[tommytink]

Today I was cleaning up an area that the sheep like to lay and found worms in pooh. I believe it to be a lambs pooh. It didn’t look like rice segments but I’ve read tapeworm is the only worm visible in excrement? I know when my pigs had roundworm it came out like spaghetti. Wouldn’t roundworms in sheep come out the same?

[landroverroy]

It's tapeworm segments. Dose them with panacur to get rid.

[tommytink]

Just Panacur? Thanks to the virus I don’t think our vets are open tomorrow. Not sure if the co-op does Panacur or if it’s vet only? I see on the SCOPS anthelmintics info page that all the white wormers say they cover tape, so would any one of these be okay instead if I can’t get the panacur?

[bj_cardiff]

I wouldn't panic about it to much, they don't really do much damage to lambs and it can definately wait a few days! My lambs usually get them. The fields are infected so you can't get rid of them. When I start to see the segments in poo I worm my lambs, I figure that if its taken 'x' weeks for them to get to a shedding stage then its probably true for the parasites I can't see too, so I worm.

[twizzel]

Tapeworm doesn’t normally affect the sheep like other worms do. Any of the white 1–bz wormers will treat it but the vet advised me not to worry too much as the tapeworm just uses a sheep as a host but doesn’t feed off it (or something like that) https://www.nadis.org.uk/disease-a-z/sheep/gastrointestinal-nematode-infestations-in-sheep/

[SallyintNorth]

These will be the segments of the "sheep" tapeworm, where you see the segments in the sheep's poo and a pasture mite is the other host, and are not related to the "doggy" tapeworm, where you see the segments in the dog's poo and sheep are the other host.  It is the latter which cause medical issues, and can result in death (rarely) and condemned meat (occasionally). 

I wrote about it all a while back and bookmarked it here

So you can treat it if you want, but it's not usually essential.  If your approach is to limit the chemicals you use, and to limit the environmental impact, then consider not treating or using a natural remedy (such as a lick with garlic in it).  Dung beetles are very active at this time of year, the active ingredient in Pancur is a broad-spectrum anthelmintic and is poorly absorbed in the ruminant gut, so a large amount of what you pour into them will emerge in their poo and kill fauna in your pasture.

[tommytink]

Okay cool. I will leave for now and not panic. I’m just about to change vet as I have absolutely had it with the one I’m with and what they charge me so not keen to contact them anyway, so good to know tapeworm is covered by the white wormers too.

Never knew there were two types. The vet said make sure your dog is wormed if it goes in fields so assumed they were all the same. But a dog tape worm you wouldn’t see in sheep’s pooh, even though you see it in the dog’s pooh?

I haven’t wormed the lambs yet. Haven’t seen any issues, aside from a few mucky bums here and there which have cleared up and I put down to them being on fresh grass or eating things along the hedgerow that they shouldn’t. Would it be advisable to worm them soon (I’m just about to split them from the ewes), or wait till there’s an issue, or get a FEC done first? I don’t want to do it for no reason but appreciate they haven’t the resistance build-up a ewe would have.

Also if I don’t treat the tape, won’t they all get it and keep pooping the segments out?

[SallyintNorth]

Never knew there were two types. The vet said make sure your dog is wormed if it goes in fields so assumed they were all the same. But a dog tape worm you wouldn’t see in sheep’s pooh, even though you see it in the dog’s pooh?

That's right.  And the one that harms sheep is the dog one, and you can only treat it in the dog.

[bj_cardiff]

I’m just about to change vet as I have absolutely had it with the one I’m with and what they charge me so not keen to contact them anyway, so good to know tapeworm is covered by the white wormers too.

I think your quite local to me (Carmarthenshire), I use different vets for different animals so happy to recomend one to you if you like? Feel free to PM

[SallyintNorth]

I haven’t wormed the lambs yet. Haven’t seen any issues, aside from a few mucky bums here and there which have cleared up and I put down to them being on fresh grass or eating things along the hedgerow that they shouldn’t. Would it be advisable to worm them soon (I’m just about to split them from the ewes), or wait till there’s an issue, or get a FEC done first? I don’t want to do it for no reason but appreciate they haven’t the resistance build-up a ewe would have.

Also if I don’t treat the tape, won’t they all get it and keep pooping the segments out?

Sheep and other ruminants can cope with a light worm burden, and actually a lot of farmers and vets advise not treating immediately (obvs only if the sheep are otherwise well) because exposure does help to build resistance.

There are no targeted meds for moniezia in sheep, which tells you that it is of no commercial importance.  In fact, it is not a listed target species in some of the widely-used anthelmintics, which tells you the same thing even louder! 

As to whether to worm your lambs at weaning or not... it depends on your system, stocking level and so on.  We have rotational grazing here (ponies follow sheep, sheep follow cattle), stock lightly, and do not worm routinely at all.  I worm anyone who has a mucky bum I can't explain; last year that was 1 lamb out of 18, and not until early autumn.  I had to worm some of the hoggs (lambs I kept over the winter) this year in spring - but tellingly, only one of the mostly- or half- Shetland ones, and he was a lamb that didn't get a great deal of his mum's milk, plus his mum (my black Wensleydale) was the grandma of all the other hoggs, the ones I had to worm.  (So yes, resistance to being wormy is highly heritable!!)

Quite a lot of farmers worm twin- and triplet-bearing ewes as they lamb, and that keeps the reinfection of pasture down. 

But if you are not putting the weaned lambs onto clean pasture (pasture which has not carried sheep in the last eighteen months, or pasture which has been grazed by ponies at some point since the sheep were last on it), and / or are fairly heavily stocked, then yes, it is probably worth worming them as you wean them.  Give them some minerals too; some merchants will mix you a worm-plus-mins drench, depending on how much you are buying.

[twizzel]

Regular fec during spring is helpful and will enable you to act on worms and cocci before they become too much of a problem. I used a white drench for nemotodiris a few weeks ago as some lamb daily liveweight gains had tailed off and they had lost a bit of bloom- weighing today but they are looking better. We then fec retained ewe lambs in autumn before they go into winter- last year they needed worming in October. You need a proactive vet for sheep as much of the issues surrounding sheep health can be monitored or prevented alltogether and a  good vet will help draw up a health plan for you.

[shep53]

Regular FEC's are easy to do and cheap compaired to wormer if not needed , then you can make an informed decision . Just put the lambs in a pen and pick up any poo as it hits the ground,put in a plastic bag and take to vet or send to a lab

[tommytink]

No rotational grazing and I am unfortunately well overstocked due to our novice naivety last year. No one knows anyone that wants some breeding Badger Face ewes and lambs do they?!

Do all detrimental worms give sheep the trots?

[SallyintNorth]

No rotational grazing and I am unfortunately well overstocked due to our novice naivety last year. No one knows anyone that wants some breeding Badger Face ewes and lambs do they?!

Do all detrimental worms give sheep the trots?

Mucky bums is usually present, yes. 

[Anke]

Do all detrimental worms give sheep the trots?

Except for lungworm.