[trefnantbach]

One of my two soays seems to be suffering from loosing wool around the neck area. I had good examination today and shes become completely bald in places. There are no cuts or open wounds nor evidence of fly strike. The skin looks a bit red and sore in some areas suggesting that she's been rubbing against posts etc. the only thing I could find was a cluster of about 6 white spots about 3-4mm in diameter on her black skin, again the skin was not broken but a few of these spots were raised. I have no idea what it is. She seems to be fine otherwise! can anyone help? Could it be a fungal infection or an ectoparasite? what does scab look like? We are due to start lambing at the end of March and am concerned that it might spread to our Charollais crosses.

[Anke]

Quite a few of my shetlands have loose fleece on their necks, just under the chin. It is just the beginning of the wool getting shed in traditional breeds. It may be nothing to worry about?! Don't know if Soays do the same thing?

[trefnantbach]

have now had a chance to read up about scab on SAC web site and am fairly convinced that this is what it is. Apparently it is most likely to occur in autumn and winter and the affected ewe will bite its wool on its flank to aleviate the itching - ours has noticable patches on its flanks where wool is shorter. Im now trying to work out a suitable treatment. I was going to inject them with closamectin against liver fluke soon anyway and this followed by  a ivermectin only injection (I think that the oramec that I have left over wil do) should do the trick.

[waterhouse]

Dectomax is the treatment but comes with a 7 week withdrawal.  Works fast and needs to, ours lost condition very fast and looked awful.  BTW sheep scab is once again notifiable in Scotland, not that this applies to you.

[Freddiesfarm]

As above go for dectomax.  There are issues with mixing and matching fluke/wormer/scab treatments to best go for one at a time and dectomax will do most things other than fluke I believe.

[Cinderhills]

One of our Ryeland ewes suffers from wool break which starts about 6 weeks before lambing time.  Although she tends to loose it at the rear first.  We have been told by the vet that it's due to stress.

[princesspiggy]

is she putting her head through wirefence to get to better grass and rubbing it off?

[shep53]

Please be carefull CLOSAMECTIN is a combination of ivermectin and closantel and treats worms-fluke-lungworm-scab so no need to follow with ivermectin as youve already done it.ORAMEC is an oral drench for worms only.

[trefnantbach]

closamectin states clearly for scab it needs to be followed in 7days by an invermectin-only. However when looking through the list of ivermectin-only medicines, only injectables are recomended for scab control - not drenches so oramec is not suitable and I need something like ivomec classic injectable to follow the closamectin which I was planning to use for fluke.

[Anke]

Get confirmation from the vet first, scab can easily be misdiagnosed. It is also notifyable in some parts of the country, I think definitely in Scotland.

There are lots of reasons why sheep may loose bit of wool.

[lachlanandmarcus]

One of our Ryeland ewes suffers from wool break which starts about 6 weeks before lambing time.  Although she tends to loose it at the rear first.  We have been told by the vet that it's due to stress.

I would say thats likely too, we had a ewe who (despite having no obvious stresses) lost most of her wool!! But she lambed fine and it all grew back! One this year is poorly and shes losing a couple of clumps. Vet has been out to her and thinks def not anything other than the stress/illness.

[shep53]

If scab is definite then yes 2nd injection is needed,7 differant ivermectin injectables out there.If lice then you need totaly differant products.I have seen scab on 4 occasions in 20 years and only skin scrapings can give adefinative answer.Tried to remember,only a few out of maybe 1000 sheep in total with wool lose and scabs most itching biteing and very dirty wool lots of pulled pieces same symptoms lice /keds. All sheep affected to differant degres and any sheep in next field if net fence.

[waterhouse]

Phone the vet

If it's really scab then it's very serious - they will rip their fleece off and spread it around everywhere.  If it isn't then it could be the wrong treatment