# Diarrhea in pregnant sheep



## Faith Hope (Mar 21, 2012)

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this or not, but I have 4 icelandic sheep that I got in January, supposed to be pregnant and should be due soon from what I was told.  This past Thursday, they escaped!  We have spent the past several days searching all over the woods and fields for them.  We got them back yesterday from a farmer a half a mile away (and across several roads!).  

We are very excited to get them back, but I am a little concerned about what they ate while they were "out" and eating all that lush food after just hay and grain all winter.  They were even on a nice green pasture the last couple of days since the farmer caught them.

One of them looks to have diarrhea.  Is there something I should do for her?  Can this be a sign of early labor?  She appears swollen and is holding her little tail up funny as well.  In case you can't tell, I am a new sheep owner!  This has been a crazy week!

Thanks!


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## bonbean01 (Mar 21, 2012)

I'm no expert for sure, but diarrhea was never a part of lambing in mine.  I would suspect she ate something that may be causing bloat if she looks swollen to you.  If she has bloat, you'll want to treat her...are the others showing the same signs?  How bad is the diarrhea?  Slight or big time?  Man, I should learn the sheep terminology for sheep poop...LOL.

Really hard to know what to do since you wouldn't know what heck they got into to eat...glad they are back home and hope someone with more knowledge replies.


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## goodhors (Mar 21, 2012)

I expect it is from nibbling all the new growth of stuff while they were loose.

Switching them back to dry hay, is probably your best method of getting it 
under control with out medication.  I would not be giving any grain or pellets
until the droppings are more "normal" and not so loose.

We have seen this with lambs going onto grass, after only having hay or 
pellets to eat before.  Body objects to the sudden change of feeds, has a hard time
managing the changes.  Body flora to digest food is only used to hay, so 
it takes some time to build up flora inside, that can manage grasses and 
new growth kinds of food.  Sudden food changes, getting massive NEW foods 
injested, is a shock to the body, can cause problems.

Getting the sheep back on their old type food, stabilized poop, not runny, is 
what needs to happen right now.

THEN when poop is normal again, you can START over letting the sheep have 
A LITTLE grass time.  I seriously would only let them out to graze for about 
15 minutes AFTER they had hay breakfast to fill stomachs up first.  And this is 
timed by the clock.  Couple days of this, you can give them more time, 20 minutes
on full stomachs.  You would be amazed at HOW MUCH they can chow down
in that short time, so you need to be careful on stretching out the grazing times.

It takes us a while before the lambs can be allowed out for very long, without
getting the runs.  Again, it takes their bodies TIME to produce the flora in the gut
that can manage grazing without shocking they systems.  Getting enough of 
the flora built up in the gut doesn't happen in a week or even two.  I would figure
at least a 5 week time of controlled grazing times, while the sheep systems change
over from hay to grazing.  You just keep stretching the times out every couple 
days, see what the poop looks like before adding more time.

We do this every year with the horses, they take about 6 weeks of controlled grazing
before getting free pasture time.  They actually start coming in when I arrive at the 
gate, know their "time is up" and cooperate.  I have done this with our cattle as 
well, timing their turnout to graze.  Again, full stomaches before grass time, so 
everyone is pretty full first, grass is snack food.  When time is up, they cooperate.

I am VERY hard on timing turnout EXACTLY.  No extra time allowed because they CAN over
eat quickly, get sick doing that.  I set a timer!  Better to be mean on this, than sorry later!!
Short grazing won't hurt them, but over-long grazing times will!!  Mine don't have
"problems" develop, need Vet attention with this strict grass management, so I will do the extra  
work.  And it is not that long a time to enforce, before we can go to unlimited turnout.

Controlling the grazing time prevents the runs in all species, along with possible related hoof
problems of Founder.  Not just a horse problem.  Founder can be severe in heavy cattle on new
grass, sheep hooves can be damaged with sudden food changes.


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## Faith Hope (Mar 21, 2012)

Thanks for all the information.  That is what I thought, but I didn't want to be missing something important.  

Thanks for the advise, too, about how to start them out on pasture.  We actually don't even have the pasture area fenced yet,  but I was planning on attempting to tether them out to graze eventually.  So it sounds like we should take it very sloooooow.

We are going to try our first attempt at shearing soon -- maybe even tonight.  Hopefully it will go well!

Thanks again!


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