t. You have to bear enzootic abortion as well.

You really should find someone else to lamb your sheep for you. You must keep away from pregnant ewes, any aborted foetuses, ewes that have aborted, afterbirths, and also any weak or sickly lambs.

To do otherwise just isn't worth the risk.

[mojocafa]

Excuse my ignorance, but asking as I simply don't know... I have Pygmy goats that are not in kid but should I take the same precautions  with people that are pregnant
Mojo

[mojocafa]

Have posted the same time as vss and am guessing it's only pregnant sheep that would affect pregnant woman?..