[mab]

Hi folks,

According to one of my books, an ewe is underweight if you can feel the individual vertebrae on her back. One of my ewe's vertebrae are quite prominent.

she seems healthy - solid stools, perky, lots of energy, and I think she's eating well - she's still unimpressed with the hay and carrots even though the grass is disappearing under snow - she seems to prefer the ivy.

she's ~7 years old (the other two are 18 months) and according to her previous owner was wormed/bluetongue vaccinated last April. I'm fairly sure she's not pregnant.

I talked to my local feed supplier and he's getting in some sheep mix for me (in addition to the ewe nuts I'm giving them).

I have some newbie questions:-

Is her thinness normal for a Shetland ewe of her age (as I suspect)?

how much sheep mix / ewe nuts should I feed per (Shetland) ewe? - the supplier advised me to start by adding a small amount of mix to their ewe-nut ration and build it up daily - but I'm a bit vague as to how much I should be giving altogether?

is there a danger of overfeeding them? - personally I'd rather they were too fat than too thin during the winter months.

thx

mab

[shetlandpaul]

the first thing to do is check her teeth. the next is to get her wormed shes over due. get a good ewe mix with lots of molasses and if she is OK she should put weight on. but at 7 she is getting on.

[Anke]

7 is not old for  a shetland if she's well looked after. I have lambed my two old girls this year at 10 and 11 respectively. Allthough th 11 year old did go down quite badly after the BTV8 vaccine and she was probably quite flukey. Her lambs are quite small and needed supplementary feeding, however the 10 year old produced my two biggest shetland lambs this year without any additional feed/help.

I would also get a stool sample analysed, if you can catch it of her ((or as mixture from all three), and check for fluke as well as normal worms.

Other than that she will probaly need additional feed if her teeth are quite bad, but should be ok to go on for a few years yet...

[shetlandpaul]

why did they get shut of her. we have a 5/6 year old but her teeth are perfect. so hopefully at least two more years of lambing. if she is intended as a pet then she could go on for years with lots of care.

[mab]

OK, thanks for the advice - not sure how easy it it to get a sample for one particular ewe - unless I catch her 'in the act'.

I'll try to look at her teeth tomorrow.

It's possible that I exaggerated her thin-ness in my post - verbal communication is not my strong point - I can feel the vertebrae, though.

sorry about delay in replying - pc's playing up again.   

mab

[mab]

OK,

Looked at her teeth today - all two of them. I guess that explains it. I'm just wondering how best to get her weight up. I'd like to keep her on as long as she's not in discomfort, as she's a very tame ewe - I'm not really keeping the sheep for profit anyway.

As you may have guessed I didn't know much about this ewe before I got her - She came with the two youngsters as her previous owner didn't want to separate them.

mab

[shetlandpaul]

lots of softer food. you may need to soak her food. ther are foods that can be got. you may need to chat with the vet about vits and minerals.

[ballingall]

Soaked beetpulp is nice and soft- and if you feed it warm, great for combating the cold. You can get Alfafa stuff to soak nowadays as well.

I would still worm her anyway as April was a long time ago, and try and gat a stool sample in case of a heavy burden of worms or of Fluke.


Beth

[mab]

Just to let you know - my 'thin ewe' seems to be thin no more - I can't feel her vertebrae at all anymore, though I spent about 5 mins trying.

I didn't think she would put on weight that fast, and she doesn't look any different - well not to my laymans' eye, anyway.

I think I'll worm them all anyway as advised - then at least I know they're worm free.

Thanks again for all the advice.

mab

[shrekfeet]

don't worm unless you have to. Get some samples tested - it's cheap and will tell you if they have a high count

[mab]

Oh, OK.

Glad you replied when you did Shrekfeet, as I was going to do it tomorrow! 

This may be a silly question; but do I just take my sample to the local vet? or is there a better (cheaper) way to get it done?

how much should I expect to pay?

cheers
mab

[shrekfeet]

try abbeydiagnostics.co.uk

be sure to send fresh poo!

You can get a group test done very cheaply, if you get a high count then worm them. Should cost less than a tenner.

If there has been no grazing on your land for some time before you introduced sheep and if they were all well wormed before they came then the count should be low

Good luck

[mab]

brilliant! that is cheap!

thanks for that.

My land has been fallow for ~5 years and had poultry on it before that. I intend to move the sheep around to allow the land to rest, so parasites shouldn't be a problem; but I don't really know how they were kept before I got them, so the test will be useful I think.

mab