Sheep Chat Thread

[Stacykins]

The prions originate in the brains. Everyone has prions. Everyone's own personal prions are benign to themselves but act like a virus in others. The cannibals of Paupau New Guinea, in specific the males (because women are not allowed to eat the brains) eat the brains of their enemy and doom themselves to Jacob-Croitzfield disease (human scrapie) by the time they are 40. I don't know if they have managed to convince the people not to eat the brains of their enemies in these last 20 years but the information I had on them is about 20 years old and none of the men were living past 40.


Do not eat brains of any species. The Mad Cow Disease was caused because some idiot wanted cheap food to feed cattle and decided to use ground up sheep parts mixed with enough grain and molasses to fool the cows into eating like an omnivore. The scrapie was spread to the cattle in England because of this.

Actually, you have a bit of the information about kuru (I assume you mean kuru, since you are speaking of a Creutzfeldt-Jakob type disease (CJD) in Papua New Guinea) wrong. Women and children were actually more prone to acquiring the disease. The Fore people of Papua New Guinea consumed deceased relatives, in order to return the deceased person's 'life force' to the living. Men were less likely to get the disease because they had seniority, and thus ate the choicer pieces, mostly muscle with little nerve tissue. The women (and children) got the less muscled parts, which often led to them consuming spinal or brain tissue, where the misfolded proteins were more concentrated. It acted like some horrible, endless loop of disease, because by consuming those who died of kuru, it spread kuru to otherwise healthy individuals, who then died themselves. Plus, it had a very, very long incubation period.

Microbiology, disease, and whatnot are rather faciniating to me. So hopefully that clears up a few misconceptions.

You are right that all animals have prions. But most are correctly folded into a PrPC structure. When the protein is damaged in some way, it can change its form, which is called PrPSc These proteins act as templates, causing normal ones to fold into the infectious/disease causing form.

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: While I agree with that in general, the vines are often eaten without noticeable harm, and raw potato as well as cooked is often a medicinal food, being a bit of a detoxer and an alkalinizer which also supports the liver. Some european old time farmers used raw potatoes as medicine and cooked ones to fatten their whole livestock collection. It wasn't done in all parts, but did you know if you have Hep C for example or other liver failure issues, raw potato juice can support the liver indefinitely?

I personally know one guy who got Hep C through a blood transfusion about three decades ago, who has since then lived a mostly alcoholic life, drunk as often as he possibly can be, but just keeps up with his raw potato juice and continues to drink to excess daily. He got retested recently for his court case for compensation, and yes, he's still got Hep C. But he's not an isolated example.

I've also used raw potato for a turkey who had terrible liver function due to blackhead. It's certainly a viable life support in these cases.

As far as I know it is in fact the greened potatoes that are dangerous, whereas ripe and raw or cooked is fine. My sheep has had potato in her diet both raw and cooked regularly for months, our horses and cattle liked it, so have our goats and other sheep. My chooks love cooked potato, and I've used raw grated potato to save a few lives; I never feed potatoes showing they are past the point though and have had potato poisoning myself from eating overripe cooked potato.

Here's a list of other poisonous plants and trees; originally it was posted for poultry but in correcting some misapprehensions I also ended up covering sheep in a few places. Note: I do not believe all sheep can eat the same as other breeds; if my merino mix ewe or babydoll mix ram had eaten what my damara mix ewe is eating I have no doubt they would have died or been injured by toxins; however the merino mix ewe did consume an entire bush or Artimissia (wormwood) that was bigger than she was, and didn't die but rather became some sort of super-invulnerable sheep to everything from dirt to parasites to disease. But the same rule probably applies to different breeds of poultry, and other livestock, they can gain or lose or inherit or fail to inherit ability to digest and survive certain substances. It's like my ex-batt hens aren't the same as my banties, they can't just eat what they want, or they'd die.
Quote:
EDIT: it also depends just as much on the breed of potato. I can consume some greened or purpled white potatoes without harm, and so can the animals, but when you can taste a certain level of solenoid toxin present, it's obviously dangerous. Some aren't potent, some are very potent, not really something to be careless with though we have often been just that... Break off the sprouts and eat it! lol.... No, don't, I'm not seriously advising anyone to be careless with that!

 

[Penny Hen]

Actually, you have a bit of the information about kuru (I assume you mean kuru, since you are speaking of a Creutzfeldt-Jakob type disease (CJD) in Papua New Guinea) wrong. Women and children were actually more prone to acquiring the disease. The Fore people of Papua New Guinea consumed deceased relatives, in order to return the deceased person's 'life force' to the living. Men were less likely to get the disease because they had seniority, and thus ate the choicer pieces, mostly muscle with little nerve tissue. The women (and children) got the less muscled parts, which often led to them consuming spinal or brain tissue, where the misfolded proteins were more concentrated. It acted like some horrible, endless loop of disease, because by consuming those who died of kuru, it spread kuru to otherwise healthy individuals, who then died themselves. Plus, it had a very, very long incubation period.

