[piggy]

This is my first years lambing so sorry to be a bit thick could someone explain to me about clostridial infection.

[jaykay]

clostridial diseases in sheep

Did you know to vaccinate the ewes pre-lambing with Heptvac, Bravoxin or similar.

Basically they're nasty bacteria that live in the soil, ie everywhere, and they make lethal toxins. Often the only clue it's gone wrong is a dead lamb/sheep  

[Roxy]

Sorry about your lamb.  At least you now know about vaccinating the ewes - and hopefully can prevent it happening again.  There is always something new for us all to learn when keeping livestock, isn't there?

[SallyintNorth]

This was the shock late lamb?  Well you wouldn't have known that you needed to boost mum's clostridial antibodies as you didn't know she was in lamb.

And none of us thought about it either - it might have been possible to vaccinate the lamb at a couple of weeks, I think.  Normally you would not vaccinate a suckling lamb as it should be getting its antibodies from mum but in the case of the ewe not having been vaccinated in the 12 weeks prior to lambing I think you can use the vaccine in the lamb.

So I am sorry that I didn't think about it either.  Hopefully all of us will have learned from your sad outcome.   

[piggy]

I still have the little lamb in my tack room would it be worth doing a pm to confirm,all the other ewes earlier in the year had there lambs and no problems at all.

[Nuffield]

Colloidal silver is a fantastic cure all if you think your lamb may be succombing to some sort of viral or bacterial infection.  You would simply add it to some milk and bottle feed the lamb.  Sometimes lambs on bottles get the scours and we have found here if we add colloidal silver the scours disappear quickly and lambs get back on track.  When I first heard about colloidal silver I thought it was some sort of hippy potion but if you research it, there is sound science behind the antimicrobial actions of silver based compounds.   Also great for humans.  Take it at the first sign of a viral infection.  We make our own.  Cheapest medical rememdy on the market.

[SallyintNorth]

Thanks Nuffield.  If you make your own - could you post the recipe?

[jaykay]

Piggy, if it were me I wouldn't do a PM, I'd bury it in a quiet corner somewhere (I didn't say that, but it was a pet of course  ) and chalk it up to experience 

Sally I don't know if vaccinating the lamb would have saved this one - I don't think it would have had chance to build up any immunity by 3 weeks old?

[Blinkers]

Awww, so sorry to hear about the lamb (and the row  ) Probably survival of the fitest and all that - Nature has a way of sifting the weaker ones out.   Look forward to next year when you'll be ready and waiting and pacing the floor waiting for those first lambs to appear AND you would have had the chance to understand about the vaccinating etc and feel excited, optimistic, scared, and DELIGHTED when they do finally appear.      Its all a learning curve.....and we NEVER stop learning. 

[SallyintNorth]

Sally I don't know if vaccinating the lamb would have saved this one - I don't think it would have had chance to build up any immunity by 3 weeks old?

Top marks that woman.  The earliest you can vaccinate is 2 weeks (Covexin - with Heptavac it's 3 weeks), it takes two weeks to develop any immunity - and full immunity requires a booster 4-6 weeks later.  So yes, given that the ewe could not have been vaccinated in the 8 weeks prior to lambing, there was no way of giving the lamb better clostridial protection for the first 4 weeks.

[marigold]

My neighbours - lifetime farmers - don't vaccinate. A lot of the decision as to whether to vaccinate or not is down to statistics and risk factors.
I am really sorry to hear about your lamb but I would not base your decisions about future processes on one lamb born out of season.
If the same lamb had been born to the same mother earlier in the year it could have been entirely different. It seems to me from the stories i hear from people who have been breeding for years loss is part of the big picture and we have to try and take it in our stride. (Seems to me that it doesn't hurt any less though)
 

[Nuffield]

www.silverlungs.com but there are other generators on the market.  Do your own research though?  Vaccinations are an interesting topic.  Personally from the data available for humans there are just as many risks in vaccinating as not, particularly now we have antibiotics, antivirals and potent natural cures like colloidal silver.  The question I have never had answered is if our governments are so concerned about the risks of flu pandemics and other infectious diseases, why are vaccines free yet to get an anti viral or antibiotic you need a prescription.  And don't tell me they are worried about resistance because in the livestock sector antiobiotics are sometimes included in feed rations.  Silver used to be registered by the US FDA in the early 1900s until the big pharmaceutical companies realised they could never compete against such a cheap and effective immunological defence.  There are no safety issues if you consume the right chemical form of silver (colloidal). Good luck.