[gadge]

Single ewe in the flock with wool loss.  No other symptoms showing on any other. No open wounds.

[landroverroy]

 If it's lice, and you part the fleece and look carefully, you should be able to see them moving about.
 I had them in a single old sheep some years ago, and you could clearly see the lice. I got rid of them by pouring diluted ivomec pour on along her back. I diluted it because I wanted loads on, to make sure it got all over, and I didn't want to overdose the sheep herself. It did the trick and she stopped scratching by the next day.

[BALLOCH]

Try Dectomax,single dose injection. Controls most worms, scab and lice in one go,but has a long 63 days withdrawal period. you can get single doses from your vet.

[Tim W]

Don't 'try' anything!

Take a skin scrape down to your vet who will identify the problem---then when you KNOW what the problem is you can take the right approach

[landroverroy]

Try Dectomax,single dose injection. Controls most worms, scab and lice in one go,but has a long 63 days withdrawal period. you can get single doses from your vet.

Yes Dectomax will certainly do the trick. But if it is scab then you would have to do the entire flock.
I agree also that a skin scraping should identify whether scab or lice. However, if you already have any ivomec, or permethrin from fly strike treatment (which will also kill lice) then, if it is lice, the sheep will have stopped itching by the time you get your skin scrapng results.

[Foobar]

Try Dectomax,single dose injection. Controls most worms, scab and lice in one go,but has a long 63 days withdrawal period. you can get single doses from your vet.

No it doesn't treat all lice, there are two types, biting and chewing.  There are already other threads on here discussing this.


Take a sample to your vet is the best bet, and cheapest in the long run. No point treating for something you don't have.

[fsmnutter]

As a vet, I would also advise checking out what it is, as it doesn't necessarily fit with a lot of things
Scab is usually quite infectious, and usually more oozy and crusty, but bugs don't always read the textbook!
I'm sure your vet will advise the same, but take a good pluck of wool from the edges of the bald bits, ripping out follicles if you can as lots of beasties live there. Take plenty, they can always pick and choose, the worst is having a tiny amount that doesn't give an answer. Scrapings are more difficult, but again we will scrape the skin (with a scalpel blade at an angle to the skin) until you can see small pinpricks of red, where the capillaries have broken, and it must  be at the edge of the sore bit - in the middle the bugs have often run away to the edges, so they can't be seen.
If she's not itching, (hard to tell from the photo whether it looks like she's scratched the wool off) there's a possibility that something has caused her to have a problem in that area, where the wool has stopped growing, but the original problem has healed, and you're only noticing now that the wool has broken away. If it's not bothering her, it may not be a problem, but probably best to check, in case there is something that needs treated.
Also worth noting is that in Scotland, if anyone has suspicion of scab, they MUST notify their vet, who will notify the correct authorities if scab is found. This is not like TB or the like, where culling etc will happen, just worth keeping on top of where the scab is going, as it can be treated reasonably easily. As an incentive, the labs often do free testing for scab, so please do speak to your vet about this.

[MarvinH]

what was the outcome?