DEAD! 2nd or 3 White Dorper DEAD!

[rockdoveranch]

Dead:

Not Dead:

A 2nd of our 3 White Dorper sheep is DEAD! She was alive and well this evening when I took this picture of her this evening. I took the picture so I could send it to the breeder to show him she does not shed her wool. It got up to 99 today and we decided to bring her into the working pen when it cooled down a bit for me to cut as much of the wool off of her that I could. Her wool was 4 to 5 inches long! REALLY! I could not pull it out like I can on our other hair sheep when they are shedding.

We lay her down on her side. My husband held her feet and I started cutting the wool off starting at her neck. As I started slowly cutting towards her back end we realized she was very still. She was DEAD! Her rectum had prolapsed! At least that is what I think it was. There was a big pink bubble of shiny flesh coming out of her rectum! I wanted to cut her open and take a look inside, but my husband did not want to, and I do not have the strength to do it by myself.

When the ram died we looked him over really well and he looked fine. We did NOT check his back end! I wish we had! I wish we had! I BET he prolapsed too.

The breeder cut the entire tails off all 3 sheep. They were both January and February 2010 and we bought them last June. They all looked like the one in the second pictuer.

I am SO upset. Can a prolapse kill a sheep within minutes? If happened so fast. I hope she did not suffer.

 

[elevan]

I'm confused...what's going on??

 

[doxiemoxie]

oh no! Maurene, what happened?

 

[rockdoveranch]

Not sure what I am doing here. My posts are all messed up. Off to bed. Stressful evening.

 

[rockdoveranch]

Oh NO! Where did my copy go? Am so upset that I somehow deleted it? I will try to calm down and try again.

 

[elevan]

Ah, Maureen, I am so sorry

 

[goodhors]

Wow, sorry to hear this about your sheep. I have never heard of that happening in that way before, but sheep seem to die easily. You never know what is "their last straw" in a stress situation.

We see prolapses with extremely short docked tails in 4-H. Talking to folks, most sheep folks think short docking affects the muscles that keep prolapses from happening. Certainly more visible with the very short/non-existant tails.

We have always gotten sheep and lambs with a bit more tail left on, even though the "apple-rump" look is most popular in 4-H and meat lamb showing. Just is not a good management idea for sheep in the long run.

If you go Dorper shopping again, you can ask for a longer tail left on the sheep. Tail doesn't have to be extreme, just enough left on to overhang the rectum itself.

Question, were the ram and ewe closely related? Sometimes a weakness can be genetic in closely related animals. Certain lines of breeding are known for the good and poor features they bring to the table in desirable choices of animals.

 

[rockdoveranch]

Goodhors,

I just looked at Sheep 201: Sheep diseases, and the prolapse looked more like the picture labeled prolapse starting. Do you think she could have had a heart attack from the stress and died? Or could her intestines twisted and something bad happened inside her as she started to prolapse? We have had so few problems with the Barbado. This all baffles me and makes me really REALLY SAD!

I have pulled twins from our Barbado, basically a wild sheep, and even reached up inside to make sure there were no lambs remaining and they all survived and thrived even though all that stress!

I don't know if the ram and ewe are related. I will ask the breeder.

 

[carolinagirl]

Oh no!! I a so sorry you lost another one. She was probably prone to prolapse because of her short tail dock. Struggling and tensing up while being handled probably made it happen....but it would have happened when she lambed the first time anyway if the muscles were that weak. I doubt the prolapse killed her though. I sure can't imagine what did! That is really scary that they can die THAT easy. And it seems really odd that two sheep from the same guy both died suddely with no symptoms.

 

[jhm47]

Most likely the ewe died from being stressed, and when the muscles relaxed, the "bubble' appeared. A real prolapse does not look like a bubble, it looks a lot worse than that. The wool wouldn't have hurt the ewe anyway. Trying to remove it in extreme heat was what most likely killed her. As long as sheep have access to plenty of cold water, shade, a breeze, and are not unduly stressed, they usually are fine.