[bazzais]

I have some of last years rams lambs and today they managed to get onto the headland about a km away where there is lots of low lying gorse and ponies grazing in the SSI.

At least 3 out of the 30 have got really swollen faces, eyes almost closed, cheeks, and their ears are really fat too.  I am hoping its not some strange disease that I have never encountered before and its just maybe where they have been pricked by the gorse or something.

Has anyone got any ideas before I ask the vet tomoz.  They are feeding well and followed the rest of the troop home ok after I went on the reconnaissance mission to collect them.  One of them is particularly bad, poor bastards ears normally stand up but today they were flooping by his chin and you can see the swolleness in his ears as the tag is so tight for him.  If it was just him I may have though about a bite or something from a adder - but there are 2 others that are roughly the same but not as bad.

Any ideas please?

[jaykay]

It sounds like an allergy. To what, I don't know.
I don't know either what would happen if you gave sheep an antihistamine....
Will go and do some finding out

Edited - found one reference to someone's sheep being treated with Benadryl and being ok several days later. Not much of a recommendation I know.

[Anke]

Can't find anything in my books about this... but would like to know what the vet says if you need to speak to him, of they are not better/nack to normal tomorrow morning. But it does sound like an allergic reaction to me...

Let's hope they are ok by tomorrow.

[Mammyshaz]

Also sounds like allergic reaction to me. Causes can be hard to detect sometimes.

In people and pets the swelling should subside within 24 hours but it is advised to monitor breathing for airway swelling certainly for the first few hours, once the swelling is reducing, risk of breathing difficulty greatly reduces.  An antihistamine often helps with the swelling

In sheep  Antihistamines ?

Sorry,  wish I had more medical knowledge of farmed animals.

[bazzais]

Going to go check the bastards now when on the milky milky run.

When I saw the first one I though he had been in a fight with mike tyson - not sure what they have eaten but its not been something they have encountered before.

Little bastards have an escape route somewhere, I managed to round up 30 or so of them and the rest just went the other side of the gate and wouldnt follow the quad through the footpaths - then by the time I had got home the other had beaten me there and were waiting.

They must have had a loverly time grazing out on the headland with the ponies sunbathing while I missed the F1 quals sweating my arse off looking over the cliffs thinking they were on a leeming mission.

Still it wasnt wasted as there was one stuck in the brambles - well stuck untill I got 3 feet away then somehow managed to get superpowers and run off with have the bramble bush stuck to his neck and arse resulting in a lot of rolling around down a hill getting scratched to f***.

I wish the hedges would start to grow so they cant see the frickin gaps.

Still at least it wanst the lambies escaping - though they probably have but at least they have a few field either side and not a 500ft cliff.

Frickin sheep - all I wanted was a nice break to watch some random cars go round and round a track.

Gona be a good race F1 tomorrow - hopefully no marters throwing themselves infront of cars ;-/

[Mammyshaz]

Qualifying:-

1vettel
2hamilton
3webber
4button

Well someone on here has to be an avid f1  supporter while all u hardworking farmers/smallholders are checking the stock 

[Moleskins]

Bee or wasp stings I had one like it once and I'm convinced it was a bee sting, vet said not but so far with me it's dead sheep 3 Vets 0

[Fleecewife]

Moleskins - just what I was thinking, but isn't it a bit early for wasps and bees, at least to be aggressive?  I also wondered about ants, if the lads stuck their faces into an anthill?  You would still see some stuck in the fleece.
In a way though it's irrelevant what caused it as the treatment would be the same - antihistamines or their sheepish equivalent.
Let us know what happens baz 

[Moleskins]

Fleecewife, not too early for either, Queen wasps will have started to make nests last month and with all that warm weather will have got on quite well. There's a possibility they've come across a honey bee colony in the wild, and there's lots of bumble bees about. Any time is aggression time for all 3 if they are disturbed, even accidentally.

[Fleecewife]

Bees seem the most likely culprit then, do you think? 

[Mammyshaz]

Bazzais, how are the lads doing this morning, swellings going down yet??

[colliewoman]

Bit early probably, but have they eaten any rape whilst out on their adventure?
Rape can cause photosensitive reactions, they treatment is to get them in a darkened shed/box and give antibiotics to prevent secondary infection.
Good luck x

[Fleecewife]

Oh and another plant which can cause that kind of photosensitive reaction is giant hogweed - is there any of that around?

[dmoran]

Going to go check the bastards now when on the milky milky run.

When I saw the first one I though he had been in a fight with mike tyson - not sure what they have eaten but its not been something they have encountered before.......

Bazzais: I have no idea what is wrong with your rams but your post is one of the funniest I have read in a long time, I have just been sitting here crying reading it.  Good luck with sorting your rams out!

[robert waddell]

not a mention of DE resta is that because he is Scottish