[Kitchen Cottage]

I only have 10 sheep and 3 were flystruck yesterday.  Skin wasn't broken  but the poor things are sore.  I only Crovected 2 weeks again.

What is causing it?

Sheep are all dagged and 2 were flystruck on the back.

As soon as I see a "jewel"  I'm straight in there with a pair of scissors! 

[trish.farm]

crovect only works on the area you have applied to.  Clic absorbs throughout the fleece and gives full body coverage.  You may not have applied the crovect correctly at the right rate? 

I have had 3 cases of fly strike this year.  all had clic 8 weeks ago and it should last 16 weeks.  I think it is just perfect weather for maggots, hot, wet, humid.  Bloody annoying.

[Marches Farmer]

If you don't want to buy Clik at this stage in the summer you could perhaps run the Crovect across the shoulders and each side of the tail?  If your sheep get scald or footrot check their feet regularly, although strike here will generally cause the sheep to try and nibble at its foot, which is an easier one to spot than strike across the shoulders..

[SallyintNorth]

Crovect has to be applied at the correct rate and using the correct nozzle and the correct technique, and even then yes, only protects the fleece it lands on.  And prolonged rain will wash it off. 

If you're getting strike on wool you believe you've sprayed, and it hasn't been over wet, I'd check that you've used the correct nozzle, dose and technique.  If all check out, then you'd have to wonder if your flies are maybe resistant?

[Kitchen Cottage]

I bought the crovect kit (for £50!) and I have been applying at the correct rate.  I have been dagging like a mad woman.  I suspect a few women have left here with Brazilians where I have got confused!

I poo pick every day.
I think I must have a resistance issue.

I don't want to buy clic, because I still have a ton of Crovect, but I will on welfare grounds.... because I HATE flystrike!

Thought I had more today but it was an itchy sheep from yesterday

Due rain today and it's been cooler so fingers crossed.

Next year will be clic! xxx

[perkhar]

We had a spell of muggy warm weather recently and the flys were prolific I had only just dosed the Boggs 2 weeks before that with crovect but was concerned so gave them another dose. I don't know whether that's right or wrong to do but I had a Suffolk x ewe that I bought last year as a pet to help me bucket train more reluctant ewes as she follows you everywhere. Unfortunately she had caught her self in something and had a small wound on her chest...

Flys everywhere the nasty buggers. After spraying a pile of purple spray I covered all the sheep with another dose of crovect.... They seem fly free for now anyway.   
Question is do they become immune to crovect if it's used regular do you have to keep changing products like a wormer???

[milliebecks]

 
[/quote] Question is do they become immune to crovect if it's used regular do you have to keep changing products like a wormer???
[/quote]

I was told (by a retailer, not a vet) that if I'd treated with Crovect, I shouldn't switch to a different product during the season.
I also wasn't aware that Clik gives all over protection (like Frontline for dogs, I suppose) as I thought it was the same active ingredient.
I've just ordered more Crovect (although it's evil stuff), but would love to find an effective alternative .....

[waterbuffalofarmer]

I think that there was done some study to suggest that the flies which land on the sheep, after all the chemicals, can develope an immunity to it, or there was certainly something to suggest an immunity of somesort being developed to it. It is the same with any type of chemical product, eventually the parasites develope immunity to the product and there has to be a new one created. Hence why I use natural products, they always seem to work. I worm my sheep about 3-4 times a year if that and they are in excellent condition, keep rotating them around onto good pasture, make sure the ground and grass is healthy, I will be planting herbal leys soon if all goes well..... Try and keep chemicals to a minimum with your animals and use when needed and they won;'t become resistent. Also using the right amount is key too, some people underdose which means that it doesn't kill everything and the worms left survive and build immunity. Alsio after worming move onto clean pasture after about a day or so, this makes their worm intake smaller, as they're not cleaning up after themselves and putting the worms back into their systems, which means less immunity build up on the worms part. i was reading on the dose manufacturers website, or was it an article in the paper? Anyway they said that after dosing remove the sheep from their old pasture onto fresh and keep rotating to prevent worm build up. Another good thing to do is to mix graze, if you can, I keep some sheep with the older buffalo and they all mix graze, get along well, it is important that they knew each other from an early age else they won;'t get on, and the sheep clean up after the cattle and vice versa. Keep rotating them around and worming every so often.  Sorry for the lecture

[SallyintNorth]

So what do you do to prevent flystrike, wbf?

