[sp435]

Hi All :

I'm currently working on vaginal prolapse research in sheep, which will ultimately lead to application in humans and I was wondering if you guys can help me out. Prolapse in sheep is multi-factorial and difficult to pin point. Our objective is to start analysis from ground up and come to the single most factor (along with what we already know) and provide an adequate explanation for the same.

It will be great to get some help from y'all.

Thanks

[SallyintNorth]

Sounds interesting, ask away!

[SteveHants]

What you need is somebody with mules....... 

[SallyintNorth]

Well, we had 8 pre-lambing prolapses this year, Steve, and not one of them in a mule.  Although all of them were in ewes whose mums or grandmums were probably mules.

[feldar]

We only had one last lambing year and a full prolapse from a ewe we didn't expect tp prolapse.
The vaginal one was a " well covered " ewe who was 7 years old who has always lambed on her own before. We inserted a spoon and harness and when she lambed she was ok but we fostered the lambs because her milk didn't come down.
She; needless to say is no longer with us.
The full prolapse was a completely unexpected 2 shear ewe with no previous history of this problem and none in her background.
Hope that helps

[jaykay]

You might want to contact the Rough Fell Sheep Breeders Association as prolapse is (becoming) quite an issue in Roughs.
 
I lost a beautiful shearling who didn't just prolapse, she lost the lamb bed, lambs and a great trail of her innards about a month before lambing and had to be shot where she'd fallen 

And in the past four years had four others prolapse, one the daughter of a ewe who had also prolapsed both before and after lambing, as was the shearling above - lesson there!

Given I only had 20 breeding sheep this was a lot.

Some farmers will say its because you've over fed them but none of these had a condition score above 3, they carried both singles and twins. I think it can get bred in.

[SteveHants]

Well, we had 8 pre-lambing prolapses this year, Steve, and not one of them in a mule.  Although all of them were in ewes whose mums or grandmums were probably mules.

Of all the sheep I hear people moaning about for prolapse, mules seem to top the list. See also: needing assisting at lambing, teeth breaking and being greedy. I do believe they are very milky though....... I'm blaming BFL genes, apparently the average flock size of pure BFLs is 25. I've heard countless folk moaning abiut how their BFL tups love to die...

 
Can you tell I'm not a fan? 

[jaykay]

I know it's not very scientific but BFLs just look weedy and 'delicate'.

[SteveHants]

I know it's not very scientific but BFLs just look weedy and 'delicate'.

But don't they have bonny heads?.....

[jaykay]

Hmmmm  Interesting maybe. Bonny might be stretching it a bit 

Here's a bonny sheep 

[Sbom]

I lambed a flock of around 700 Welsh
Halfbreds for a number of years and they were very prone to prolapsing. Trouble was if they weren't attended to ASAP then they quite often chucked everything out, intestines an all, it was horrid. That said they were quite fat little things. On the plus side I'm now very capable of replacing and either stitching or harnessing them up in record time!

[jaykay]

That's what happened to my shearling Rough Sbom. Awful 

[VSS]

I know it's not very scientific but BFLs just look weedy and 'delicate'.

They look like they have died and forgotten to fall over!

[Welshcob]

Hi sp435, welcome here! Good luck in your research, just out of curiosity where do you study/conduct it?

Are you a vet/vet nurse? If not, you could try and speak to them as they will have lots of experience - I'm not saying farmers/crofters/smallholders haven't (far from me!!), but it's just that a vet tends to see many more cases in one season than a breeder.

Having said that, I haven't thoroughly researched the topic myself but I remember during vet school and later in practice we were told that if a ewe prolapses it's not a good idea to keep her and lamb her again as she will tend to have the same problem again - and very likely to transmit the characteristic to every lamb she has.
We were told that the mother ewe should be culled and lambs not kept as breeders; daughters especially but tups too (as they transmit conformation as well), just fatten them up and eat them.

Very different from a cow. If a cow has a prolapse it's generally ok to calve her again, as after the prolapse has been reduced there will be formation of basically scar tissue and internal attachments between organs in the abdomen that will keep the uterus in place; however, I still wouldn't advise to keep her progeny as breeding stock.

Good luck!
 

[Fleecewife]

Presumably you also want to know about breeds which don't seem to prolapse so much.  We have kept Hebrideans for 17 years and not seen a prolapse in them.  Our flock is small, varying between about 10 and 25 ewes.  The only thing approaching a prolapse - just a 'bulge' - was in an overweight Jacob ewe carrying triplets, in our first year of breeding, and hers.  We have not had a prolapse in our tiny flock of Soay either - numbering between 3 and 8 in different years - or in our Shetlands either.