Lizzy733
Loving the herd life
Well, we've only been on our new block for a little under a week and already seeing some issues with the resident ewes.
While walking out to the paddock today with some friends, we noticed one of the sheep appeared to have a limp, so we decided to use numbers and drive them into the yard for a closer inspection. During this, we noticed there may be a second one limping as well, but the first veered off from the flock and made to move deeper into the main paddock (which is quite large).
Well, I caught up to her rather quickly - she made one attempt at evasion and then gave up - didn't even end up needing the sheep hook. I managed to get her on her rump (my first time doing so) and checked her over. Her hooves were moderately overgrown and quite soft and spongy - we are brand new to sheep and wouldn't have them if they hadn't come with the land - so I am not sure what texture is normal for them. Would there be a smell associated with hoof rot, or any other way to confirm? I didn't like how soft they were at all and will definitely be giving them all a check and a trim soon.
Anyway, I popped her back down and she would 'not' get up. She was breathing in slow and heavy pants and there was occasional gurgling from her gut which I'm unsure is normal rumen movement or signs of an issue like bloat. She seemed a bit gassy, burping and such. Her ears were also quite scabby looking. I had a look at the base of her wool (they are due for a shear) and did not see any parasites on the back and shoulder blades. From my limited experience, her body condition seemed ok, but her eyelid seemed pale (though I'm not very familiar with famacha scoring and could be wrong).
After much coaxing and allowing her to rest, I did get her back up on her feet and was able to slowly coax her up the hill with much pushing from behind and steering with my hip. it was very slow going and by the time I got her to the yard with the rest, she wanted to do little more than to stand where I left her with her head down and panting.
A few other notes of her overall condition - I had a look at her teeth - I think she's one of the 4 toothers. I have no idea if she has a lamb - we have 10 ewes and 7 lambs of varying age and since we're new and the previous farmer did not keep records, I have no idea whose is whose or how old the lambs are other than nearing weaning. The old farmer was not supplementing them - they have free run of a very large paddock which makes up the largest portion of our farm. The new lambs appear to be docked, but the adults are not. Some are quite daggy - fortunately, our downer ewe does not appear to be one of them. I've turned them out into the smaller paddock connecting to the yard as we need to get someone in to shear them anyway (grass there is a bit shorter though, so not sure how good an idea that is, but any suggestions on what we should do with this girl? We do intend to downsize the flock quite drastically as it's too big for us, as newbs to handle. We have a butcher friend in Auckland who will be able to come up from the 15th who is keen to help us with butchering, so might just add this one to that list - if it's condition is not urgent.
Given a bit of time in the yard, it started to show a bit more strength.
I was hoping to have a bit more time to get on top of these things, do proper soil testing and get them on a schedule from the vet's office, get set up with a herd manager, but it's less than a week in and money's a little tight as we just bought this place and have been having to pay here and there to fix up what we can ... was hoping to have a little more time before something like this cropped up. We'd been going down with a small bucket of sheep nut every other day or so - there are a few white ewes and one always seemed to be gutsing them, so might be her, but it was less than a cup shared between both the ram pen and the ewe\lamb pen so wouldn't 'think' that would be enough to off-balance their diet. The wether has also been gutsing nut and I haven't noticed any issues with him.
What do you guys think? Vitamin issues? Parasites? Obviously overgrown hooves, but hoof rot? And considering my timelines for wanting to shear, cull, and sell off most of the flock, what should I do? We only have a pellet gun and no gun license yet - no captive bolt gun yet either. Does this require urgent vet assistance, or any medication\supplementation on my part? The vet office was closed other than emergencies, otherwise I would have called them up, but also unsure if it is an emergency as such. I think I'd be okay giving injections... I've done subcutaneous in birds and have access to syringes,18 gauge and 22 needles if needed. (somewhere in the boxes to be unpacked).
Thanks in advance for helping us greenhorns with a problem, but can't stand mismanaged animals and we just aren't knowledgeable enough at this stage to not do it without assistance.
