[ScotsGirl]

So sorry. It is hard to spot unless you have been watching your flock closely and then notice subtle changes in behaviour. Smell is distinct, rotting flesh and you can smell from quite a distance. I'm paranoid about it and have caught a couple who weren't showing any signs but when I dagged them maggots were heaving. Gut instinct sometimes tells you which are struck.


Fingers crossed you have no more.

[Coximus]

Their getting moved this weekend and The last few will be sheared then - going to try and handle everyone of them this weekend and then as many as I can during the week.
Whats got me worried is them going up inside - my neighbour summed it up as "the worst, they're dead before you have a chance to find out" vet said much the same, if they get struck in the anus its unlikely you will see if you tip them, and it kills quicker than normal strike from blood poisoning apparently.

Makes me angry, ah well.

[landroverroy]

 I find the clicking (or "snap, crackle and pop") noise that they make very useful if you want to check if you've found all the maggots on an animal you've been treating. Just put your ear right up against the fleece and quite often you'll hear them and know that you've missed a pocket of them. If you can't hear anything then that usually means you've got them all.

[Castle Farm]

I suggest you spend a lot more time looking to your sheep and being aware that this time of year blow flies are active.


What a terrible and un necessary way for an animal to die, eaten away by maggots.

[Old Shep]

Castle Farm - please don't make the situation worse by burdening guilt.  Even very experienced sheep farmers can miss this, its hard. 

[Hellybee]

Watch the shoulders too xx

[Castle Farm]

Yes Shep
You do sometimes miss one in early stages of strike, but it takes about 5 days for a sheep to die from it depending on weather. Just giving them a quick glance over the fence is no use whatsoever. You, if you are any sort of stock person will spot something is wrong within a minute of checking the sheep, especially at a time of year when it can and does happen.


I find it very concerning that 7 so called Smallholders disliked the fact that I made the person allowing this to happen feel guilty.


Sickening.

[baffledog1]

Checked the sheep last night. A three month old lamb was behaving very strangely. Running around could not keep still, continually rubbing himself against the fence. Got him in, no obvious issues. The rest made a lot of noise and a neighbour appeared to ask what was wrong. Took one look and got an old tin bath filled with Jeyes fluid and water and dumped the lamb in it obviously holding its head above water. In a few minutes the flies started to crawl out of the wool. When sure they were gone allowed him to dry off. Have done him with Crovect this morning and there seems no ill effects. Before anyone jumps on me. YES I did Crovect them all 2 weeks ago and no did not miss one. I only have a small flock and you can tell by the blue dye. Will be watching carefully from now on.

[SallyintNorth]

I find it very concerning that 7 so called Smallholders disliked the fact that I made the person allowing this to happen feel guilty.

I think that most of know that the OP feels quite awful enough without having to be shamed on a public forum.

All of us learn some things the hard way.  Some of us are lucky enough to learn some things an easier way, by hearing about other people's hard lessons on here.

Don't let's make this a place where people won't own up to their hardest lessons for fear of being made to feel worse than they already do.  In the end, that would result in more lessons being learned the hard way by us all.

[Coximus]

I dont feel guilty as a result of any comments on here - I work on a stock farm with well over 1200 mules / 90 cattle and am familiar with how to spot and handle stock - All and any losses are sad in themselves and most could be avoided with hindsight.....
I asked on here as it was the first time, in hundreds of cases of strike I have seen, that I have come across a strike that was not visible externally, and I see my stock 2-3x daily, and am always quick to get a hold of any suspicious ones... (this morning ive removed a pebble wedged between my rams hoof - he seems to like getting gravel in their...) again this ewe puzzled me as she was fine when handled and moved the day before -
Their is always something that will get you by surprise in farming, that much is sure, and I do know it is easy to keep tight tabs on animals when you only keep a few dozen - I personally have 80 currently - and work with the 1200 above. - The 1200 unit expects.... a death rate of 2% a year............. I would not tolerate more than this one.......

It is also interesting how some people respond to the issue of guilt - to my My animals are part of the way I make my living - and I have to work 60-80h a week to make it at this time of year... as most stock keepers and labourers do.... this is a marked contrast to someone who lives on the land with their animals and has the time, means, (often retired) to pay 24/7 notice to their stock.

As baffledog points out - the perfect stockman will still loose stock - since this post my neighbour has told me the horror story of 3 summers ago where even the vet confirmed.... crovect was not 100% effective... and some flys are developing resistance.

Thank you all for your concern - even those posting criticisms - it all contributes to everyone’s understandings of the issue -
I would not take it personally - everyones experiences of livestock are different, depending on why they keep them - I just moved 400 of the stock I work with this morning... at least 11 had strike and have been treated - this is 3 weeks after the whole lot were treated..... yet one of the other shepherds should of handled them on Monday just gone, and some of these cases should of been picked up then... yet the guys in question are second to none imo.
My 80 moved as well half an hour ago - 2 lame, both sprayed, cleaned and checked over, one is reccurant and due to be culled, the other a bog standard case of footrot in the early stages and will be fine within the week....
Next week it will be another 2 ewe's turn to be less than 100%.

[Hellybee]

There by the grace of god go I......... 

[Helen Wiltshire Horn]

Sorry to hear about your recent experience.  I lost a Wiltshire Horn lamb last year to fly-strike.  I checked the flock in the morning at about 7am and when I came to check again at about 4pm she had been very badly struck and died shortly after despite immediate treatment.  The speed with which it took hold was astounding as was the number of maggots.  With hindsight, I perhaps should have looked for more signs but I didn't as a novice smallholder who believed that WH lambs wouldn't be susceptible to it.  I am sure that we all do the best that we can in the circumstances and I am really sorry to hear about the death of your animals. 
Helen

[bigchicken]

I would think that there are no or very few sheep owners who at some time have had strike, there's a saying about here " look in before you look out ".

[SallyintNorth]

I've no experience of internal strikes, and don't know what, if any, external signs of this there might be, apart from a sheep that's clearly a bit miz - ears drooping, lying down reticent to move, hanging head and not grazing.

I've just been reading up about all the blowfly-prevention meds (see other thread) and have come across something I think very relevant to this thread.

The difference between Clik and Clikzin is the strength of the active ingredient.  This makes for a shorter withdrawal with Clikzin.  When you look at the 'Uses' of the two products, they both protect against the green bottle, Lucilia sericata, but only Clik protects against Wohlfahrtia magnifica - which is a fly whose

larvae chiefly infest genitalia or open wounds

Coximus had a ewe and lamb died quickly with no early indications, maggots internal, local farmers and vets have seen this before.... Could it have been this Wohlfahrtia magnifica?  In which case, only Clik would prevent strike.

[Hellybee]

Added this about the above fly....

http://parasitipedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2556&Itemid=2836




Mmm the female doesn't lay eggs, they start developing in her womb ....