[Backinwellies]

Hi

My greediest ewe has stopped taking any interest in concentrates ... still eating hay and wandering off round field to graze but lacking her normal lively interest in anything (was bottle reared)  .  I have given AB's, wormer, min drench and pain killer  .... anyone suggest anything else that could be wrong please

[landroverroy]

 Presuming she's not heavily in lamb, and bearing in mind the vast assortment of conditions that sheep can suffer from, my first suspicion would be Listeria. (That's just from my own personal experiences and you'll no doubt get loads of other useful and useless suggestions.)
 So - I would carry on giving her antibiotics (I use tetracycline by whatever name.) Keep her on it for at least 5 days, and if no improvement then have a rethink and reassessment.
 However - make sure she actually is grazing and not just wandering round the field. If you don't have time to check then bring her in. The fact that she is eating hay on a grass field would suggest there's not an awful lot of grass for her.

[twizzel]

 Did you take her temp before the antibiotics and painkillers ?

[Black Sheep]

Just a question really... we would not use tetracyclines in pregnant (or young - under 12 years) humans because they cross the placenta and can interfere with the development of skeletal and dental tissues. Is this not a concern in sheep - do they handle the drug differently?

[Marches Farmer]

Not sure of the situation with sheep but Alamycin LA and Norodine are OK for pregnant pigs.

[landroverroy]

Just a question really... we would not use tetracyclines in pregnant (or young - under 12 years) humans because they cross the placenta and can interfere with the development of skeletal and dental tissues. Is this not a concern in sheep - do they handle the drug differently?

 It's not contraindicated for pregnant sheep. Only mention is that it might cause discolouration when teeth and bones are developing in foetus. (Don't know how you'd notice discolouration of bones!)

[Old Shep]

I would guess early pneumonia  (only coz we have a tup started with it today) - any heavy breathing or wet nose?  Your anti-b's and painkiller is all you can do really.  Keep stress to a minimum and offer nice ration type concentrates.  Hope she improves.


Other things could be twin lamb disease if she's heavily pregnant or lack of calcium?

[Marches Farmer]

We once had a ewe we felt wasn't "right" and got her in the shed, where she developed twin lamb disease, even though a month off lambing, in good condition and being correctly fed.  Found an abscess caused by a thorn in her leg.  Cleaned it up and gave her a/bs and she survived and lambed OK.  If you feel there's something "not right" there generally is.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

have they got a feed block out? When winter starts here we generally just give ours a feed block and then concentrates later. They love eating the feed block and then eat the concentrates too when the grass is not much.

[Backinwellies]

No listeria symptoms or Pneumonia symptoms  ...  still the same .... enthusiastically eats good hay but no interest in concentrates (they are only having a small amount to make them easy to handle) and not 'pushy' like normal ... so still none the wiser.   Thanks for suggestions all.

[twizzel]

maybe worth speaking to vet and giving course of combivit injections? vit b1 deficiency in early stages can cause them to be not quite right, slightly separated from the flock and a bit under the weather, until 1 day their vision goes and it's in the brain. 

[Backinwellies]

Thank you ... very helpful

[Anke]

Combivit is a good appetite stimulant too, but the injection is painful, so you need to keep a good hold. I use it on my goat milkers in the case of loss appetite either before or after kidding.

Combivit cannot do any harm anyway. I can buy it from my merchants rather than through the vets.

[Sbom]

No listeria symptoms or Pneumonia symptoms  ...  still the same .... enthusiastically eats good hay but no interest in concentrates (they are only having a small amount to make them easy to handle) and not 'pushy' like normal ... so still none the wiser.   Thanks for suggestions all.

What are her teeth like? May be a pain reason why she won't eat nuts?

I had an older ewe not looking right the other day, caught her and gave a jab of Alamycin and a jab of combivit, she then promptly keeled over and was dead by morning!!!

Have another here in the barn who's skinny as a hat rack but bright as a button. Teeth are good, she has ad lib hay and creep pellets daily. She's had ab's, combivit, multi vit drench, wormed and fluked and a month later stubbornly thin still!!
They are very testing creatures!! Good luck with yours

[Marches Farmer]

IHave another here in the barn who's skinny as a hat rack but bright as a button. Teeth are good, she has ad lib hay and creep pellets daily. She's had ab's, combivit, multi vit drench, wormed and fluked and a month later stubbornly thin still!!

It takes around a month of good feed to put half a condition score on a sheep.  Might there be a problem like Jaagsiekte?