While walking out to the paddock today with some friends, we noticed one of the sheep appeared to have a limp, so we decided to use numbers and drive them into the yard for a closer inspection. During this, we noticed there may be a second one limping as well, but the first veered off from the flock and made to move deeper into the main paddock (which is quite large).
Well, I caught up to her rather quickly - she made one attempt at evasion and then gave up - didn't even end up needing the sheep hook. I managed to get her on her rump (my first time doing so) and checked her over. Her hooves were moderately overgrown and quite soft and spongy - we are brand new to sheep and wouldn't have them if they hadn't come with the land - so I am not sure what texture is normal for them. Would there be a smell associated with hoof rot, or any other way to confirm? I didn't like how soft they were at all and will definitely be giving them all a check and a trim soon.
Anyway, I popped her back down and she would 'not' get up. She was breathing in slow and heavy pants and there was occasional gurgling from her gut which I'm unsure is normal rumen movement or signs of an issue like bloat. She seemed a bit gassy, burping and such. Her ears were also quite scabby looking. I had a look at the base of her wool (they are due for a shear) and did not see any parasites on the back and shoulder blades. From my limited experience, her body condition seemed ok, but her eyelid seemed pale (though I'm not very familiar with famacha scoring and could be wrong).
After much coaxing and allowing her to rest, I did get her back up on her feet and was able to slowly coax her up the hill with much pushing from behind and steering with my hip. it was very slow going and by the time I got her to the yard with the rest, she wanted to do little more than to stand where I left her with her head down and panting.
A few other notes of her overall condition - I had a look at her teeth - I think she's one of the 4 toothers. I have no idea if she has a lamb - we have 10 ewes and 7 lambs of varying age and since we're new and the previous farmer did not keep records, I have no idea whose is whose or how old the lambs are other than nearing weaning. The old farmer was not supplementing them - they have free run of a very large paddock which makes up the largest portion of our farm. The new lambs appear to be docked, but the adults are not. Some are quite daggy - fortunately, our downer ewe does not appear to be one of them. I've turned them out into the smaller paddock connecting to the yard as we need to get someone in to shear them anyway (grass there is a bit shorter though, so not sure how good an idea that is, but any suggestions on what we should do with this girl? We do intend to downsize the flock quite drastically as it's too big for us, as newbs to handle. We have a butcher friend in Auckland who will be able to come up from the 15th who is keen to help us with butchering, so might just add this one to that list - if it's condition is not urgent.
Given a bit of time in the yard, it started to show a bit more strength.
I was hoping to have a bit more time to get on top of these things, do proper soil testing and get them on a schedule from the vet's office, get set up with a herd manager, but it's less than a week in and money's a little tight as we just bought this place and have been having to pay here and there to fix up what we can ... was hoping to have a little more time before something like this cropped up. We'd been going down with a small bucket of sheep nut every other day or so - there are a few white ewes and one always seemed to be gutsing them, so might be her, but it was less than a cup shared between both the ram pen and the ewe\lamb pen so wouldn't 'think' that would be enough to off-balance their diet. The wether has also been gutsing nut and I haven't noticed any issues with him.
What do you guys think? Vitamin issues? Parasites? Obviously overgrown hooves, but hoof rot? And considering my timelines for wanting to shear, cull, and sell off most of the flock, what should I do? We only have a pellet gun and no gun license yet - no captive bolt gun yet either. Does this require urgent vet assistance, or any medication\supplementation on my part? The vet office was closed other than emergencies, otherwise I would have called them up, but also unsure if it is an emergency as such. I think I'd be okay giving injections... I've done subcutaneous in birds and have access to syringes,18 gauge and 22 needles if needed. (somewhere in the boxes to be unpacked).
Thanks in advance for helping us greenhorns with a problem, but can't stand mismanaged animals and we just aren't knowledgeable enough at this stage to not do it without assistance.