[pharnorth]

So as a chemist I have a bit of an issue with natural good chemical bad. Immunity is immunity and it may relate to a 'chemical' or a natural substance. Oh and natural substances are chemicals anyway. So use lots of natural products and you will probably have a good chance of them becoming ineffective too, assuming they worked in the  first place that is.  I do use some natural products, e.g. Fly repellents on horses, because the cost and risks of using chemicals are too high compared with the impact of flies on horses which is much lower than on sheep. And yet I have seen someone lose a horse painfully and slowly due to skin reaction to ridiculously over concentrated repeated use of citronella as a fly repellent.  The owner would not accept a natural product could also be dangerous. So Wbf, your 'keep chemicals to a minimum' is well intended, but that is exactly what the product label claim and instructions are for.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

This is just my own opinion [member=30154]pharnorth[/member] I make sure I don't use it raw on my animals, to prevent skin irritations. I was merely putting out myu own point of view. [member=10673]SallyintNorth[/member]  I use my eyes, I don't dip my sheep at all or use pour on ever, but I watch them and get them in reguarlarly. i do get the odd few, which I deal with very quickly, The problem I find with some using pour on, and I don't mean any of you at all, is that it can make the keeper lazy because they think the chemical is doing the work. This is one of the reasons that I don't use it, the other is that i try to keep the chemicals on my animals as low as possible, and they are extremely healthy, virytually no foot problems, any which hve weak feet are gotten rid of, breeding is very important. I am trying to aim for good carcasses, good feet, fast growth and hardy animals. I also find keeping them in big sloping breezy fields during the summer months helps them not get much flystrike at all. Some years you get a few, others hardly any at all.  Mine are on hilly breezy ground during the summer and lowland pastures during the winter, plusn I lamb them outside in April-may, so they're born very hardy All in all they're very fit healthy and hardy animals, which I adore, couldn't live without em!

[SallyintNorth]

I think if you have the lifestyle and terrain for the 'keep a careful watch' approach to work, that can be a valid approach.  I'm surprised you didn't mention keeping the lambs clean; using pasture management and/or wormers to ensure they're not scouring.   And dagging anything that's a bit mucky.  Ensuring they have the right dietary minerals too. 

Where there are hefted flocks grazing thousands of acres of fell and moorland, the lambs probably need protection.  I guess that sort of flock is self-selecting for animals that are resistant, though - a sheep which gets strucken and hides in the reshes is probably going to die.   

[waterbuffalofarmer]

I think if you have the lifestyle and terrain for the 'keep a careful watch' approach to work, that can be a valid approach.  I'm surprised you didn't mention keeping the lambs clean; using pasture management or wormers to ensure they're not scouring.   And dagging anything that's a bit mucky.  Ensuring they have the right dietary minearls too. 

Where there are hefted flocks grazing thousands of acres of fell and moorland, the lambs probably need protection.  I guess that sort of flock is self-selecting for animals that are resistant, though - a sheep which gets strucken and hides in the reshes is probably going to die.   

Probably in thos econditions which is very sad. How do farmers manage their lambs on common grazing then? I dose the lambs when they're 3 months old and then again when I take them off their moms at the end of the year, I dose them with eblex usually I have had a few lambs with flystrike this year, but haven't lost one yet to flystrike. Have to be very careful in this persistent bad weather

[pharnorth]

And your opinion is entirely valid Wbf,  as is your approach of constant vigilance if it suits you. But As Sallys says, other systems don't allow for that. Personally I don't have the excuse of common grazing or extensive fells, nor do I manage your level of scrutiny but I would have described my monitoring as 'good enough', but then we had a case of fly strike a few weeks back as I had delayed the evil chemical spray for a week to go to a show and relied on closer monitoring. So we found it very quickly, but only after it happened since monitoring can only tell you have a problem not prevent it. Once I had pulled all the wretched maggots off I was very pleased to give the rest a good dowsing with some chemicals.

[Hellybee]

We spray, our sheep our clean, we pretty windy but I don't think we'd summer without spraying.