Ewes getting thin

drive it

As title says the ewes are starting to go backwards a bit to fast I know the lack of grass and weather is not helping but looking at neighbours sheep mine are way behind and they have same type land ,ewes ,conditions that I have. I think fluke could be part of the problem even though they were dosed at the end of July with lemavas diamond ,begging of oct flukeiver and 2 cobalt bolus and can't remember what it was 3rd week of dec for fluke but still look bad . Have started feeding bales of silage to them last two weeks. Is there any thing else that I could do eg. Dung samples or Blood tests?

Galvium Irredentum

how far from lambing are they? - what's the quality of the silage?

Galvium Irredentum

re fluke - I used cydectin in September; endofluke at start of December; and levafas this weekend. had one 48 hour death (symptoms to death)(out of 80) week after endofluke; hard December and currently on sheep - I notice a few pining ok - am adding them into triplet feeding group starting nest week for early March lambing...

Galvium Irredentum

not adding in singles - they can chug along til later..

micky mouse

You could take dung samples,that will tell you quick enough.Thin sheep is a bad job coming near lambing ,not much milk and sheep will not stand up to much abuse at the best of times.I can also tell ya that fluke is a serious problem this year ,a lot worse than people realise .Ya want to start feeding meal straight away to your sheep ,if you have ewes carrying heavy they will just melt in front of your eyes. Also with sheep if you have an underlying problem ie stomach fluke you can have a lot of loses in a short period of time .I know a man that has ten sheep lost already with fluke. Bring a dung sample into your vet and he/she will have results back in 48 hours. Work from there.

drive it

Thanks for replies I think the dose in dec was endofluke it was yellow?? I saw a great improvement in them after the lemavas diamond and a lad was telling me he thought it does for rumen fluke . How long does a dose last against rumen fluke? The only dung I see in the field are in pellet form and no sign of any soft stuff does a dung sample show up fluke at different stages and does it show up rumen fluke? Ment to say laming mid march

Username John

drive it wrote: »

Thanks for replies I think the dose in dec was endofluke it was yellow?? I saw a great improvement in them after the lemavas diamond and a lad was telling me he thought it does for rumen fluke . How long does a dose last against rumen fluke? The only dung I see in the field are in pellet form and no sign of any soft stuff does a dung sample show up fluke at different stages and does it show up rumen fluke? Ment to say laming mid march

Hi Driveit,

I dosed with Levfas as well in September, and I saw a savage improvement as well. It does rumen fluke as well.

I dont think fecal samples are definitive for fluke or rumen fluke. They might show up, but not necessarily (open to correction on this, but am fairly sure this is the case)
Having said that - I got some FEC samples done about 12 months ago or more, and they showed both fluke + rumen fluke eggs, so I knew I had an issue.

I am planning to start feeding the doubles & triplets next week. Normally I wouldn't feed em this early (1st March lambing)
But running short on grass...
I would prefer to feed em oats, but I'll feed nuts instead (our place is exposed, and more oats blow off into the wind than into the trough)
I'll start them with a little, maybe 0.1 - 0.2kg of sheep nuts. This is along with grass, and they have access to mineral blocks as well...

We'll see how it goes...

razor8

drive it wrote: »

Thanks for replies I think the dose in dec was endofluke it was yellow?? I saw a great improvement in them after the lemavas diamond and a lad was telling me he thought it does for rumen fluke . How long does a dose last against rumen fluke? The only dung I see in the field are in pellet form and no sign of any soft stuff does a dung sample show up fluke at different stages and does it show up rumen fluke? Ment to say laming mid march

Endofluke isnt yellow, you need to find that drum and see exactly what you used. Endofluke a good dose and should have your liver fluke under control
Levafas does for rumen fluke but doesnt cover immature liver fluke. I'm dosing every 7/8 weeks since september and sheep are in very good condition and were out until this week

when im dosing for liver fluke i always have zanil with me to do any thin ones with covers rumen fluke and seems to be working well

Buzwaldo

Triclabendazole active ingredient (tribex / fasinex & possibly one or 2 others) is your only man for all fluke stages. Faecal sample not reliable as eggs only shed by mature fluke, and sheep can be killed by heavy burden of immatures.
Dose with above, ASAP, ask questions later.

Username John

Buzwaldo wrote: »

Triclabendazole active ingredient (tribex / fasinex & possibly one or 2 others) is your only man for all fluke stages. Faecal sample not reliable as eggs only shed by mature fluke, and sheep can be killed by heavy burden of immatures.
Dose with above, ASAP, ask questions later.

Hi Buzwaldo,

This is not scientific - but my opinion is dosing my flock with fasinex is a pure waste of time, it never seems to do any good. Maybe we over used it previously....

Just my opinion / experience.

greysides

Don't ignore the effect of worms.

razor8

Username John wrote: »

Hi Buzwaldo,

This is not scientific - but my opinion is dosing my flock with fasinex is a pure waste of time, it never seems to do any good. Maybe we over used it previously....

Just my opinion / experience.

In agreement with John as well, we used it years ago and always had losses, since we switched we have had no problems

read on BFF that a guy who regularly dosed with fasinex had lost 260 ewes out of 1000 so I would be very sceptical

Insp. Harry Callahan

Used to use Fasinex for years here, then stopped, using Flukiver now the last few years, find it good, anybody else use it?.
Maybe I should switch over to avoid resistance?

Username John

Insp. Harry Callahan wrote: »

Used to use Fasinex for years here, then stopped, using Flukiver now the last few years, find it good, anybody else use it?.
Maybe I should switch over to avoid resistance?

Same story here Harry.

Use flukiver, and gave one dose of Levafas in Sept before I put the ram with the ewes, and was very pleased with that.

Was wondering the exact same thing re flukiver and resistance...

foyle

What age ewes are you talking about ? are some missing teeth which might be stopping them from eating properly ?

drive it

They are from 2 up to 5-6 and its across the board that are getting thin that's why I think it's fluke/worm or mineral problems. They will be in for scanning Friday week and will take samples then and might talk to a vet between then and see what he says

razor8

drive it wrote: »

They are from 2 up to 5-6 and its across the board that are getting thin that's why I think it's fluke/worm or mineral problems. They will be in for scanning Friday week and will take samples then and might talk to a vet between then and see what he says

hi drive it

did you find out anything since?

drive it

Got them scanned on Friday went well 21 singles 38 twins 1 triplet and 2 empty but 1 of these were tipped in dec am feed them 1 bag of sheep nut between them and bale of silage every 4-5 days took dung samples waiting for results.the scanner said a lot ewes under pressure this year so hoping for some dry weather and they might improve

razor8

cant complain about them figures. the dung sample results might get to the bottom of the problem

drive it

Hope so if not will have try some thing else. Ya numbers are good but the ewes were in great shape going to the ram and no flushing but I think the cobalt bolus helped a lot

tabby aspreme

drive it wrote: »

am feed them 1 bag of sheep nut between them and bale of silage every 4-5 days /Quote]

Good scanning results, I presume from scanning date you are lambing mid march, if so I think you should not be giving the singles nuts this soon two weeks before lambing should do them

drive it

Ya lambing around 17 march will feed this for couple of weeks and will separate singles its just to give them a boost and see how dung samples go will go from there