[JMB]

Hi. I hope someone can help. I had my one of my shetland ewes put down last week. The vet said she had liver fluke and we dosed her and she lasted another 2 weeks but never really improved at all.
Another shetland has it too. She was dosed 2 weeks ago and her face isn't as swollen but she is very thin and walks a bit like she's drunk  (I forgot to say I'm new to this and a bit clueless) and sleeps away from the flock.
I'm not sure if I should dose her again- I gave her Fasimec Duo's- but it says 30 days on the bottle. Or just leave her (because she is eating and walks about, not like the one who died)
Or whether to get the vet again. Except that I'm not sure if the vet helped the other one, or if we just prolonged the inevitable. From the vets bill, I know my last sheep had Alamycin, Colvasone, Multivitamin (first visit)  plus Voren and Betamox (2nd visit).
Expensive though it is, I am prepared to get the vet again, but just wondered if anyone knew if this was the right approach, or what to do.
Thank you very much, Joanne xxx

[woollyval]

Liver fluke cause liver damage and liver failure....she has been dosed I assume for all stages of the flike lifecycle so there is not much you can do other than wait and see. In the meantime get a plan of action together to avoid this happening in future!......I assume all your other sheep have been dosed?

[JMB]

Yes the others have been dosed and all seem OK thanks. And we do have an action plan for the future after a steep and heartbreaking learning curve.
Not being familiar with sheep for long though, I was expecting the last one to either die or show signs of improvement, but she just hung on and hung on and then all my efforts and veterinary care seemed to come to no good.
This one is still up and grazing but she's not right. I wasn't sure if a 2nd dose would help or anything else or if I just needed to wait and see.

[shep53]

The liver will mend but not 100% it will take time and the best feed , multivit is a good idea. you dont say if she is pregnant or suckling hopefully neither. i really wouldnt give a second dose. hope you gave her enough first time is she maybe 60kg

[Fleecewife]

Now is the time to develop a good relationship with your vet so you can drop in and ask for his advice, without actually having to call him out.  You need to work out a worming plan for the whole year, under his advice - as an animal keeper you are supposed to have done this anyway.  It might be worth your while to join the mailing list for Moredun Research Institute www.moredun.org.uk who publish the latest research on animal care and have produced very valuable information on worming and how to avoid wormer resistance in your sheep (as opposed to resistance to worms - very different).

[JMB]

Thank you for your replies. She's isn't pregnant or suckling. I have a mineral lick in with her (is that what you mean by multivit?) and am feeding her corn and good quality hay and sugar beet and she is still eating.
We only have a few sheep and no dog, so we have recently hired someone experienced to help out from time to time to advise us re worming etc, and to round them up. The vet didn't mention putting a plan together with us, but maybe we should do that too?
Yes we should have been prepared but we live near a farmer who said he'd give us the nod when he was worming and shearing his etc and do ours too, but then he got busy and meanwhile we just waited, and then it was too late. When we should have done it ourselves from the start instead of relying on someone else.
Dosing her again seems like the wrong decision, but if she has been under-dosed would it still be better to leave alone or 'top-up' a bit?

[shep53]

your doing ok she will be very aenemic and needs minimal stress and handling as her liver is very delicate. if you top up with a small amount its like under dosing twice . multivit is what you say the vet gave your last ewe 5ml subcutaneous can stimulate appetite.

[SallyintNorth]

Sadly with fluke, by the time they show symptoms as advanced as you describe there is irreversible liver damage.

In my experience a full recovery, back to breeding fitness, is unusual.  A slow but relentless decline, despite all treatments, is unfortunately the way it often goes with this disease.  It is a very good sign that your second ewe is eating normally, though.

A multivitamin eg Combivit almost always helps any sheep that's had a shock or is under the weather.  Combivit can be subcutaneous or intramuscular - I nearly always do the latter as it clearly stings sub-cu!

The Fasimec Duo is supposed to kill liver fluke "mature, immature and early immature stages down to less than 1 week of age" so there is no point dosing her again for another month.  If the med kills all stages then 6 weeks is the dosing interval as I understand it takes the beastie 6 weeks to get to the point where it can cause some damage.  (If I've got that wrong I am sure someone can - and hopefully will - correct me.)

The other products the vet gave were antibiotics and anti-inflammatories.  I imagine these were to treat any secondary problems either arising from or exacerbated by the poor status of the ewe.  Whether this was on the basis of diagnosis of secondary problem or best endeavours to treat any possible complication I would not know. 

So I would definitely give multi-vits and would not dose for fluke again for another 4 weeks.  If you think she may have complications on top of the fluke then you could talk to the vet about whether she should have any of the other meds. 

I don't have experience of Shetlands but if she is eating and you want to put condition on her then could she be  given a small amount (6oz?  for a shetland?) of cake each day?  (Someone who has primitives will advise you better on that one.)

Best of luck, horrid for you to have had this happen. 

[JMB]

I just wanted to say thank you again for taking the time to reply and for all the great advice. I will leave off re-dosing and ring the vet about a multivit injection this morning.
We live in Central Scotland and apparantly liver fluke can be bad around here. Shame for the sheep that we didn't know that when we got them last year. But it's good to know there are knowledgeable and helpful people out there.
Thanks again.

[shep53]

I am also on the west coast of scotland with a known fluke problem and i treat 4 or 5 times each year  eg- aug  nov  jan  mar may depending on how warm and wet the winter i may do a 6th. I personaly dont use a combination product such as fasimec duo because every time i fluke i dont need to treat for worms

[JMB]

Thanks Shep 53. That's really useful to know as I was thinking of fluke treatment only 3 times a year. Books are useful, but local geographic knowledge is much better. And of course I've read there's the danger of dosing them too much and them becoming resistant, so I was probably going to be cautious.
My problem this time was that I was so busy checking for worms (which they don't have) that I overlooked fluke. By the time I knew it was fluke her face was swollen. I need to watch out for earlier signs in future, although to be honest I'm still not sure what they are.
Since treating someone else has also told me that it would be better to get a specific fluke treatment rather than a duo so I think that's the  way to go.
Thank you again for your advice. I'm going to give her some multivit for the next few days and hope for the best.

[shep53]

Sorry there are no early signs of fluke , loss of weight and aenemia and you are in trouble bottle jaw serious trouble . To stop resistance you should change flukecides eg- fasinex / flukeiver / trodax