[sheep lady]

I went to muck out the sheep shed this morning and there was some soft greenish poo with a white rice like substance in it and a separate more jelly green poo with what looked like a piece of tagliatelle running through it.  Neither the "rice" nor "tagliatelle" was moving so I'm not sure whether this could be worms or just some digested substance passing through - saw the sheep (Shetlands) eating young tree branches last night.  All sheep happy, eating as normal and still running up for cuddles so no unusual behaviour.  All 9 were wormed before arriving on our 'clean' 4 acres in May.  Any ideas?  I'm new to this so don't want to keep calling out the vet to everything that seems abnormal. 

[shep53]

Tapeworms not a problem , if it bothers you then white wormers or levitape

[ladyK]

I'm no expert but I would very much suspect worms if I found something long and whitish in sheep poo.
Your 'tagliatelle' and 'rice' description fits tapeworm- either a whole worm (tagliatelle) or segments (rice) which is common with tapeworms being excreted.
If you search for 'tapeworm sheep dung' and check the 'images' section you will find quite a few quite graphic images you could compare with what you found. As far as I am aware (and just confirmed by shep53 crossposting) tapeworms are not harmful to sheep, but if in any doubt take a poo sample to your vet.

[sheep lady]

Thank you for your help and reassurance.  Is it reasonable to advise the collection of sheep dung around the gate where the sheep gather in the evening?  The grass is getting quite lush presumably due to the additional nutrients.

[Womble]

Do you have a few hurdles?  What we do is to set up a small pen on clean ground, then keep the sheep in there for an hour or so. Then we just let them out and collect a little bit from each poo until we have about half a jamjar full. This ensures that it's nice and fresh for the vet (we know we must be doing this right, because the vet's receptionist is always sooo pleased to see me arrive with my jars  )

[Hellybee]

Pen six up on boards or new tarp, let them settle put some hay in with them and they ll soon go 

[Marches Farmer]

Even if they were wormed before going onto your clean pasture you can't be sure the worming regime on the original farm was effective.

[irenemcc]

And it depends what drug group they were wormed with. Not all drug types cover for tapeworm.

[SallyintNorth]

And it depends what drug group they were wormed with. Not all drug types cover for tapeworm.

Partly because it's regarded as not clinically significant

[Hellybee]

From what I've learnt they more nutrional than destructive.  I know in horses though they can cause blockages

[SallyintNorth]

You can't extrapolate tapeworm from one species to another. You'd never leave them untreated in dogs, either, but in sheep they're just part of the environment.

[Hellybee]

Just saying what they do to another species