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Author Topic: worming lambs  (Read 4141 times)

kelly58

  • Joined Mar 2013
  • Highlands, Scotland
  • Home is were my animals are.
worming lambs
« on: May 05, 2014, 06:41:56 pm »
When can l  worm my lambs, what age is best ?  :thinking:

Tim W

  • Joined Aug 2013
Re: worming lambs
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2014, 10:24:35 pm »
When they need it---do a FEC and treat according to results

ladyK

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Conwy Valley
Re: worming lambs
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2014, 10:30:35 pm »
And what age is the best time to start with regular FECs?
"If one way is better than another, it is the way of nature." (Aristotle)

Tim W

  • Joined Aug 2013
Re: worming lambs
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2014, 10:56:19 pm »
I generally start doing mob samples at about 5 or 6 weeks old---but in a wet /warm period if the lambs are eating lots of forage it may pay to start earlier?

I actually do mob counts on the ewes before lambing and then every 2 weeks after lambing as I want to build up a picture of worm levels. I can then track these for various farms over the years ---but I guess I'm just a bit of a sheep nerd  ::)

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: worming lambs
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2014, 07:23:07 am »
We worm ours with a combined fluke treatment end of May/Early June as fluke is a problem where we are and it should then cover them until slaughter. Done this for past 2 yrs and it's worked fairly well.

Slimjim

  • Joined Apr 2013
  • North Devon
Re: worming lambs
« Reply #5 on: May 06, 2014, 07:32:54 am »
 But how old are they by then, Twizzel?

twizzel

  • Joined Apr 2012
Re: worming lambs
« Reply #6 on: May 06, 2014, 10:42:07 am »
3 1/2-4mths old roughly.

Backinwellies

  • Global Moderator
  • Joined Sep 2012
  • Llandeilo Carmarthenshire
    • Nantygroes
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Re: worming lambs
« Reply #7 on: May 06, 2014, 12:45:56 pm »
I generally start doing mob samples at about 5 or 6 weeks old---but in a wet /warm period if the lambs are eating lots of forage it may pay to start earlier?

I actually do mob counts on the ewes before lambing and then every 2 weeks after lambing as I want to build up a picture of worm levels. I can then track these for various farms over the years ---but I guess I'm just a bit of a sheep nerd  ::)

I totally agree with the reasoning behind this Tim ... (and have done FEC on ewes so know I have a resistance problem on this smallholding) but economics of doing all those FEC samples when you only have a few sheep is questionable against cost of wormer.
Linda

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Foobar

  • Joined Mar 2012
  • South Wales
Re: worming lambs
« Reply #8 on: May 06, 2014, 12:55:20 pm »
FECs aren't going to help at this time of year with Nematodirus either.


If you can do FECs for the first year at least, then you know what you are dealing with, and will have a better idea of what to do for the following years.  And you can do FECs yourself - Tim should do a master class on it for us all ;).

Marches Farmer

  • Joined Dec 2012
  • Herefordshire
Re: worming lambs
« Reply #9 on: May 06, 2014, 02:47:54 pm »
Nematodirus can become a problem well before anything shows up in a FEC.  We stock to SCOPS guidelines on things like switching wormer groups and keeping ewe doses to a minimum but wouldn't care to risk the lamb's health by waiting for FEC counts to reach a high level.

 

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