[Lucyyoung]

Hi all this is my first year lambing and all are on the ground alive and well (woo hoo!!)
The whole worming sheep confuses the hell out of me so I'm after opinions on worm counting and advice on when i should be worming lambs?
thanks in advance!!

[Paul and Caroline]

Hi - I struggled to get my head round it at first but think I am making a bit more sense of it now as we approach our 3rd Spring. We do not worm proactively in that we do not routinely worm. We were luckily in that our land was more or less virgin land as far as sheep were concerned and so we didn't have the pressure that existing sheepkeepers had. We were advised about the risks of wormer resistance if we wormed unnecessarily so we submit samples of dung (the sheep - not ours!) to our vets who do Faecal Egg Counts (FEC) and advise us accordingly. On our last test we were told there was a nil count - therefore no worming. On the occasion prior to that we were told there was a low to medium count and we dosed as advised by our vet - that is not to confuse it with fluke prevention which we approach entirely differently. I don't know if what we do is the technically correct method but it works for us..... hope this helps......

[Womble]

For general worming advice, you're best to read the SCOPS guidance notes, particularly this one.

For worming lambs in particular, you should also be aware of a worm called "Nematodirus Battus".

The problem with these wee beasties is that they lie dormant on pasture until temperatures rise in spring, and then they all become infective at once, just at the point when your lambs are starting to eat grass!  This means that if your land is contaminated, your lambs can have problem levels of worms before the eggs ever show up in an FEC test.

The good news is that:

a) this is generally a worm that is passed from one generation of lambs to the next, so you may not have a problem. You can also do a fair bit of natural control by not using the same paddock for lambs year after year.
b) The timing of the nematodirus hatch is quite predictable
c) nematodirus have still not developed resistance to "white" wormers (this group of wormers is now ineffective against other worm species on many farms). This means that they can be treated with white wormers, without having to break out any of our bigger, and more expensive, weapons.

HTH! 

[twizzel]

Keep an eye on the scops nematodirus forecast, the first drench for lambs is normally for nematodirus which can have huge consequences if not treated at the right time. The forecast is generally a good indication of when a nemo hatch is due in your area. I think you can then fec to be sure. nematodirus eggs hatch at different times of the year depending on temperature, past grazing history,  hence why dosing at the right time is critical- generally with a white wormer (see the know your anthelmintjc pdf)


http://www.scops.org.uk/forecasts/nematodirus-forecast/


http://www.scops.org.uk/workspace/pdfs/know-your-anthelmintic-groups.pdf