# Iron issues?



## CassyKay (Sep 27, 2022)

So we've been struggling with lots of parasites in a few of our sheep. The vet confirmed we're dealing with barber pole and tapeworms. We're following his protocol for treating them, which includes giving an iron injection. Well, we've lost three sheep now, all of which had the iron injection two days before they died. Seems weird, so we're curious to know if something is wrong with the iron we have or the dose we've been giving. Durvet Iron-100, 1 ml. Expiration date is 6-25. Bought it at tractor supply. Dosing just once a week per vet's instructions, along with a B12 injection. Any thoughts? We have two more young ewes struggling, one just got the iron yesterday the other hasn't had an iron injection as she's doing better not nearly as anemic.


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## Mini Horses (Sep 27, 2022)

I'd have called that vet already!!!!   So sorry for the losses. Painful, I know.   Yes, if say no more iron shots and 🙏


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## secuono (Sep 27, 2022)

No. Not likely.
How pale are they?
If white, they're basically dead already.
I give 4-6ml of iron per shot.
Are they eating, a lot?
Dewormed? With what?
Moved to new paddock after 2 days or dry lot?


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## purplequeenvt (Sep 28, 2022)

What was his protocol? There are a lot of vets that don’t know sheep and go off older information. 

How old are your sheep? What breed and where are you located? What do you feed? 

If I have an anemic animal, I like to get them off the wormy pasture and into the barn where they get fed off the ground so they aren’t reinfecting themselves. 

I worm with either a single dose of prohibit (you need an accurate weight for this drug because there isn’t a large safety margin) or I’ll do 3 days in a row of Valbazen or Safeguard with the dose being at least doubled. 

I’ve never given iron injections to my sheep. 

I’ve found that giving the lambs extra protein, they are less likely to struggle with parasites. I feed a 16% sheep feed and put out a protein tub. Fed well as lambs, they don’t usually have an issue with parasites as adults.


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## CassyKay (Sep 28, 2022)

We've been in contact with the vet for a while now.  He told us to give safeguard once every three weeks, the B12 and iron once a week, and offer electrolytes. He expected this to work on the worms he found in the fecal check and told us to check their famacha score every three days expecting to see improvement. We have the sick ewes separated in a pen being moved to fresh grass daily in an area that has never been grazed by our sheep. We are feeding them grain and hay up off the ground. 

We contacted a mentor who is nearby and he has suggested moving them back to the full dry lot concept (instead of being on any grass at all, which we started because the first few ewes we had in it were improving and ready to begin grazing again, but we have different ewes in the pen now). He also said what works for him is to dose with cydectin, prohibit, and valbazen (he never uses safeguard and was shocked the vet prescribed it) based on the animal's weight (we have a scale and used it), and give each three minutes apart. 

Ages of the sheep have varied. One two year old ewe struggled for a while earlier along with her lamb from this spring. The older ewe has recovered and is back on pasture, her lamb is nearly recovered and just separated still to receive supplements until her famacha is where we want it. We have lost two ewes about nine months old I believe. Also one ram at seven months old. The one we are most worried about now is also seven months. They are all dorper or dorperXkatahdin crosses, the younger ones were born here in the spring and the two slightly older ones were bought in the spring from our mentor's registered dorper flock. We're in south Alabama near the gulf coast. 

We don't usually feed grain or hay at all, but do an all grass fed routine. We use grain only as a supplement at breeding season, or when a sheep is sick. 

In talking with and following the stories of many other shepherds in the US, we've come to realize that this seems to be a bad year all around for the worms. Our mentor said he knows a lady how has been raising sheep longer than him and even she has had some terrible cases of parasite overload. He also said that we probably switched the two ewes we got from him in the spring from a grain fed routine to all grass fed too quickly which left them vulnerable (wish he had told us more about this when we picked them up but I guess we should have asked more questions).  

So, at this point, we have done everything the vet and our mentor told us to. We'll be happy to offer them extra protein as well - thank you for mentioning that. 

Can anyone share info specific on iron dosing for sheep? We can't find any so the 1ml dose on the bottle is all we have to go by. The vet didn't give us a dose for it but we might can call him back about that. He does do livestock and farm calls but can't make enough money solely on that I guess so he also does small animals at the clinic so his availability is limited. Is there a sheep specific iron supplement we can use? 

The good thing is, we are recording everything going on with the sheep and will be able to look back next year and see what we learned worked for us this year.


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## BrahmerQueen (Sep 29, 2022)

CassyKay said:


> We've been in contact with the vet for a while now.  He told us to give safeguard once every three weeks, the B12 and iron once a week, and offer electrolytes. He expected this to work on the worms he found in the fecal check and told us to check their famacha score every three days expecting to see improvement. We have the sick ewes separated in a pen being moved to fresh grass daily in an area that has never been grazed by our sheep. We are feeding them grain and hay up off the ground.
> 
> We contacted a mentor who is nearby and he has suggested moving them back to the full dry lot concept (instead of being on any grass at all, which we started because the first few ewes we had in it were improving and ready to begin grazing again, but we have different ewes in the pen now). He also said what works for him is to dose with cydectin, prohibit, and valbazen (he never uses safeguard and was shocked the vet prescribed it) based on the animal's weight (we have a scale and used it), and give each three minutes apart.
> 
> ...


I've never given my sheep iron for worms and my friend/mentor who is a vet and has been raising sheep for a very long time(and has been very successful with them) hasn't either. She uses cydectin so that's what I use I give them a little valbazen sometimes too. I've never used prohibit but I read a lot about it. I would stop giving them the injection especially if its what killed them and it probably did. For tapeworms it takes a different kind of dewormer I've had them in my sheep a couple times I use the quest horse paste with praziquantel. It has to have the praziquantel in it to get rid of them. I don't know if there is another wormer that kills them but valbazen cydectin ivermectin and safeguard will not


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## frustratedearthmother (Sep 29, 2022)

Iron is generally prescribed for the anemia caused by the worms - not as a deworming medication for the worms themselves.  I can't see the iron being detrimental unless the animal has an allergic reaction to it and goes down immediately after the injection.


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