[Pedwardine]

Hi all, one of our pregnant ewes was indavertently given a double dose of Hept 'P' this avo. Will it do her any harm? We spray everyone's head with a red blob as we dosed but obviously didn't give her a big enough blob and did her again. She's eating well enough, whereas some of our woolies aren't too chipper as can happen after vaccinations.

[colliewoman]

Well considering that if you had weeny Ouessant's they would have the same 2ml dose as Wensleydale or a Suffolk ram for example I reckon there must be a large safety margin as there is no 'ml per kg dose' just a 2ml for everyone.
I suspect all will be just fine

[pastie4x4]

  i had the same problem but i did ours 2 days ago and all seems fine 

[SallyintNorth]

Keep an eye on her, of course, but as CW says, the dose is the same for any size of sheep, so she should be absolutely fine.

[Pedwardine]

Cheers my lovelies. I do worry a stupid amount over my woolly monsters.

[jacob and Georgina]

We lost one of our ewes 3days after her first dose of heptavac and when speaking to a farmer he says that it is not uncommon for ewes to have an allergy to the vaccine??? Has anyone heard of this before?

[SheepCrazy!]

As to an allergy jacob and Georgina with Heptivac p I've experience one of my jacob ewe lambs being ill after her first heptivac at 6-8 weeks old and again when she had a booster jag in the winter. She was just listless, not coming forward to the trough and had her ears down. So she went off for meat better to be safe than sorry.

I also help with AI services in the Autumn and have witnessed allergies to the drug they use to knock the  ewes out on two separate occasions. Where the ewe collapses with rapid breathing but is fine in a few minutes

Hope that helps

[SallyintNorth]

Our vet describes Heptavac-P as 'hard on the ewes'.  As with any vaccine, it should not be given to animals which are under the weather.  If you've ever had yellow fever or typhoid jags yourself, you will be familiar with having a reaction to a vaccine, and some ewes will have a reaction to Hep-P, yes. But if they were healthy when jagged then they shouldn't die, no. Unfortunately, sheep are good at not showing signs of illness, so probably your ewe that died had some underlying problem, and the reaction to the vaccine was too much on top of that.   

[Blacksheep]

We had a set of triplets react badly to their first jab at 4 weeks old, we ended up taking 2 of them to the vets and they had something to bring their temperatures down,  they did recover and didn't react so badly to their 2nd primer jab, but the following year we lost 2 of them to enterotoxemia (within a day of each other, although one had been in a new home for 3 months, owned by a vet) which the vaccine should have protected them against.   We usually give the first jab when they are a little older now, athough when I spoke to the intervet vet she said we should be giving their first jab at 3 weeks old as colostrum only provides protection against pasturella for about 3 weeks and the lambs would be vulnerable to it after this time until they have vaccine cover.   

[SallyintNorth]

Our vet recommends using Ovivac-P for the lambs' first jab.  I have understood that to be because it hits their wee systems less hard than the whole Heptavac-P+ armoury whilst covering the things they are most likely to be at risk from in their first summer.

[Bionic]

Sally, do they then go on to Heptavac p for their second jab?

[Pedwardine]

You see I'm worried again now as one of our wethers, Dylan, who's a big strong lad but soft as butter, had some breathing difficulties after his Hept 'P' jab and Combinex drench. Breathing does sound better now but he's still not himself. He's usuallly such a waggy tailed boy and that tail hasn't moved since Saturday  . Darby, the ewe who was double dosed seems fine however.

[ScotsGirl]

I have re-done a couple of ewes and a goat when I am not sure if the needle has gone in or gun been working. So far no adverse reactions. Most drugs have a huge margin so unless there is an allergy I wouldn't worry .

[SallyintNorth]

Hep-P and triclabendazole and levamisole is one heck of a hit all in one, there will be the odd one takes a little while to get over it, especially if they had been carrying a worm and/or fluke burden.

Unless it's really difficult to gather and treat (such as a hill flock), it's advised to not combine any other treatments with the Hep-P, especially in pregnant ewes.  Mind, you have to balance the physiological stress of all the meds against the psychological stress of two gathers and treatments - which is a judgement each of us has to make in our own situation.

With our groups that are easy to gather and bring up to the sheep pens, we'd do all the de-worming, -flukeing and -lousing first, then a few days later any vaccines.  Gives the de-worming, -flukeing and -lousing meds time to do some good before hitting the sheep with the vaccines - which are most effective when given to fit healthy sheep.  But like everyone else, life isn't always like that, especially with the weather as it has been, and sometimes we have to combine treatments, and sometimes we end up vaccinating later than is ideal.

[kumquat]

Hep-P and triclabendazole and levamisole is one heck of a hit all in one

Bugger....did exactly the same last week  . To be fair they seem to be fine BUT i'll do them in two separate sessions next time.
Thanks Sally