[Canadian Sheepfarmer]

This explains it pretty well.
 
http://www.totallyvets.co.nz/sheep-measles.html
 
You have to have a pretty strong wormer, over here a vet prescription job.
The over the counter sort are largely a waste of time for this particular parasite.
 

[bigchicken]

I believe dear can also be involved in the life cycle of this parasite

[dyedinthewool]

We do have foxes and I suppose they 'may' have access to contaminated sheep carcasses as I'm surrounded by farms/smallholding that are mainly sheep orientated.  There are dogs on one close by not adjacent to me but they are very conscientious and I would think they worm all theirs on a regular basis. The same with any dead sheep from my closest neighbours I'm pretty sure they are disposed of in the correct manner.  But foxes travel over a wide area so I'm not sure of further afield.
 
We have only been here for three years and in that time having sold eleven of my own lambs and five I bought in to fatten I have not had this before.  Seem strange that I buy in a ram lamb and then sell him within two months and find that he has this gid cyst.  If I had kept him until next year, he might not have made it and just died in the field as the result of this gid,  I would have had a postmortem carried out and then I would have thought that he had picked it up from my fields and that would have been worse.
 
I will contact the mart to find out where he comes from and whether there are dogs on the farm and if the  farm has had anymore rejected.
 
Does anyone know if there is a way to trace the owner from the ear tag number... thought that was the reason for us all to ear tag our sheep so they can be traced back or is it only DEFRA that can do that.
 
Thanks to all of you who have contributed to this post, it's certainly been a steep learning curve and I urge anyone out there that do have dogs to make sure they are wormed on a regular basis and confined to the yard while the wormer is doing it's job so that nothing contaminates your ground.

[mart2671]

You cant get details of ear tags have tried when a roge ewe appeared on my holding . All info is kept by your local Trading Standards Office , you could try but mine wouldnt tell me due to many reasons .

[SallyintNorth]

Good point DITW - your ram didn't have time to develop the 'measles' in his flesh on your holding, he must have arrived well infected.

You could try to get the info about his origins from the mart where you bought him, they will certainly know who brought him to them.

[lachlanandmarcus]

It might be worth contacting Trading standards, altho they wont give out any specific  info when we had a rogue wandering sheep appear in our flock they did do a bit of research and came back with whose they thought it might be (it was too!). Also bear in mind the tag could be from a number of farms back - if it is from the birth holding, it could have gone through a number of farms/owners since then. Dont talk to be about tags and traceability grrr.
However since it isnt a notifiable disease and doesnt involve a straying (in theory unauthorised movement) they might not be able to/willing to help.

[Penninehillbilly]

Hi
just wondering if anyone can advise me as well.
I have a lamb tlting it's head to one side, seems healthy otherwise, we were pointed to a website which indicated ear infection, been tilting its head about 2 weeks now
It had alamycin last week, 2 jabs of Strep + Pen(?) of a 3 jab course this week, but actually seems worse today. almost falling over, but that could have been exitement at bottle time, may also be getting a bit weaker if not eating just as much as she should.
I have started wonderng about Gid, but lambs were new off farm in July, and kept inside till a couple of months ago, so the only way they could have picked something up was via hay. can the eggs survive in hay and is the lamb old enough (born July) to have developed a brain cyst to cause the problem?
 

[Blinkers]

Hi
just wondering if anyone can advise me as well.
I have a lamb tlting it's head to one side, seems healthy otherwise, we were pointed to a website which indicated ear infection, been tilting its head about 2 weeks now
It had alamycin last week, 2 jabs of Strep + Pen(?) of a 3 jab course this week, but actually seems worse today. almost falling over, but that could have been exitement at bottle time, may also be getting a bit weaker if not eating just as much as she should.
I have started wonderng about Gid, but lambs were new off farm in July, and kept inside till a couple of months ago, so the only way they could have picked something up was via hay. can the eggs survive in hay and is the lamb old enough (born July) to have developed a brain cyst to cause the problem?

