Agri Vehicles Insurance from Greenlands

Author Topic: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help  (Read 9729 times)

sp435

  • Joined Jul 2012
Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« on: July 19, 2012, 05:27:12 am »
Hi All :

I'm currently working on vaginal prolapse research in sheep, which will ultimately lead to application in humans and I was wondering if you guys can help me out. Prolapse in sheep is multi-factorial and difficult to pin point. Our objective is to start analysis from ground up and come to the single most factor (along with what we already know) and provide an adequate explanation for the same.

It will be great to get some help from y'all.

Thanks :)

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2012, 07:20:27 am »
Sounds interesting, ask away!
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

SteveHants

  • Joined Aug 2011
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2012, 01:45:29 pm »
What you need is somebody with mules.......  :innocent:

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2012, 02:54:02 pm »
Well, we had 8 pre-lambing prolapses this year, Steve, and not one of them in a mule.  Although all of them were in ewes whose mums or grandmums were probably mules.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

feldar

  • Joined Apr 2011
  • lymington hampshire
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2012, 04:16:59 pm »
We only had one last lambing year and a full prolapse from a ewe we didn't expect tp prolapse.
The vaginal one was a " well covered " ewe who was 7 years old who has always lambed on her own before. We inserted a spoon and harness and when she lambed she was ok but we fostered the lambs because her milk didn't come down.
She; needless to say is no longer with us.
The full prolapse was a completely unexpected 2 shear ewe with no previous history of this problem and none in her background.
Hope that helps

jaykay

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Cumbria/N Yorks border
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2012, 04:22:38 pm »
You might want to contact the Rough Fell Sheep Breeders Association as prolapse is (becoming) quite an issue in Roughs.
 
I lost a beautiful shearling who didn't just prolapse, she lost the lamb bed, lambs and a great trail of her innards about a month before lambing and had to be shot where she'd fallen  :'(

And in the past four years had four others prolapse, one the daughter of a ewe who had also prolapsed both before and after lambing, as was the shearling above - lesson there!

Given I only had 20 breeding sheep this was a lot.

Some farmers will say its because you've over fed them but none of these had a condition score above 3, they carried both singles and twins. I think it can get bred in.
« Last Edit: July 19, 2012, 04:27:29 pm by jaykay »

SteveHants

  • Joined Aug 2011
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2012, 05:13:00 pm »
Well, we had 8 pre-lambing prolapses this year, Steve, and not one of them in a mule.  Although all of them were in ewes whose mums or grandmums were probably mules.

Of all the sheep I hear people moaning about for prolapse, mules seem to top the list. See also: needing assisting at lambing, teeth breaking and being greedy. I do believe they are very milky though....... I'm blaming BFL genes, apparently the average flock size of pure BFLs is 25. I've heard countless folk moaning abiut how their BFL tups love to die...

 
Can you tell I'm not a fan?  :P
« Last Edit: July 19, 2012, 05:15:21 pm by SteveHants »

jaykay

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Cumbria/N Yorks border
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2012, 05:28:40 pm »
I know it's not very scientific but BFLs just look weedy and 'delicate'.

SteveHants

  • Joined Aug 2011
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #8 on: July 19, 2012, 05:31:26 pm »
I know it's not very scientific but BFLs just look weedy and 'delicate'.

But don't they have bonny heads?..... ;D

jaykay

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Cumbria/N Yorks border
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #9 on: July 19, 2012, 05:44:37 pm »
Hmmmm  :D Interesting maybe. Bonny might be stretching it a bit  :D

Here's a bonny sheep  ;)
« Last Edit: July 19, 2012, 05:52:54 pm by jaykay »

Sbom

  • Joined Jul 2012
  • Staffordshire
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #10 on: July 19, 2012, 05:47:31 pm »
I lambed a flock of around 700 Welsh
Halfbreds for a number of years and they were very prone to prolapsing. Trouble was if they weren't attended to ASAP then they quite often chucked everything out, intestines an all, it was horrid. That said they were quite fat little things. On the plus side I'm now very capable of replacing and either stitching or harnessing them up in record time!

jaykay

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Cumbria/N Yorks border
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #11 on: July 19, 2012, 05:53:28 pm »
That's what happened to my shearling Rough Sbom. Awful  :o

VSS

  • Joined Jan 2009
  • Pen Llyn
    • Viable Self Sufficiency.co.uk
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #12 on: July 19, 2012, 06:10:48 pm »
I know it's not very scientific but BFLs just look weedy and 'delicate'.

They look like they have died and forgotten to fall over!
The SHEEP Book for Smallholders
Available from the Good Life Press

www.viableselfsufficiency.co.uk

Welshcob

  • Joined Jul 2012
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #13 on: July 19, 2012, 06:14:27 pm »
Hi sp435, welcome here! Good luck in your research, just out of curiosity where do you study/conduct it?

Are you a vet/vet nurse? If not, you could try and speak to them as they will have lots of experience - I'm not saying farmers/crofters/smallholders haven't (far from me!!), but it's just that a vet tends to see many more cases in one season than a breeder.

Having said that, I haven't thoroughly researched the topic myself but I remember during vet school and later in practice we were told that if a ewe prolapses it's not a good idea to keep her and lamb her again as she will tend to have the same problem again - and very likely to transmit the characteristic to every lamb she has.
We were told that the mother ewe should be culled and lambs not kept as breeders; daughters especially but tups too (as they transmit conformation as well), just fatten them up and eat them.

Very different from a cow. If a cow has a prolapse it's generally ok to calve her again, as after the prolapse has been reduced there will be formation of basically scar tissue and internal attachments between organs in the abdomen that will keep the uterus in place; however, I still wouldn't advise to keep her progeny as breeding stock.

Good luck!
 :wave:



Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Ewe Vaginal Prolapse Research - Need some help
« Reply #14 on: July 19, 2012, 06:22:35 pm »
Presumably you also want to know about breeds which don't seem to prolapse so much.  We have kept Hebrideans for 17 years and not seen a prolapse in them.  Our flock is small, varying between about 10 and 25 ewes.  The only thing approaching a prolapse - just a 'bulge' - was in an overweight Jacob ewe carrying triplets, in our first year of breeding, and hers.  We have not had a prolapse in our tiny flock of Soay either - numbering between 3 and 8 in different years - or in our Shetlands either. :thumbsup:
« Last Edit: July 19, 2012, 06:24:12 pm by Fleecewife »
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

 

Forum sponsors

FibreHut Energy Helpline Thomson & Morgan Time for Paws Scottish Smallholder & Grower Festival Ark Farm Livestock Movement Service

© The Accidental Smallholder Ltd 2003-2024. All rights reserved.

Design by Furness Internet

Site developed by Champion IS