[ladyK]

To my great horror I found my twin Soay ewe lambs (only born on Monday) flystruck this afternoon...
Everything was fine this morning, lunchtime OH noticed noisy ewe in the hedge but forgot to tell me 
It was about 4pm when I checked them, lambs hiding in hedge , mum 'clucking' around them in a very concerned tone. Once close I saw the flies immediately, and the maggots wriggling once I grabbed the first lamb (YIKES! - my first time with everything, lamb and maggots...) Patches of wriggling maggots on her rump, one patch wet, and loads and loads and loads of egg clusters.
Took her to the bathroom... sprayed with Barrier blowfly spray (non chemical) which erupted maggot patches into wriggling hell, then washed it all down with warm water, then clipped the rump as close as I could (not that much wool on her yet) cleaning out maggos and eggs as I went. Cleaned egg sized patch of raw skin (looked grey rather than red so hope it's broken skin not flesh yet?), another wash with dog's neem oil shampoo, then doused her in the repellent again. She had a few hard caked bits of feaces on her tail and legs, tried to clip those off as well as I could but many bits were so hard and so close to the skin it was really hard to clip. Then returned to mum - then the same procedure with the other twin (this one no wet patch or broken skin, just loads of eggs and maggots wriggling).
Will be checking them a lot more closely now. Though I always had a 'general eye' out for flies all the time, and their mum seemed to be the only ewe so far that attracted flies to her slimy bum after birth (as mentioned in other post - I caught her and doused in repellent, no flies seen near her since - should I be checking her more thoroughly??) - so much for genetic predisposal on fly strike...

The questions that will keep me up at night:
Anything I done wrong?
Anything I missed?
Anything else I should be doing besides checking even more? (surely hard chemicals should not be applied to tiny lambs? I think Crovect stipulates a min weight of 12.5 kg)
Should I douse all lambs in repellent?
What should I look for - if I can't see flies buzzing or signs of discomfort externally could there still be maggots under the fleece?

Grateful as ever for you advice!

[Pedwardine]

Jeez how awful. That's REALLY young! I'm sure these bloody blowflies are getting worse each year. All happens so quickly doesn't it? Sounds like you've done a pretty thorough job. I certainly wouldn't be happy putting Crovect on such a baby but see what other, more experienced people say. Good luck.

[Fleecewife]

<<... so much for genetic predisposal on fly strike...>>

    Soay get fly strike just as much as any other breed, especially the 50% which have a tendency to sticky bums.  I so wish there wasn't this misinformation doing the rounds about primitives.

I wouldn't apply Crovect until the lambs are at least a month old, and then sparingly around the tail area only.
Meantime check every day until you are sure they are maggot-free.  Search right down to skin level all over them as new tiny maggots can be hard to find.  Check over the mother too, as she may well have some.

The flies and maggots are disgusting as you've found, as once one fly has laid on an animal, all its chums will come to add to the party, until the animal is dead.  Well done for removing them all so thoroughly.

You may want/need to apply a soothing cream such as Sudocrem to the affected area if the skin is damaged.  It's possible they will need an antibiotic - in fact after that degree of strike I think they will.  Watch them carefully for adverse effects.

[plumseverywhere]

Would battles maggot oil be ok on them Fleecewife?     I know I got away with using just this last year on a struck wether (it soothed and got shot of the wiggly little beasties and seemed to have an element of deterrant too)

[ladyK]

Lambs seem fine this morning, lively and apparently unaffected by their ordeal. 
Will be keeping a very close eye on them for now, and check them over again later.

FW - with 'genetic predisposal' I wasn't referring to Soay genes generally, but to the fact that sure enough it's the one ewe who attracted flies after birth that has the only lambs affected by flies, and both of them too.
The other lambs had mucky bums for the first few days too, and ewes had slimy backsides too but no flies attacked them...

[Bionic]

Nature can be so cruel at times.
I am so pleased that both lambs seem to be ok LadyK. 
I had a lamb struck last year but at least she was 6 months old. I was horrified to find the maggots and her skin was broken in several places. She had clik applied earlier on but by Oct it had worn off and I thought the risk was over 
After getting as many of the nasties off as I could find I put crovect on her to get rid of anything else. It worked really well, and apart from looking awful where I cut her fleece back and the sores were, she seemed to be pretty unaffected.
I clik'd this years lambs a couple of weeks ago as they weighed the minimum 10k, but the local farmer was surprised I had done it so early. It means I will probably do them again later this year to risk a repeat of last Oct.

