[dontworkclimb]

I am hearing different thoughts on when to first vaccinate lambs. We have four lambs -ewes were heptavac'd boostered prior to lambing (which we were kindly given by farmer doing his flock at time) We think it is time to vacc the lambs but some conflict as to whether lambs are done prior to weaning/at weaning or not unless sold on-can anyone give me an idea? Obviously with only a few to do-I try to buy in alongside other breeders.

[suziequeue]

We vaccinate when our lambs are four weeks old - as per the instructions on the bottle - well before weaning. We give a second shot four weeks after that.

I'd never forgive myself if one of the lambs died from a vaccine preventable condition after the age of four weeks.

[in the hills]

Not an expert here, someone else will probably be along soon.

We did our lambs last weekend. The youngest were just over 3 weeks old and the oldest about 6 weeks. Our sheep mentor (years of experience farming up here) said that if they were his he would want to get the oldest ones done by then and not risk losing them .... so we followed his advice. Bottle instructions were not to be used at under 3 weeks. Was a bit worried but they all seemed okay.

Dont really understand ..... not doing unless sold on ..... because surely they can still get ill if you keep them 

You read so many different things that it does get a bit baffling.

[LOCHBYRE]

Same here jag at roughly 4 weeks, try to tie them into say 2 lots for jagging as I tend to lamb over about a month so I can't jag every lamb at exactly 4 weeks or I'd have to buy loads of bottles of heptavac    

[SallyintNorth]

Dont really understand ..... not doing unless sold on ..... because surely they can still get ill if you keep them 

I'm guessing the reasoning is something along these lines:

• They'll be acclimatised to your local bugs, meeting one they haven't met before at a new home could kill them
• No-one wants to sell stock that drops dead within days

[Rosemary]

Passive immunity from the ewe is supposed to last three weeks, so we do ours when the youngest is three to four weeks old; by then the eldest is 6/7 weeks, but it's the best I can do given the nature of the vaccine.

[SteveHants]

Its quite dry round here and you don't tend to get outbreaks of colostridial diseases until autumn (according to my vet) so I tend to be happy to wait till weaning.

I've never had an outbreak yet.

[plt102]

Our tup seems to have been very slow in getting around all our girlies.

Our oldest lambs are now 6 weeks old and we still have 3 ewes to lamb. Can we keep the bottle in the fridge for a few weeks until the (hopefully) soon to appear lambs are 3 weeks old? We would do the 2 oldest and then hopefully all the others at the same time that we give the oldest their boosters.

Advice gratefully received

[Anke]

Our tup seems to have been very slow in getting around all our girlies.

Our oldest lambs are now 6 weeks old and we still have 3 ewes to lamb. Can we keep the bottle in the fridge for a few weeks until the (hopefully) soon to appear lambs are 3 weeks old? We would do the 2 oldest and then hopefully all the others at the same time that we give the oldest their boosters.

Advice gratefully received

If you make sure to use a sterile needle into the bottle, then take the syringe minus the needle out (leave the needle in the bottle), use a fresh needle to go into the sheep, then you can do a few, then, re-seal the bottle with tape and store in the fridge. same again next time, just make sure your needles that go into the bottle are always sterile and keep the vaccine quite cool/store in fridge. Works fine for only a few sheep..

[suziequeue]

I totally gree Anke. I use a fresh sterile needle for each sheep. The people in the agri shop looked at me like I'd gone out when I asked how to dispose of the sharps box. I guess I'll take it to the vet when it's full.

[plt102]

Thanks - I'll get the oldest ones done at the weekend then and then wait for the other lambs to appear xx