[thenovice]

Got my 5 Wiltshire horn ladies on Wednesday, despite 1 of the tegs butting me up the backside whilst ear tagging! Looking at poo this evening (life is one big party!), and I came across 1 that had what looked like 1/4 to 1/2 inch strips of white tagliatelle in it, some with a pointy end. My initial thought was tapeworm, but what do you more experienced sheep folk think? It wouldn't be fluke would it? I know what you are going to say, but I didn't get chance to worm them, because of a rushed delivery in a break in the weather. Thanks all 

[colliewoman]

Sounds like tapeworm to me!

[supplies for smallholders]

Get an EPG carried out to identify what worms and the burdon the animal is carrying.

[thenovice]

You tryin to drum up business 

[Dans]

Won't be fluke. Does sound like tapeworm.

Dans

[supplies for smallholders]

You tryin to drum up business 

Not at all - I didnt say get one from us - Use your vet or any reputable source.

But what I AM saying is that diagnosis of what type of worm, and how many the animal is carrying cannot be done by people guessing with "Sounds Like" or "Could Be" or "Probably Is" It has to be done properly

Thanks

[thenovice]

I know 

[fsmnutter]

Hi there
As a vet, I also get quite excited looking at poo.
Most worms in the gut are roundworms, and generally all that passes out is eggs, which can only be seen with a microscope, unless a massive number of worms are killed and then you might see some worms pop out.
Tapeworms, however, reproduce by passing out small segments of worm that are full of eggs, and will wriggle to a clean spot on the field where someone else will eat them more than if they are in the middle of a poo!
Liver fluke will move around in the liver and tissues of the body until adults, and lay eggs again into the gut so as to be passed out, but these are also microscopic, and often need specialists to look for them.
We can look for roundworm eggs at the practice, but may or may not spot tapeworm, and always send away poo to look for fluke.
The fact that you're finding something would suggest to me that it would be best to take some poo to your vet, and discuss what worming you have done in the past and come up with a worming plan for the coming year, I can see it being a bad year with wet weather to start off with, and probably get nice and mild and wet for worms during the summer
Hope that helps.
Suzanne

[thenovice]

Thanks for the advice. Never done an egg count, so how do you get a good cross section of poo samples?

[SallyintNorth]

I'll be interested to hear what your vet says.

When we had the tagliatelle in our sheep's poo up on the moorland farm, our vet said it would be tapeworm and there was no point treating the sheep; the trick is to keep the dogs wormed as they would be the source of the tapeworms.

Now I've read up more, I think there are other possibilities - but on the balance of probabilities, on a remote moorland farm with working collie dogs, our vet was probably right.

Here, on the tourist trail, we can't control the poo of all the dogs our sheep will come into contact with, and most years we get one or two lab reports of 'tenuicious cysts' in lambs, which will be the result of tapeworms, most probably contracted from dog poo.

[fsmnutter]

Your vet will be able to give you more information about exactly what they want in terms of poo samples, but usually I would suggest picking up a small handful (a couple of teaspoonfuls or a really good pinch with all your fingers) into a glove (eg. latex or a lambing glove) from about 10 different poos.
Hope that helps
Suzanne

[verdifish]

Could i take 11 poo's to MY vet as i so hate even numbers???