Sheep problems

Thomas Drennan

I have a small number of ewes gust 30 to be precise I winter indoor to save grass brought some top class hay last year but I ended up with 5 prolapse some older farmers say hay will cause this problem but vets don't agree some say feeding to much concentrates in 1 feed can cause it also had a problem with short supply of milk and advice

White Clover

Is it the year of the prolapse? I have small numbers here too and have had 3. Have heard of other farmers with higher than normal incidents too. Mine were on a straw and concentrate diet.

Green farmer

Don’t know, but make sure they aren’t around again this time next year. They might live through this year but won’t next year. Cull !!!

wrangler

Thomas Drennan wrote: »

I have a small number of ewes gust 30 to be precise I winter indoor to save grass brought some top class hay last year but I ended up with 5 prolapse some older farmers say hay will cause this problem but vets don't agree some say feeding to much concentrates in 1 feed can cause it also had a problem with short supply of milk and advice

If you don't feed any more than .5kg in a feed prolapses shouldn't be a problem.
I've been feeding .5kg three times/day and have had only 3 prolapses in eighty ewes.
If you're having problems with milk supply and have been feeding circa a kg+ of ewe ration pre and post lambing then you should be looking at the ration. Some very poor rations out there. You need soya to be in the first three ingredients on the list of ingredients on the bag, The cost difference between feeding ewes a good 20% ration and a poor 18% ration is only about €2/ewe over the season and you'll get multiples of that back in the lambs
Don't put a high value on hay for ewes,I'd be surprised if it was much over60 DMD if you got it analysed I'd be suspecting hay causing prolapses as well

ganmo

The list of things that gets blamed for prolapses is long.

Bulky feed whether it’s high fiber or wet feed seems to be the main one.
The strangest one I heard was the sheep lying on a steep slope

charolais0153

On tje liat of things to cull for... Prolapses rank low in my opinion.
Bad udder
Bad lambs
Not enough milk
Teeth
Mastitis
Age
Lameness
These are all bad enough without adding other things to the list. If you have other things under control its easier to cull for prolapses. Keeping 4 ewe lambs this year out of 2 that prolapsed.

Lambman

Fed sheep hay (blamed for prolapses) till ewes outside then roundbales off non chopped silage (also blamed) inside and didn't have one prolapse in over 160 ewes... 1 hogget started till show it when shed lye so I stuck the harness on her as she was scanned for trips lambed no bother and harness is off now.... I would cull ewes for prolapseing in previous years maybe it's starting till show now?