# Is there a urine test for pregnancy in sheep?



## gun barrel fibre (Apr 3, 2018)

I am unsure if my ewes are pregnant . Was wondering if there is a test that one can do. Ultrasound is out. I ask because I have to separate to feed differently and especially if the ewes are expecting twins. I had my first bad year this year with toxemia and had a ewe put down that had large ( 14 & 12 llb) twins, and even though I fed well it wasn't well enough. I didn't manage the situation well and wish to do better.  The ewes are big already showing size at 2 months but it could be I am feeding them too much now. Dunno just don't want a repeat.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 3, 2018)

Welcome to BYH!! Sorry about your ewe 

Yep, there is the p-test. But it won't tell you how many. How much are you feeding now and what kind of feed? What breeds are your ewes? And do you know how to do body condition scoring? Why is ultrasound out?


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## gun barrel fibre (Apr 3, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> Welcome to BYH!! Sorry about your ewe
> 
> Yep, there is the p-test. But it won't tell you how many. How much are you feeding now and what kind of feed? What breeds are your ewes? And do you know how to do body condition scoring? Why is ultrasound out?


Our vet doesn't have a portable device. We feed alfalfa, beet pulp , barley and some sheep tex, summer they have pasture, winter local hay. I don't know how to do a body condition scoring so will look further into that. I have a mixed herd of Romney, Jacob, New Hampshire, and Mountain Welsh. I use a reg New Hampshire as the herd sire. Usually we feed up to 2llbs per day per pregnant animal  of grain and unlimited wet beet pulp. Thankyou for responding much appreciated.


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## Latestarter (Apr 4, 2018)

Greetings and welcome to BYH! So glad you joined us. Sorry for your earlier losses and hope you get if figured out to not happen again. There's a wealth of info, knowledge and experience shared in the multitude of threads. Browse around and see what interesting stuff you can find. By all means post away when the desire strikes you, especially if you have questions (provide as much detail/info as possible and pictures truly help)... With all the great folks here, generally someone will respond in no time at all. Please make yourself at home! Hope you enjoy the site!


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## mystang89 (Apr 4, 2018)

Thanks for asking this question. I didn't know there was a pee test either not anything about body condition scoring. For that matter, I don't even know what toxemia is lol. I might want to look those things up huh


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## Bossroo (Apr 4, 2018)

gun barrel fibre said:


> Our vet doesn't have a portable device. We feed alfalfa, beet pulp , barley and some sheep tex, summer they have pasture, winter local hay. I don't know how to do a body condition scoring so will look further into that. I have a mixed herd of Romney, Jacob, New Hampshire, and Mountain Welsh. I use a reg New Hampshire as the herd sire. Usually we feed up to 2llbs per day per pregnant animal  of grain and unlimited wet beet pulp. Thankyou for responding much appreciated.



























For the urine pregnancy test...  the urine sample is injected in young virgin female rabbits , then the rabbit is sacrificed to check the ovaries for egg production, if yes, the ewe is pregnant.
Historically the Hampshire is a large meat breed sheep and has a wide front end conformation which often causes difficulty in wool type ewes in giving birth without assistance.  Hampshire ewes included.  The Hampshire lossed out to the Suffolk in the range slaughter lamb production due to this. You will be wise to attend the births of lambs as often you will have to pull the lambs  / assist in the delivery process. Good luck.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 4, 2018)

gun barrel fibre said:


> Our vet doesn't have a portable device. We feed alfalfa, beet pulp , barley and some sheep tex, summer they have pasture, winter local hay. I don't know how to do a body condition scoring so will look further into that. I have a mixed herd of Romney, Jacob, New Hampshire, and Mountain Welsh. I use a reg New Hampshire as the herd sire. Usually we feed up to 2llbs per day per pregnant animal  of grain and unlimited wet beet pulp. Thankyou for responding much appreciated.



Sounds like you're feeding them very well. The different breeds sound like the biggest challenge, I know Welsh Mountains and Jacobs tend to get fat on a lot less grain than your other breeds. BCS is just a good option to see how conditioned your sheep are getting during pregnancy. I personally only feed 0.5lb/day and hay during months 1-3, then increase starting at month 4 to 2lb/day. Protein should stay at 16% or lower until they give birth, but energy and fat can increase for pregnancy. Not too familiar with beet pulp personally but I know it's a great feed.


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## mysunwolf (Apr 4, 2018)

mystang89 said:


> Thanks for asking this question. I didn't know there was a pee test either not anything about body condition scoring. For that matter, I don't even know what toxemia is lol. I might want to look those things up huh



Yes but can you imagine a range flock shepherd following around each of their 50, 100, or 1,000 ewes for a urine sample?  Don't worry, most folks don't have to worry about toxemia as long as you've talked to your vet and nutritional folks and have a dedicated plan. Or once you have older ladies. Time enough to learn. BCS is just nice to know if you're making your girls so fat that you're wasting feed or decreasing their productivity.


