Vitamin drench for Sheep

jfh

hi all,
we have lambs that have started to pine in the last few weeks, only some, not all, mainly charolois.
we bought ovitone of the vet, never heard of it before but they had no other so better than nothing.
anyone else have lambs not thriving?

would cobalt deficiency show up in any particular way.
we have never blood tested sheep, TBH our vet doesn't know a whole lot about sheep from what i can see.

recommend a good drench/bolus.

rangler1

jfh wrote: »

hi all,
we have lambs that have started to pine in the last few weeks, only some, not all, mainly charolois.
we bought ovitone of the vet, never heard of it before but they had no other so better than nothing.
anyone else have lambs not thriving?

would cobalt deficiency show up in any particular way.
we have never blood tested sheep, TBH our vet doesn't know a whole lot about sheep from what i can see.

recommend a good drench/bolus.

Scabby ears are a sign of cobalt, lambs are supposed to have a nice velvet ear, lambs are supposed to use 1mg cobalt a day. Ovitone should have cobalt in it, see how they respond, and work from there. It should tell you how many mgs cobalt in each dose

jmrc

JFH,
blood I am led to believe is unreliable, liver sample is the definative. Just got the grass sampled and you can work off that based on that is what the sheep is eating. good information to have, I think.

difficult to get a good sheep vet, our lad retired in the last couple of years and it looks like all the practices in the area are more likely to want to treat the dog or cat than the sheep...!

drive it

Where did you get the grass sampled and how much does it cost ? What does the results tell you about it?

jmrc

drive it,
IAS Labs http://www.iaslabs.ie/ is who did the testing. took samples from a couple of points in the field. got the full mineral and trace element test @75.00. took about 10 working days for results and they were very very helpful in giving advice also.

got soil testing done with them last year also. and I think, we tested the winter feed with them too. information is key.



for the record, i have no connection with this company, just used them and found them very good.

jfh

rangler1 wrote: »

Scabby ears are a sign of cobalt, lambs are supposed to have a nice velvet ear, lambs are supposed to use 1mg cobalt a day. Ovitone should have cobalt in it, see how they respond, and work from there. It should tell you how many mgs cobalt in each dose

Thanks rangler1, you're a great resource in the sheep forum

jfh

jmrc wrote: »

JFH,
blood I am led to believe is unreliable, liver sample is the definative. Just got the grass sampled and you can work off that based on that is what the sheep is eating. good information to have, I think.

difficult to get a good sheep vet, our lad retired in the last couple of years and it looks like all the practices in the area are more likely to want to treat the dog or cat than the sheep...!

Our guy is specialising in cats & dogs, handier money & very busy.

Appreciate tip on grass testing, know for next time, where did you send samples?