This is the first chance all day I've had to post as the internet connection has been pants.
My lambs have had a tough time.
The story so far....
We've dealt with flystrike, mostly finding eggs but had one lamb with earlyish maggot infestion over the top of his tail(skin was pitted with activity)and down the inside of his left thigh. The flystrike was exasperated by our cock up of letting the grass run too low on the previous paddock resulting in a bit of a pig-out on the next one and having some runny bums which the flies loved. We trimmed bums, spraying fly and maggot killer as we did and used Clik pour-on. Astonishingly, the flies were STILL landing which we've never experienced before. I've read here on the forum that Clik isn't working well this year due to evaporation in the unusual heat. It's either that or the downpours have washed it off. Either way, trimmed, treated bums have had fresh eggs laid on them.
We were so focused on the flies that we missed some of the runs being caused by parasites. We HAD treated our lambs earlier with Vecoxan AGAINST Coccidiosis as we were cursed with it last year and never wanted them to suffer it again. We next wormed affected lambs (first worming) with both Dectomax and Depidex. Persistant problems after 24 hours were Vecoxan drenched. Still we have at least two very poorly bottoms on two with another possible three in the making (All treated as I've said). The two worst are very red with watery bloody issue. One is exceptionally lively and eating well, the other is thin and ribby and I'm quite frankly worried that he won't be alive every morning when I check. The others sound pained when they poo, and are just baaing 'not right' if you know what I mean.
Tomorrow I'm picking up some injectable treatment for possible Coccidiosis which is what the vet suspects. I'm taking fecal samples to be sure we're on the right track. Vet has also advised multivitamins (we've given Farmer's Choice tonic already)and probiotic feed as they'll be very lacking. She said something very interesting, that if I take poo produced by a healthy sheep and mash it up with some water, I can use that as a rumen stimulant. Weird stuff but apparently works. Better than trying to find yoghurt and the like I guess. I can NEVER find live yoghurt out here in the sticks.....
The slightly icky pic attached is of the livelier wether lamb. Apologies if you're having a very late supper.
What's your experience if any and your advice based on it?
Topic: My poorly lambs-botty pic attached! (Read 9755 times)