Microbiology, disease, and whatnot are rather faciniating to me. So hopefully that clears up a few misconceptions.

You are right that all animals have prions. But most are correctly folded into a PrPC structure. When the protein is damaged in some way, it can change its form, which is called PrPSc These proteins act as templates, causing normal ones to fold into the infectious/disease causing form.

Thanks, it has been a while since I read through the information. A lot of science has refined what was known just 10 years ago. When I last read the material they hadn't even identified the folding aspect of it (at least not in the articles I was reading).

 

[theuglyduckling]

i have a sheep and today i gave my outside cat a big piece of cooked chicken but he couldn't eat it all so i just through the rest in a bush. while i was doing stuff outside and came back to the house i saw that the sheep had found the chicken and started eating it. there was a bone in her mouth that i saw hanging out and i took it out before she could swallow it. the bone did not look like she had eaten any of it, but what i am wondering is can she get sick from eating some of the chicken meat?

 

[chooks4life]

Quote: Yes, especially non fish meat, and red meat's the worst. It putrefies in their systems because they have much different systems to us, and becomes a toxin.

Our dairy cow used to chew the jawbones of sheep and other cows, they could barely fit in her mouth, but she'd do it for hours until we supplemented her calcium and magnesium. That is most likely what your sheep is seeking. My sheep goes nuts for dog biscuits because they have colostrum as well as lots of grains, and it's been hard to keep her out of them when people are careless when feeding the dogs; also she loves sardines, but doesn't get sick from them as opposed to the dog biscuits.

 

[fredasmum08]

Hi

We have 3 random lambs that we got as orphan's from a farmer this April, they are absolutely gorgeous and so tame, my 5-year old boy adores them and they him - people, my DH included - say sheep are stupid, but they are also very affectionate!!

Glad there are other sheep lovers out there!

 

[theuglyduckling]

fredasmum08- they are very smart and clever and mine will find ways of escaping the yard. they also remember peoples faces too. they are at least i know mine is a very determined sheep when she wants something. im sure if i had the patience id be able to teach her tricks too.

 

[Penny Hen]

fredasmum08- they are very smart and clever and mine will find ways of escaping the yard. they also remember peoples faces too. they are at least i know mine is a very determined sheep when she wants something. im sure if i had the patience id be able to teach her tricks too.

Test have been done that a sheep has an accurate memory of about 18 months for faces. They can tell the difference between a yellow feed bucket and a white bucket that is never used for feed but is the same shape. This means they see in color because in black and white yellow and white look the same. Some breeds are smarter than others. A lot of that depends on how much people have selected their genes for placid compliant sheep or if they are more primitive types like Shetlands and Icelandic or Soay or Barbados hair sheep that are expected to watch out for themselves to some extent. In Iceland they breed a special variant of Icelandic known as Leader sheep. These are usually taller, thinner and not as good a fleece as the regular ones but they have the instinct to bring a flock home in a blizzard. Every farmer their has a few of these sheep to help protect the the regular ones and some make their whole living just breeding the Leader sheep to sell to other farmers.

I have an Aussie friend who tells me that his Merino sheep learned to roll over the cattleguards instead of trying to walk them. Now tell me that that is a stupid sheep. Not!

 

[Penny Hen]

fredasmum08- they are very smart and clever and mine will find ways of escaping the yard. they also remember peoples faces too. they are at least i know mine is a very determined sheep when she wants something. im sure if i had the patience id be able to teach her tricks too.

You need to check out YouTube.

 

[theuglyduckling]

i have no idea what kind mine is i just know that she is white all white and has a pink nose with light colored hooves and her tail is sorta long it doesn't look like it has been docked or if it was it wasn't docked very short and she is pretty tall she is not a short sheep. her wool or fleece idk what to call it because it is growing, but some of it when you look really close looks a little like wool but then sometimes it looks sorta like hair so im not sure what she is. when i got her she was just skin and bones and the sad thing is that i bought her from a FEED store in which i think she should have not been so skinny, but i live in PR and most people don't feel the same about animals as i do. she has gained a lot of weight since then and looks a lot better. she was so scared of people when i brought her home, but with some tlc she became very friendly and now loves people. she knows to go where i keep her when it is raining when it starts to rain and i don't have to go and put her away. i am going to get another soon and hopefully she will teach the other sheep to do the same. the one thing that makes me wonder is that instead of sitting in the grass she rather sit on the cement drive way.

and about teaching her tricks with the clicker that sounds like a good idea.