[in the hills]

OMG - so sorry LadyK. The thought of strike horrifies me and I'm really scared I might miss it or won't be able to catch one of my girls if they are struck. Our Soay have never been struck (had them about 4 yrs) but when we went to collect our girls the breeder had a lamb that had been stuck in a fence and had been struck. It looked awful.

Have you put the ewe and lambs in a pen?  ...... so you can catch them if you need to check them out. Can't catch some of our lambs by a few days old even with children and OH helping.  you won't need to though.

[Fleecewife]

Would battles maggot oil be ok on them Fleecewife?     I know I got away with using just this last year on a struck wether (it soothed and got shot of the wiggly little beasties and seemed to have an element of deterrant too)

Hi Plums
Sorry but I've never used Battles maggot oil - always makes me think of snake oil  so I know nothing about it.  I'm all for avoiding harmful chemicals where possible, as long as the animals still get the best care.  When you have only a few sheep it is far easier to keep a close eye on them and not have to rely on the chemical option. Do you know what the active ingredients are in maggot oil?

[Fleecewife]

Lambs seem fine this morning, lively and apparently unaffected by their ordeal. 
Will be keeping a very close eye on them for now, and check them over again later.

FW - with 'genetic predisposal' I wasn't referring to Soay genes generally, but to the fact that sure enough it's the one ewe who attracted flies after birth that has the only lambs affected by flies, and both of them too.
The other lambs had mucky bums for the first few days too, and ewes had slimy backsides too but no flies attacked them...

I'm so glad the lambs are full of beans this morning - your treatment yesterday was clearly good.

I see what you mean, but I think it's more likely that the ewe having been struck meant that her lambs perhaps carried the smell on them so would be targeted by more flies.  It sounds as if the maggots had hatched a few days previously.  It's definitely worth watching both this ewe and her lambs for a tendency to be the one who gets struck in future years.

[Meh!]

Hi, my pet ewe  ( one of 4 pets) first got fly strike 3 years ago, this is my first wee flock and just learning so I was virtually sick when I saw the wriggling mass. unfortunately by the time I knew what it was it was fretty bad and a wound about 2 adult hand sizes, really nasty. I didn't have crovect but a neighbour vet told me to rinse thoroughly with dilute savlon, not detoll because that stings,but savlon does the same without hurting apparently.Well you should have seen the little critters jump ship. The wound healed a treat, and the strike was completely eradicated. I used crovect the following year and she still got struck. I cured it with savlon again, crovect seems to have done the trick this year. I would be interested to know if anyone else has used savlon.

[Hellybee]

We ve had one struck lamb, he's now recovering, all lambs going to be crovected today. 


My biggest concern when touching the sheep in this weather be they big or small is that they will sweat where they ve been touched, as well as when they have damp bums, it's a horrible thing, hope your bubs continue to mend xx

[plumseverywhere]

Would battles maggot oil be ok on them Fleecewife?     I know I got away with using just this last year on a struck wether (it soothed and got shot of the wiggly little beasties and seemed to have an element of deterrant too)

Hi Plums
Sorry but I've never used Battles maggot oil - always makes me think of snake oil  so I know nothing about it.  I'm all for avoiding harmful chemicals where possible, as long as the animals still get the best care.  When you have only a few sheep it is far easier to keep a close eye on them and not have to rely on the chemical option. Do you know what the active ingredients are in maggot oil?

I don't unfortunately, I can't find it online and I've run out - It smells of lemons though so probably essential oils like lemongrass?  not sure.  I've used crovect on all of mine this year as we started to get a lot of interest from blowflies a few weeks back.

[Bionic]

I've read that the active ingredient is citronella

[jaykay]

It's P-menthane-3,8-diol.

Comes from some sorts of eucalyptus trees.

Has some antiseptic and insect-repellent properties, poisonous to some aquatic beasties.

[Marches Farmer]

If the maggots are entering the skin they've chomped through the muck and are several days old.  Citronella oil, on unbroken skin, can mask most smells but will need to be reapplied if they get wet.  Most lambs have some muck around their backsides at some point over the first couple of weeks, which is why lambing in March/April is a good idea - the flies haven't usually got going that early and it gives the muck a chance to firm up because they're eating a fair amount of grass by the time they do.