Bridgemoof--Sheep & Wool festival

[Roving Jacobs]

The Unzickers in Sellersville PA usually have nice sheep if you're looking in PA. I wish I had a ram for you, I'm going to VA for some goats and would drop one off but I just had one boy this year and castrated him because he had SUED. Good luck with your Beastie boy!

I think the Unzicker line is already in my line...one of my sheep that I got in Maryland has a pedigree and there was an Unzicker sheep in it. I wonder if that matters if it's really far back in the lineage?

What is SUED?????

I wouldn't be worried about just having the same flock name showing up at all. If it was your sheeps' mom or dad then I probably wouldn't take it but otherwise I wouldn't worry.

SUED is split upper eyelid deformity/defect. The genes behind the 4 horns can sometimes cause the upper eyelid to be split. If it's real bad it can cause eye damage or the eyelashes irritate the eyes. My lamb's eyelids aren't too bad, maybe a grade 2, but I didn't want him passing it along so he had a date with the burdizzo.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

That's interesting. I didn't know that. Is there a picture that we can see what it looks like? I checked Google images but was unable to find one.

 

[Roving Jacobs]

That's interesting. I didn't know that. Is there a picture that we can see what it looks like? I checked Google images but was unable to find one.

Here's a picture of a pretty severe case (not mine fortunately)

Patchwork Farms Jacobs has a good blog post about SUED too if you want to look it up and learn more.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

So is it's eye just like that? It looks like a triangle, I guess. Is they guy lifting it as if he were doing a FAMACHA test?

 

[Roving Jacobs]

So is it's eye just like that? It looks like a triangle, I guess. Is they guy lifting it as if he were doing a FAMACHA test?

In this case the eye is just like that normally, the guy isn't pulling the eyelid at all. In less severe cases you have to pull the eyelid tight to see the notch or look for a break in the eyelashes.

I hope you don't mind me posting so much in your thread bridgemoof! A lot of people new to Jacobs don't know that having 4 horns has genetic risks involved that you have to watch out for. It's believed they've bred out SUED in the UK but its still fairly prevalent here in the US.

 

[Bridgemoof]

Oh no I don't mind at all! I asked

Beastie had a terrible time with his horns because they were so huge compared to his head! The 5th horn is actually a scur I think between the 2 horns on one side. Anyways, he didn't have the eyelid problem, but his scalp was always cracking open where the horns were growing. I had to spray it with the flystrike spray all the time so the flies wouldn't get in there.

Another thing I've been reading up on is the Tay-Sach gene in Jacobs. What can you tell me about that? And how do you get your sheep tested for that gene?

 

[Roving Jacobs]

Oh no I don't mind at all! I asked

Beastie had a terrible time with his horns because they were so huge compared to his head! The 5th horn is actually a scur I think between the 2 horns on one side. Anyways, he didn't have the eyelid problem, but his scalp was always cracking open where the horns were growing. I had to spray it with the flystrike spray all the time so the flies wouldn't get in there.

Another thing I've been reading up on is the Tay-Sach gene in Jacobs. What can you tell me about that? And how do you get your sheep tested for that gene?

Tay-Sachs in Jacob sheep is related to a mutation in an area called G444R. The one study they did showed about 14% of sheep tested were carriers and they traced it back to one ram called Turner's 183K who was from one of the original batch of UK imports. Most of the carriers seem to come from Lasseau and Fieldwood lines. It's fairly rare to have sheep affected by it because both parents need to carry it and it kills lambs before they can be bred. In 2009-2010 a researcher from NYU named Dr. Edwin Kolodny sent out free testing supplies to any shepherd who wanted them but people stopped sending them back in so he stopped his study. I'm not sure if anyone else is doing testing any more as I've not seen anyone advertise it but if you were curious you could probably contact Dr. Kolodny or Fred Horak from the Jacob Sheep Conservancy site and ask. I think they just need a tube of blood or a cheek swab because it's a DNA test.

Jacob-link has talked about the disease extensively in the past if you want to dig through the archives for more info.

 

[Bridgemoof]

I CAN'T DO THIS! I went to bed crying last night and woke up crying this morning about Beastie.

Maybe I'm just not cut out to be a farmer. I get too emotionally attached to my animals. Beastie didn't eat anything again yesterday and I just have to face up to the fact that he is going to die. I just can't find anyway to make him better. I HATE this!

Why is keeping a sheep so much more difficult than a dog or a cat? I just don't get it.

Tim said yesterday that I am always rooting for the underdog. He said "You want a strong, healthy animal." I just replied that I was just trying to work with what we had that he bought on CRAIGSLIST, which are usually cull sheep anyways, or at the very best, inferior animals.

Going forward, I just don't know how to deal with raising sheep where I don't get so emotional. If I could have just a flock of fiber sheep that are bred from healthy registered sheep without genetic defects, that might work. I just DON'T EXPECT THEM TO DIE!

The sun is almost up, well it's not, it's going to rain all day today so it's cloudy. I'm going out to the barn now to check on Beastie. We had him locked in a stall with food and water. Maybe he ate something.

 

[purplequeenvt]

I'm sorry about Beastie. Raising livestock can be hard, especially for emotional individual like you and me. Don't be ashamed to cry. I'm going to have to put my 16 year old llama down in the next couple days and I am a major wreck....I can't stop crying.

Here is another picture of a split eyelid that show the actual split a little better. This is from one of my lambs this year (polled crossbred with no Jacob or multi-horned breeds in her).

 

[BrownSheep]

There's two quotes I generally subscribe to when it comes to animals. 1) where there is livestock there is dead stock. 2) sheep are born looking for a way to die.

Maybe I am a little desensitized being raised with knowledge it's gonna happen now or it's gonna happen later but that doesn't stop me fom being sad when it does happen.when or if it happens just remember you did everything within your power to help him.