Wandering Sheep. Something Is Not Right With Her.

[kuntrygirl]

For the last few days, I have noticed that one of my Kathadin Ewe's is acting "spaced out". She is wandering around as if she is lost. I will sometimes find her in the back of the pen staring at the post. She is not keeping up with the rest of the group when they go out to graze. She is left behind and I have to walk her out of the pen. The others will come back to get her to take her out and bring her to where they are and she will sometimes follow them. She is still eating and drinking but does not graze like the others. She will walk a little and then she will stop. Yesterday she sat down on the ground after walking a few steps. I allowed her to rest a bit before trying to get her up. She got up and walked a bit then sat back down. I finally got her back in the pen but it took about 45 minutes. She is NOT herself. It almost seems like she is going blind but she is not really running into anything. She is cautious in how and where she steps. I looked up her "symptoms" online and the closest thing that I could find was that she has worms. I have the FAMACHA chart and compared eye color but it doesn't appear that she has worms based on the color. I went ahead and started her on Levasole Sheep Wormer Boluses last night, just in case.

Has anyone ever experienced this before? What do you all think this should be?

I would appreciate any input. I don't want to lose he.

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

I don't have any answers for you on this, but will be watching your post, as I have a 2 yr, old ewe with triplets that is doing much the same as yours!

 

[kuntrygirl]

I don't have any answers for you on this, but will be watching your post, as I have a 2 yr, old ewe with triplets that is doing much the same as yours!

Thanks for reading and posting. Sorry to hear about yours but I am glad that I am not alone and that I am not "imagining" this "wandering" behavior along with the other signs. I have been reading and researching ALL night and morning. EVERYTHING is pointing to worms.

When was the last night that yours was treated for worms? I began treating mine for worms last night and will monitor her to see if she snaps out of this. As long as I have had sheep, I have never treated for worms because they have always been healthy. I try to stay away from meds if they don't need it but I am reading that with the hot weather/summer, worms will be a problem.

It just so happened that I checked out Storey's Guide to raising sheep from the library last week. It is coming in handy. Instead of buying the book, I went to the library to get it. Not sure if you have access to your local library but if you do, you may want to check to see if they have this book. This is a great book.

http://www.magazines.com/storeys-gu...ate_id=20337&gclid=CKvksaLy8rcCFWcV7AodXhYATQ

Let's see if anyone else has any thoughts.

 

[bonbean01]

I'm not a vet, nor had experience on what you are describing...but...if any sheep are acting off here, the first thing I do is check their temperature to see if that is normal.

As for worms...rosy eyelids means no barberpole worms, but there are many other other worms. If you have a vet that does fecals, I would bring in a sample to get that checked to see if there is a worm problem and what kind and treat for that.

Hope both your sheep improve soon!!!!

 

[kuntrygirl]

I'm not a vet, nor had experience on what you are describing...but...if any sheep are acting off here, the first thing I do is check their temperature to see if that is normal.

As for worms...rosy eyelids means no barberpole worms, but there are many other other worms. If you have a vet that does fecals, I would bring in a sample to get that checked to see if there is a worm problem and what kind and treat for that.

Hope both your sheep improve soon!!!!

Good idea. I will check her temps when I get home. I will have to separate her to get fecals but not sure how to get a fresh sample because it will have touched the ground.

Thanks for your input and suggestions. Much appreciated.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Just called my vet but they are closed today. Will call them back tomorrow.

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

I don't have any answers for you on this, but will be watching your post, as I have a 2 yr, old ewe with triplets that is doing much the same as yours!

Thanks for reading and posting. Sorry to hear about yours but I am glad that I am not alone and that I am not "imagining" this "wandering" behavior along with the other signs. I have been reading and researching ALL night and morning. EVERYTHING is pointing to worms.

When was the last night that yours was treated for worms? I began treating mine for worms last night and will monitor her to see if she snaps out of this. As long as I have had sheep, I have never treated for worms because they have always been healthy. I try to stay away from meds if they don't need it but I am reading that with the hot weather/summer, worms will be a problem.

It just so happened that I checked out Storey's Guide to raising sheep from the library last week. It is coming in handy. Instead of buying the book, I went to the library to get it. Not sure if you have access to your local library but if you do, you may want to check to see if they have this book. This is a great book.

http://www.magazines.com/storeys-gu...ate_id=20337&gclid=CKvksaLy8rcCFWcV7AodXhYATQ

Let's see if anyone else has any thoughts.

My ewe dosent have a temp, and I can't find anything at all wrong with her at all at theis time, besides her odd behavior! My sheep have a very strict worming schedual, and her last time was 3 weeks ago. So I wouldn't think worms, but I guess time will tell!
Good luck!!!
I will let you know if I discover the issue!!

