[Foobar]

Perfect, thanks Shep!

So I inject ALL of the sheep with 2ml each 4 weeks before lambing, then the 2 'new' ewes again 4-6 weeks later. Then the lambs get one dose at a minimum of 3 weeks old, plus a booster 4-6 weeks later. 

Four bottles though - will need to find someone else local who wants to share!

You could cut it to three bottles if you do the two who haven't had it yet when you do the lambs.  I don't think their lambs will get any benefit passed down to them if the mothers system isn't up to date.  If you get me. :S

[Welshcob]

Sounds suspiciously like the vet of the original post didn't pay enough attention to what they were saying or else there has been miscommunication and they only meant that story about drugs being no longer effective related to wormers only, not the vaccines.

IMO (as a farm vet) vaccinations are the best thing that could happen to stop disease from spreading and killing our animals so I would definitely keep it up, every year no fail. And for those extremely common sheep diseases covered by Heptavac P etc etc there is really no excuse for not doing it, unless an unhealthy taste for risk. It's a cheap way to prevent nasty incurable diseases, WHY NOT???

For the wormers it is a much more complex matter and maybe your vet meant not to do like some other old time farmers which every year drench their sheep every 4-6 weeks no fail. This does not work in the long term and it is unsustainable. Every flock, regardless of size, is different and the best starting point to decide whether worming is necessary is to do regular worm egg counts. Then discussion with the vets ensues as to the best practices. Don't be afraid to ask again.

[bazzais]

Take a s**t sample and get it read. Get on a program from there.

Vets are nice not an enemy

[Womble]

 Folks,
I asked a few questions of my vet re Heptavac, so I'll re-post below in the hope that the answers may be useful. This is only my vet's opinion of course, and other vets may advise differently!:   
 
Q: What age new lambs should get their first dose?
A: 3 weeks old, the second dose 4 weeks later   
 
Q: Can the same bottle can be used for the initial doses and for the boosters a month later, if kept refrigerated (I know people do this, but is the second dose still effective?).  
 
A: No guarantees, but should be fine. What you would be best to do is draw 20mls {for my 10 sheep} from the bottle with a clean syringe and put in a clean dry container/bottle then draw your 2mls from there for the initial dose. cover the top of the bottle with some sellotape and refrigerate.

[pgkevet]

As 'Welshcob' says there's no logic to say that vaccination causes treatment resistance. As to worming.fluke therapies that's a lot to do with stocking density and surrounding sheep populations, streams, water runoffs etc.
I've got my hobby/pet flock of 5 (now that Dudleia has passed) and even though they have 15 acres to wander they still get vaccinated, wormed, fluked etc a) cos I'd feel a pratt if they got something and b) because there's hundreds of sheep in all the adjacent fields and further up the hill and the stream at the bottom runs through many upstream farms.

[Welshcob]

Q: Can the same bottle can be used for the initial doses and for the boosters a month later, if kept refrigerated (I know people do this, but is the second dose still effective?).  
 
A: No guarantees, but should be fine. What you would be best to do is draw 20mls {for my 10 sheep} from the bottle with a clean syringe and put in a clean dry container/bottle then draw your 2mls from there for the initial dose. cover the top of the bottle with some sellotape and refrigerate.


Womble, I am afraid to say that your vet is taking a risk (professionally, if nothing else, as a client could hold them to what they said in case anything goes wrong). Yes, it's true there's no guarantee one way or another and probably won't do much harm to re-use the bottle but nobody knows how much effectiveness would remain and as I said before, it's probably just going to go off and be useless. And there is of course the risk of introducing bacteria in the bottle when you take out the first doses, potentially inoculating disease yourself.

By all means anyone is free to do what they want with their animals but don't go crying to the vaccine manufacturer's if the product is used off label and then it doesn't work or worse, causes harm.