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## gun barrel fibre (Apr 4, 2018)

Latestarter said:


> Greetings and welcome to BYH! So glad you joined us. Sorry for your earlier losses and hope you get if figured out to not happen again. There's a wealth of info, knowledge and experience shared in the multitude of threads. Browse around and see what interesting stuff you can find. By all means post away when the desire strikes you, especially if you have questions (provide as much detail/info as possible and pictures truly help)... With all the great folks here, generally someone will respond in no time at all. Please make yourself at home! Hope you enjoy the site!


thankyou .


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## gun barrel fibre (Apr 4, 2018)

mystang89 said:


> Thanks for asking this question. I didn't know there was a pee test either not anything about body condition scoring. For that matter, I don't even know what toxemia is lol. I might want to look those things up huh


I didn't know about toxemia either and had years of having twins with no issues but this new ram is giving me twins with everything so far that he has been bred  and this year I had management issues. I had always assumed it was the ewes that determine the twins ratio. I did take a plunge by crossing meat animals to fibre animals for a dual purpose type animal that could be marketed as a fibre animal instead of meat as we don't eat our animals here. We eat meat BTW, no mutton or lamb though but as I get older I would rather have my friends produce the meat I eat. I know how stupid that sounds.


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## gun barrel fibre (Apr 4, 2018)

Bossroo said:


> For the urine pregnancy test...  the urine sample is injected in young virgin female rabbits , then the rabbit is sacrificed to check the ovaries for egg production, if yes, the ewe is pregnant.
> Historically the Hampshire is a large meat breed sheep and has a wide front end conformation which often causes difficulty in wool type ewes in giving birth without assistance.  Hampshire ewes included.  The Hampshire lossed out to the Suffolk in the range slaughter lamb production due to this. You will be wise to attend the births of lambs as often you will have to pull the lambs  / assist in the delivery process. Good luck.


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## gun barrel fibre (Apr 4, 2018)

I remember in the old days that poor rabbits had to sacrifice their lives for us fickle humans . Thankfully there is another type of test now adays which I just found out about thanks to mysunwolf. I would never do that to the rabbit for my sheep. Yes I liked your comments about the front end conformation. Valuable wisdom on attending births. I was able to attend all births so far but it was tricky and time consuming and it was apparent that the first time ewes needed help.I will be planning things a little better for next time.


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## gun barrel fibre (Apr 4, 2018)

mysunwolf said:


> Yes but can you imagine a range flock shepherd following around each of their 50, 100, or 1,000 ewes for a urine sample?  Don't worry, most folks don't have to worry about toxemia as long as you've talked to your vet and nutritional folks and have a dedicated plan. Or once you have older ladies. Time enough to learn. BCS is just nice to know if you're making your girls so fat that you're wasting feed or decreasing their productivity.


I just have a small herd here and when I stress them by moving them out of the routine they will pee for me. lol I thought I had a plan but it needs to be revamped obviously. This particular ewe that I lost to toxemia didn't present symptoms that were clear to me. She also had twins previously with the same ram. And was an aggressive eater. I think where I went wrong was a change of feed suddenly a month back that caused problems. It gave her diarrhea for 2 days. I changed feed companies . just guessing though but it was something I did wrong that spiralled out of control for me. She was my favourite sheep a silver Romney so it haunts me.


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## Wehner Homestead (Apr 4, 2018)

Bossroo said:


> For the urine pregnancy test...  the urine sample is injected in young virgin female rabbits , then the rabbit is sacrificed to check the ovaries for egg production, if yes, the ewe is pregnant.
> Historically the Hampshire is a large meat breed sheep and has a wide front end conformation which often causes difficulty in wool type ewes in giving birth without assistance.  Hampshire ewes included.  The Hampshire lossed out to the Suffolk in the range slaughter lamb production due to this. You will be wise to attend the births of lambs as often you will have to pull the lambs  / assist in the delivery process. Good luck.



Very interesting facts on the pregnancy tests and Hampshire breed issues. Thanks for sharing!


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## Latestarter (Apr 4, 2018)

It seems it's always the favorite animals that we lose unexpectedly.


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## mystang89 (Apr 5, 2018)

Ok, when I first read the comment about the rabbit being sacrificed I imagined some virgin rabbit being sacrificed to the sheep gods and then divining whether the ewe is pregnant. Of course I thought this was all a very funny joke. After reading more of the comments I'm not just confused. So I'll just ask.........huh?


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## Latestarter (Apr 5, 2018)

In the bad/good old days, they would use a live rabbit to determine pregnancy... You've probably heard the term, "The rabbit died"... They would inject it with the woman's (who was being tested for pregnancy) urine and if the rabbit died, it meant the woman was pregnant. If the rabbit lived, not pregnant. Since rabbits got more expensive, they then moved to (I believe) frogs, to do the same test. A lot cheaper, less space requirements, same results. Now of course, that is considered barbaric and there are chem strips that detect the pregnancy for humans and I believe animals, but not as accurate for animals.


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