 

[SheepGirl]

Doesnt really sound like worms to me. Take her temp. She even sounds like she could be going blind. Could also be plant poisoning or OPP.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I'm not a vet, nor had experience on what you are describing...but...if any sheep are acting off here, the first thing I do is check their temperature to see if that is normal.

As for worms...rosy eyelids means no barberpole worms, but there are many other other worms. If you have a vet that does fecals, I would bring in a sample to get that checked to see if there is a worm problem and what kind and treat for that.

Hope both your sheep improve soon!!!!

I did a rectal temp last night and it was normal 102.6. I tried to get fecal but she only had 2 pellets around her bottom. I will need to get more. I called the vet and they will be able to do testing as soon as I bring the fecal in.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I posted my problem on BackyardChickens and this is one of the replies that I got and here is my update as well.

chooks4life wrote:
Gut pain? My first few bets would be either pain in the guts, or legs/hooves/spine, or toxicity. Lucy, my lamb, has bashed her spine and this makes her stiff on the hind legs with alternate looseness at the ankles. I felt the trembling in her back and gave her black pepper, curry and cayenne toast and she's fine now. (Specific black pepper since it's an anti-spasmodic/epileptic/seizure medicine, the curry for the turmeric which assists healing of inflammation and trapped nerves, and the cayenne for the inflammation and to boost circulation).

When Lucy was quite poisoned from eating who-knows-which-toxic-ornamental-plant-it-was-this-time, she was quiet, would walk a little then stop, still drank, didn't 'graze' like usual. I gave her activated charcoal until she recovered. This has happened multiple times now, and she's only about 6 months old. Personally if I were you I would give your ewe a good drench of charcoal powder in water asap. Even if her hooves need doing. It won't hurt. My best bet is that she's toxified, and even if that's possibly not the issue but you don't know for sure what it, I would treat with activated charcoal immediately because other problems can be treated slowly but if it is toxicity it will likely kill sooner rather than later. If it's not toxicity, well, a good detox of a gentle nature like charcoal is always beneficial. Damaras are toxic weed eaters but here we only have the most toxic ornamental sorts that nothing gets away with consuming. Most recently she ate Spider Lily. Before that she ate Crucifix Orchid. Frequently it's Golden Hedges. Also frequently she eats a number of fancy ground cover plants which do not exist in paddocks or her natural environment. She is cunning and quick to spot opportunity. I strongly advise all keepers of children or animals to keep activated carbon/charcoal tablets/capsules/powder on hand at all times.

I also knew one ewe dying from slow bloating (not mine; I talked to the owner multiple times but he liked the idea that she was 'just old' --- one of the most overused excuses for ill health out there --- so wouldn't treat her); this ewe got to the point where she was only able to walk a few steps before she had to stop. I moved away after that so I don't know what happened, but it took months and she was definitely suffering. People think bloating's only acute but I've seen both sorts. Charcoal also helps with gas and killing bacteria that lead to overproduction of it.

Best wishes. I hope she's ok.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/737615/sheep-chat-thread/250#post_11472326


MY RESPONSE AND UPDATE:

VERY good information!!!!

EVERYTHING that you had discussed sounds like VERY strong possibilities. I would go as far to say you are right in your diagnosis. I would definitely agree with either and combo of both problems.

After reading your posts, I IMMEDIATELY set out to find activated charcoal. I went to 5 stores before I finally found the activated charcoal at our local Walgreens. I purchased a bottle of 100 capsules for $19.00. WalMart didn't have it but said they could order it for me and it would be here today but I couldn't wait on that. Time was of the essence.

So, I get back home and the first thing that I did before even going inside the house was go to the sheep pen and look for her. I saw all of the sheep BUT her. I panicked and slowly went in the pen to look for her. She was nowhere to be found. My first thought was that she was dead. I stopped and prepared myself to find her dead. I walked around the shed and she was laying down next to the shed. Flies were all around her mouth and eyes. It looked like the Grim Reaper calling her to the grave. I just knew that she was a goner but I knew that I couldn't let that stop me. I knew that I had to do whatever it took to get her up and going. I ran inside to get the charcoal mixture together but then I had no idea what the water ratio was. It took me a while to research online on how much water to mix the charcoal with. I could not find anything and I started getting nervous because my next thought was that I was about to kill her because I wouldn't be able to cut the charcoal with the appropriate dosage and she would overdose. So, I mixed it with about 1/4 cup of water and (2) 250 mg tabs of activated charcoal (opened the tabs and put the charcoal powder in a cup). I didn't have a dosing syringe but I did have a VERY large 2 oz syringe that worked just fine. So, I drew up the 2 oz charcoal/water mixture and went out. By the time I went back out to the sheep pen, I noticed that she was up and standing around . That was good sign. So as I got myself together, and turned back around, she was sitting down again. I went over to her and drenched her with no problems. She didn't fight me at all. So, then it was a waiting game. I then proceeded to complete my other chores and bottle fed the 2 lamb. I kept an eye on her and there was no change. I took a rectal temp and it was 102.6, which was normal. While getting the temp, I noticed that she had a few fecal pellets stuck to her rear and I picked a few of them off, so that I could take to the vet. It was only 3 small pellets and I wasn't sure if that would be enough. I will continue to try to get a fecal sample to take to the vet.