Its not going round in circles is it ?

[Anke]

An ear infection could be quite slow to clear and from what  know of human ear infection can be extremely painful...., making eating/chewing not much fun
I don't think you can pick up any kind of worm from hay, but maybe someone else knows.
S/he may just need a bit of TLC and individual feeding?

[Penninehillbilly]

No she's not going round in circles. but does seem to lose her balance slightly, but presume that is because of her head tilting, or the 'giroscope' is affected by the inner ear infection.
I do bring her out of the pen so she eats her concentrates in peace, (which she wolfs down quite happily) because I noticed the bigger one swung her body across and pinned little one in corner so she couldn't get to the feeder. but with only 2 lambs that are used to being together I think the big one would be out if I tried separating them. (Big one is a bit lively, she scrambled over the pen door this morning when I wasn't quick enough with her bottle!)
I did wonder (hope?) that infection was just taking time to clear. Now I'm just hoping it happens soon.
Struggling to find the Vit B injection someone suggested, I could buy it off the internet but hoped I coud buy locally for speed, I would have been quicker ordering it!

[SallyintNorth]

It was me suggested the BVits, in case it's CCN.  We get CombiVit off our vet - if you don't want a whole bottle, I would have thought the vet would sell you a couple of syringes full.

(We give CombiVit to ewes who have a hard time lambing, so always buy a bottle as it will get used up here.)

[Penninehillbilly]

Thanks Sally, I should have gone back to the other post.
I've tried everywhere to buy either comb or intravit, finally called the vet who grudgingly sold me 2ml - £6.95!!! She kept insisting it was unlikely to be an ear infection. OH picked it up so I don't know which it is - reddish coloured?
A bottle on the internet is about £15.00 delivered.
Is this something worth getting and keeping in, will the lamb do better with another dose? and what other uses does it have? I suppose 3 jabs and it would have paid for itself!
I only have the 2  lambs and 6 goats, the Alamycin I bought is probably now out of date, though I've been told it will be just weaker.
Thanks for the advice 
 

[SallyintNorth]

Hmmm, not very impressed at that markup.

If I suspect CCN I give the maximum dose of BVits for each of 3 days - so yes, given your vet's charges, you would've been better to have bought a bottle. 

It's a good, though not cheap, general boost in the case of any illness, and we also give a shot to any ewe who has had a difficult lambing.  But with just 2 lambs you may not use up a whole bottle very quickly.  Vitamins tend to have an expiry date within 12 months, and in this case they can be a lot less effective after that date, too.

The other thing I'd do in your case, but your vet maybe won't play ball, is to try to buy an opened part-used bottle from the vet at a pro-rata price. 

Good luck 

[Penninehillbilly]

Thanks Sally
Actually looking at the syringe again I realised it was just 1ml !!!!!!! fairly disgusted to say the least.
I'm going to order some today, if some more jabs may help that's what she'll get, but not at £7 each!
To be honest she had a bad start and has always been small, so I can't really justify vets fees, relying on farmer friend she came from. (I have offered to pay but they refused, we help them sometimes anyway).
Looking at the webpage you pointed me to I see it's a 5 day course of penicillin, I'll have to get some more off my farmer, daren't try the vet for that. I am sure it is the Verbascular disease, not circling but falls over when excited or stressed.
Sorry to hijack your thread DITW, I realise this doesn't help you, but others who are looking for similar info may recognise the alternative symptoms.

[Welshcob]

Looking at the webpage you pointed me to I see it's a 5 day course of penicillin, I'll have to get some more off my farmer, daren't try the vet for that.

I'm sure it happens here and there to swap antibiotics between neighbours but it's actually not a good idea. Quite bad in fact. Every livestock keeper is supposed to keep a book of medications where all meds on the premises are recorded, including doses and dates of who got what. Giving antibiotics to another animal keeper is bad practice and difficult to explain in the book in case of checks. Especially in the current situation of antibiotic resistance, checks are likely to become more frequent.

Careful