Author Topic: wool coming away from one of my herdwicks ! (Read 6300 times)

andywalt · « **on:** April 20, 2012, 09:33:19 pm »

could I please ask someone with herdwicks to look at the photos, there were some long tuffs of wool coming away, so i took a closer look and all her fleece started coming away....not fly strike, someone has mentioned lice ! but the underneath is all nice new short fleece with like specks of dandruff (not living things) does anyone know that if this could be the result of the warmer weather a few weeks ago and she is just sheding fleece or that she might have lice? i have put crovect on as a precaution.

any advice is appreciated

thanks andy

woollyval · « **Reply #1 on:** April 20, 2012, 09:44:59 pm »

I don't breed herdwicks but to me that looks like wool break....thats the new fleece underneath. Can have a lot of causes but i wouldn't worry unless itching a lot when i'd suspect lice

lachlanandmarcus · « **Reply #2 on:** April 20, 2012, 09:57:29 pm »

agree it could also just be down to a stress of some kind, one of mine shed most of her fleece before her first lambing and she def didnt have lice at all. It all grew back (and it took very little time to shear her that year!). She didnt do it the next year or this year.

feldar · « **Reply #3 on:** April 20, 2012, 11:17:42 pm »

Yep we have a couple like that this year. One looks like she's wearing lace curtains at the moment. Can't catch the darn thing to shear her off!! and she was a ewe who slipped a lamb this year so we put it down to stress. Wool is coming underneath to replace what she's loosing so we're not too worried

jaykay · « **Reply #4 on:** April 21, 2012, 07:34:36 am »

It happened to our Herdies the first year we had them. They all did this and I had a complete panic that we had brought sheep scab into the dale and would be ostracised before we'd been accepted

Fortunately my Dad came and looked at them and said it wasn't scab.

Later we realised it was just that they'd been on hard pickings high up on the fell and then come to us where they'd been better looked after. The fleece suddenly grew and broke. It didn't happen again quite so spectacularly after that first year

andywalt · « **Reply #5 on:** April 21, 2012, 09:35:55 am »

thanks for all your experiances, today i will catch the two and see if i can sheer them, i suppose that the healthy fleece underneath is the sign of wool break, if it was lice would we be looking at sore skin where they rub them selves?

Remy · « **Reply #6 on:** April 21, 2012, 10:10:28 am »

It also happened to my two ewe lambs (Gotland and Zwartbles) who were very ill with a worm burden earlier in the year, they both completely shed their fleece to leave a beautiful new coat! One of them still has a fleece ruff round her neck which still hasn't come off

The scurfy bit you describe is just that, scurf. If it was lice you would see them moving

andywalt · « **Reply #7 on:** April 21, 2012, 06:24:40 pm »

I sheared her this afternoon, you were all right, wool break, all healthy, no sigh of lice, but i am so surprised how much wool these herdwicks have got ! not much sheep left !!

FiB · « **Reply #8 on:** April 21, 2012, 07:30:09 pm »

Biting lice do look like specs of dandruf (I thought they were tine bits of lanolin) - on very close inspection they are a little bit oval and do move (very slowly). The ones I was shown (by vet) were buff coloured specs to naked eye - but unbelievably freocious looking under microscope!. My affected sheep look like they have been beautifully sheared in parts (one looks like a poodle) - perfect short wool coat underneath, no broken skin - but they were itching themselves on posts (in fact, still are so not sure the 'spot on hav been entirely sccessful, or else they have picked up more). Not Herdwicks though. Good luck, Fi

jaykay · « **Reply #9 on:** April 21, 2012, 08:50:08 pm »

Quote

am so surprised how much wool these herdwicks have got ! not much sheep left !!

true dat

dyedinthewool · « **Reply #10 on:** April 21, 2012, 09:41:12 pm »

Mine looks like the 'should have gone to specsavers ad...

I give her a scratch and pull some of it out as it's too cold still here at nights to shear (we had a frost this morning and the wind is very cold).

Herdygirl · « **Reply #11 on:** April 21, 2012, 10:06:34 pm »

ALL our herdwicks looked like welfare cases this time last year, after 12 months of good care only a couple look raggedy at the moment. we have been turning out after doing feet, worming and pour on down the spine just in case of lice, but this year it does look like wool break.

we are half way through lambing only 14 mums to go, 23 born no losses................keeping fingers crossed

andywalt · « **Reply #12 on:** April 22, 2012, 12:19:40 pm »

well done herdy girl sounds exciting, i wish i could have a farm and do it for a living but down here its 10k per achre minimum !! im lucky i have pockets of land i can lease for small amounts