So, I went back out last night and there was no change. The mosquitoes were eating her up and she was not brushing them off. So, I went inside and mixed up a natural remedy solution for mosquitoes. I put it in a spray bottle and went back out and sprayed her. I didn't want the mosquitoes to eat her alive last night because I knew that she needed her rest and didn't need to suffer from bites. After spraying her, there were no more mosquitoes. So, I left her to get some rest.

Woke up this morning to go bottle feed the lamb and dose her again. As I was walking to the sheep pen, I was praying that she was still alive but was prepared for the worst. When I got to the sheep pen, I was shocked to see that she was up and was drinking water. I exhaled. A sigh of relief came all over me. I could breath again. She stayed at the water trough and drank for several minutes. As I bottle fed the babies, I waited for her to finish drinking. After she drank the water, she went over to the salt block and licked on it. After that she walked back over to the water trough and drank more water. This is the 1st time since this weekend that I have seen her THAT active. I was so happy. So, I knew that the activated charcoal HAD to be working. I then grabbed the syringe and walked over to her. I placed myself in a position to dose her again. As I was about to dose her, she started fighting me and didn't want the dose. I said, "HALLELUJAH"!!!! Fighting me was a GREAT SIGN that she was feeling better. She had the strength to try to get away from me. Before she didn't have any strength at all. Before I think that I could have performed an eye ball removal surgery on her with no anesthesia and she would have let me do it because she was so weak. But not anymore. So, I was able to dose her again with 2 oz.

So, now it's a waiting game. I"m not sure if 2 oz is enough. What is the appropriate charcoal/water dosage? Should it be more. And how often should I give this and for how many days? Any help would be appreciated.

So, I am feeling soooooooooo much better today and I think that she is as well and I am very hopeful that she may pull through. Oh, I forgot to add that I did trim her hooves last night as she was laying down. Did the best that I could with the position that she was laying down in. Will try to finish trimming. And yes, her hooves did need trimming, so she could have been in pain as well.

Thank you for the detailed information that you have offered to me and contributed to this thread. I would have never guessed of the possibilities. Your expertise is helping my girl out. I feel confident that she will be ok.

You know sometimes, we have situations or problems with our animals and sometimes we don't know what to do or where to go to get help. We also won't post our problems because we may think that it's minor and our animals will be ok or we think that others will laugh at our problem. A good example is the example that you gave about the older man who had the ewe who was dying from bloat.


And for everyone on this thread...............

Because of whatever reasons, we sometimes may not seek out the solution to a problem. I know my family and friends sometimes joke with me and laugh and think I'm crazy for observing and monitoring my animal's behaviors for anything out of the ordinary but I do. And this is one reason why I look at every single animal that I have and I watch for any behavior that I am not use to seeing. If I have an animal that is sitting in the same spot for more than a certain period of time and is not moving, the that calls for alarm for me and I need to find out what's going on with that animal. If I would have shrugged this "wandering sheep behavior" off as my sheep just "wanting to be alone", I know that she would have died. So, I say this to say that pay close attention to your animals and observe any unusual behaviors. Our animals can't tell us what's wrong with them, so it's up to us to notice and to try to figure it out and help them. So, if you all have any problems or issues with your sheep or any other animal, as "trivial" as you think it may be, PLEASE post the problem. You may never know, someone else may have or have had that same problem with their animal and can help and save your animal. There will NEVER be a dumb or silly question when it comes to the health and welfare of our animals. No one will ridicule you or think you are crazy for being concerned with what other "non-animal owners" think is crazy or being paranoid about our animal's behaviors. It's our job as responsible owners to seek out help when we need it.

So, I will keep everyone updated. I hope that my question/problem and chooks4life's advice will help the next person who may have a "wandering" sheep who exhibits this same problem.

Thanks to everyone who commented and offered suggestions and questions. Much appreciated. Keep your fingers crossed and send my girl some good vibes that she pulls through this.