[Helen Wiltshire Horn]

Hi, just wondering if you have any thoughts about this.  Unfortunately I was away when this happened at the weekend (typical!) but it was dealt with by the person looking after my sheep.  Anyway, he checked my 5 ewes on Saturday evening at around 5pm and all were ok and had fed in the morning.  He called me at 10 am on Sunday to say that one was down and looking very ill.  They are 4 weeks from lambing so my first thought was twin lamb disease which I would treat with a drench and I called the vet.  Before the vet arrived she had unfortunately died and vet commented on purply looking membranes and the fact that she had "blown up" very quickly.  They had had their Heptavac booster the week before and vet said remaining 4 in good condition.  He suggested possible infection but I'm surprised it too hold so quickly.  Has anyone experienced anything similar or can shed any light?  I'm now obviously worrying about the remaining 4 and wondering if there was anything that I could have done to prevent the loss of a young ewe and her lambs. 
Helen

[Backinwellies]

When were they last Fluked?    I ask because a friend of mine had a similar experience and this turned out (after losing more sheep sadly) to be Fluke.

[SallyintNorth]

So sorry to hear this 

My first thought was hypocalcaemia/magmnesemia.  (I always have to look up which is which, but one of those - the one they get during gestation.). On the Northumbrian moorland farm especially, but also on the Cumbrian upland farm, we'd get a few ewes each year go down suddenly, most often when there was a sudden change for the worse with the weather.  A dose of calcijet or similar would usually bring them round like magic.  (Again, I always have to look up which one - calcium only or calcium and magnesium - it is I need to give them.  I wrote it up one year, and still refer to it now.)

[Helen Wiltshire Horn]

Thanks for your replies.  I also thought hypocalcaemia as well but vet thought not and the last (and only time thankfully) I had a ewe with this is was in the week leading up to lambing (these are still 4 weeks away).  In terms of fluke, we have had problems with fluke but only on rented grazing and then only with lambs.  In my experience, they lose a lot of condition with fluke (even if it is only in a short space of time) and mine haven't which makes me doubt it's fluke.  Very frustrating and a bit worrying, especially when she went from eating and running around to dead within such a short space of time. 
Helen

[SallyintNorth]

Twin lamb disease itself is usually closer to lambing, I agree.  My experience with the hypocalcaemia up north was that a) they didn't go on to develop TLD; they either got up within an hour of being treated, or died very quickly, and b) they could get it any time they were under severe physiological stress - so being pregnant plus a sudden change in the weather could do it, as could being gathered while pregnant, being disturbed by a dog they didn't know... it was harsh up there, so any additional stress could tip them over.  We could and did get hypos from shortly after tupping right up to lambing.  And often just found a dead ewe, no sign of anything wrong, no loss of condition, etc, and assumed that many of them would have gone hypo after the previous check and died before being found.  (We checked twice a day from tupping onwards, but sometimes she'd be dead by the time you got back with the warmed calcium.)

Not saying this is what happened with yours, just that they can get hypo at any stage, and it kills swiftly.

[Marches Farmer]

Purple membranes - lack of oxygen and heart problem?  Blown up - bloat which would also put pressure on the heart and lungs due to lack of space in later pregnancy?  Or perhaps an overwhelming bacterial infection....?