[twizzel]

Would be intrigued to know the outcome of vet visit and the circumstances for rearing such a large batch of pet lambs ?

[harmony]

Hi again I accept your point but with 114 lambs in 23 pens I just do not have enough feeders (machines they call them here) to put one in every pen and leave it there. You are right about the scrum..... all of the above said, the vet is on her way as I type.

It can be an uphill battle to raise cades when you have enough space, time, feeders etc. Trying to do it without enough equipment is a recipe for problems I would have thought. Glad to hear vet is on their way and I hope you can resolve the problem.

[harmony]

Would be intrigued to know the outcome of vet visit and the circumstances for rearing such a large batch of pet lambs ?

I know people who buy in cades in large numbers and finish them. Maybe Paul and Caroline have done the same. Obviously mixing lambs from different places isn't always a good thing.

[Marches Farmer]

I've always had considerable misgivings about the health of cade lambs, particularly whether they got colostrum in those first few vital hours.

[Paul and Caroline]

Vet thinks it is a staf infection and the three most badly affected lambs have had an antibiotic jag and I have an antibiotic eye cream for them. Their sore areas have been purple sprayed (not the eyes I hasten to add!) and it's now a case of waiting and watching. They are in a 'sick bay' pen isolated from the rest of the gang. I mentioned peri orbital eczema and she said, "have you been searching the internet....."! Vet also said that the loss of hair around the muzzle is quite likely caused by the milk powder, which was suggested earlier on.

A couple of you wondered how we got ourselves in this position with so many lambs. We have a smallholding in amongst a number of large sheep farms. One of them sold us our first ever lambs last year and this year we offered to help in anyway we could, with lambing. He has 1300 Ewes which were scanned at 229% and was anticipating a high number of cades. We have some large outbuildings which were ideal for a lamb nursery and so the scene was set. I have to say that he has been closely involved with us from minute 1 and didn't just 'leave us to it' but even he had never seen the severity of the crusting and hair loss that we have been experiencing. As an aside we have just come out of an episode of scour which affected about 70 of our lambs and most of the remaining 70 Cade lambs which he kept back once our nursery was full.

 So far we have lost 6 of the lambs, possibly as a result of scouring which was tested and came back as cryptosporidium, although two just dropped down dead in front of us before any of the scour started.  We had to jag all affected lambs and give them a daily dose of something called scour halt for 5 days. You wouldn't believe the amount of bedding we have got through! Several lambs came down with Joint ills but they all seem to have reacted well to the injections they were given. We have just 2 lambs still on the bottle however they have a degree of brain damage so we don't think they will manage a machine.

The oldest lambs are now 5 weeks and will be weaned in the next week or so. We will keep 10 of them for ourselves to join the two Ewe lambs we kept from last years pets or cades and hopefully they will produce their own offspring this time next year.

It's fairly safe to say we have learned a lot these past 5 weeks!

[Me]

POE is a staph infection....

"Periorbital eczema is a common skin condition in the UK often resulting when sheep have too little space allowance at feed troughs and trauma to skin allows entry of Staphylococcus aureus causing severe local infection"

[Black Sheep]

Being pedantic perhaps, but periorbital eczema isn't a Staph infection. It is a skin condition that creates a route of entry for Staph (and potentially other bacteria) into the body which can then cause an infection. Periorbital just relates to location and eczema is an allergic disorder not an infectious one.

[Me]

Ok you got me

[Me]

I should have guessed "Staphylococcal dermatitis of sheep" and then I wouldn't have misled people 

FM Scott, J Fraser and WB Martin

Abstract
A condition frequently termed "facial" or "periorbital eczema" has been observed in sheep. Studies carried out indicated no viral involvement but a haemolytic Staphylococcus aureus was isolated which produced severe necrotic skin lesions on inoculation into sheep. A more appropriate term for the condition would appear to be staphylococcal dermatitis.

[Me]

So if it is frequently termed POE... it sort of is... in a way..


(taking pedantry to the next level)

[Black Sheep]

So if it is frequently termed POE... it sort of is... in a way..

Maybe so... there are plenty of other examples of us calling health problems by a name that is misleading. Ringworm isn't a worm, and so on :-)

[Me]

Of course its a worm. Hence the word "worm" in the title. Next you will be telling me that chickenpox (more commonly known as varicella zoster virus) has nothing to do with chickens!!