ewe retaining fluid in abdomen

J.O. Farmer

As the title says we have a ewe who retained a lot of water in the abdominal cavity. She doesn't seem in any way sick but her abdomen was huge like a ewe really heavy in lamb. It looked like wind but when we put in a needle clear fluid like water came out. We were over an hour draining fluid with a thick needle. SShe's gone back to normal size now. The ewe seems healthy otherwise although she is thin. She's eating away and did pass some urine.
Anybody every seen the like or attempt a guess at a cause.
We were dosing for fluke today and she got a dose for it.

orm0nd

whats the withdrawal on the fluke dose ?

I had 1 similar last year , kept her a couple of weeks & the b1tch died on route to the factory

don't know the cause of it though

greysides

Just seen the posting date.... is she still alive?

What dose did you give? When was her previous fluke dose and what was it? Were her eyes and mouth white? Was she reluctant to move?

What kind of land has she been on? Any others vaguely similar?

MayoAreMagic

I take it that is a sign of fluke then is it greysides? I had one years ago that swelled up all around the head. Not bottle-jaw now, this was the entire face area. Drained it and it went down a bit, but she died shortly after. Im assuming it is something similar - it was around December time I think. Always bugged me that one, had no idea what it was.

greysides

I could be fluke amongst other less likely things.

A swollen face would not be fluke though.

J.O. Farmer

greysides wrote: »

Just seen the posting date.... is she still alive?

What dose did you give? When was her previous fluke dose and what was it? Were her eyes and mouth white? Was she reluctant to move?

What kind of land has she been on? Any others vaguely similar?

She's still alive. We gave levafas diamond although I know it's not really good enough as it only covers mature fluke. She got the same early this year at the end of August. She didn't appear all that anaemic but she was reluctant to move understandable given the extra weight alone and that she probably hadn't been eating enough. There's one other old ewe in a bunch of 20 +15 ewe lambs vaguely similar. She's an old ewe too that doesn't seem overly healthy in that she's staying thin all the time on good grass. The others have gained condition in less time and generally are pretty good considering they were the thinnest ewes 6-7 weeks ago.

I've seen bottle jaw before and lambs with wind in the abdomen but never this. I suspect it may be fluke just as you appear to also. It's just unusual and I know there's a lot of experience on boards here and I was wondering if anyone had come across it and offer a possible explanation.

greysides

There could be several weird reasons for an accumulation of fluid in the abdomen but acute fluke seems the most reasonable. 'Reasonable' in general terms because its been such a dry year that fluke should be very much on the back foot. Levafas Diamond, if used previously too may have left enough fluke present to have undermined her liver for the fresh lot.

Ewes with acute fluke when opened in the factory release a vast amount of fluid.

I'd dose with a flukicide that's more active against early immature fluke as soon as her condition allows it.