[Bionic]

According to Tim Tynes book I should be giving my sheep a fluke drench.  I haven't done anything like this before so are there any recommendations on a drench?
Tips on doing it would also be gratefully received.
thanks
Sally

[in the hills]

I think you can either have a wormer combined with fluker (if that's what you call it  ) or just fluker. Mine were done in Sept. time with a dual wormer/fluker ( think it was Combinex) and again with a purely fluke drench before going to the tup in November ...... as they didn't need worming again. Our ground is wet in places so thought it best to do the fluke again rather than have to handle them when just served and tup in there to complicate things.


Our vet advises us about what is best to use and will also dispense the small quantities needed for our little flock. Think different fluke drenches catch the fluke at different stages of life cycle. Vet said the Nov. fluker he gave us would catch anything missed by the Combinex ..... to do with age of parasite. Just given as the worming drench.


Sure someone with more know-how will be along soon. 

[Bionic]

thanks ITH that was useful info.  I had spoken to my vet when I first got the girls earlier this year. Luckily Karen had just wormed them when I got them. Vets advice then was not to worm again but to get a poo sample done in the spring.
I will ring them tomorrow and ask about fluke drench.
Sally

[Dans]

Hi Sally,

Yep you're right ITH, different drugs target at different stages. The two main ones are Triclabendazole based drugs and closantel based drugs (although there are others). Triclabendazole kills the very young fluke, so it is a better drug to go with as long as you don't have resistant fluke on your land. There are cases of triclabendazole resistance in the UK but without knowing your particular fluke it is still a better drug than the closantel based ones which doesn't kill the young fluke.

If they aren't needing a new dose of wormer then go with just a flukicide. If this is your first time fluking I'd suggest you do a FEC before you dose them and then one 3 weeks after. Your vet will be able to do a faecal egg count reduction test on this, which will tell you if your flukicide is working.

Hope that helps

Dans    because she can finally contribute on something :-D

[smee2012]

I'm trying to get hold of flukicide for my four sheep but the vet hasn't got any and apparently there's a national shortage because of the awful weather we've had this year. We don't have many sheep farmers round our way so I'm having to work my way through them to find someone who can spare me four doses!

[Bionic]

Smee I only need 5 doses too so will be in a similar position 
Sally