Sheep Chat Thread

[kuntrygirl]

Here are some pics of my sheep.

 

[ladyrsanti]

Awwwwww... *swoons* Such sweet faces.

Just one picture from me. All sheared now. I had my husband help me with the wether, even though I guess I really didn't need the help, just the reinforcement. I got him on his rump before my husband even entered the pen. But it was nice knowing that if he tried to get away that I'd have an extra hand to keep him still. The kink was that he knocked one of his small horns off during the shearing (on the wooden board he was laying on) and it was a bleeder. So I had blood all over me by the time I was done from holding his head in position while shearing. It looked like I was slaughtering sheep rather than shearing them. He's fine though, bleeding stopped on its own, all healed now. The fleece was not affected. He knocked off the other one on the hay feeder during the winter so now he's down to just two horns.

Now they're all naked and looking much more comfortable and I have three bags of wool to play with, to keep me busy until the next shearing.



Oh and I had a question for you all. When I was shearing around his bits, I noticed some scar tissue and a little bit of active infection on the sheath. I sprayed it with an antiseptic spray that I had on hand for cuts (probably not the best but it was all I had within reach). The long wool surrounding the area I think is the culprit and was nasty. From now on I will catch him mid-year and trim around the area - live and learn. But I'm concerned he may have a UTI. Is there anything I should look out for? Anything I can do? Should I call the vet? I'm hoping the fact that the wool was removed from the belly will help. He's acting fine, eating and drinking normally, etc. His pee looks clear but it's hard to tell just by watching the stream. I suppose I should probably catch him again and check on it, huh?

 

[Honey_Silvas]

Thank you. Ben and Chase are both hair sheep. Their mothers were both black belly and looked like Chase and the father was white like Ben. I'm not sure what breed he was, I just saw him once from across the pasture.

 

[TwinWillowAcres]

My flock got sheared and they were booted out to pasture. They still try to eat the hay I give to the ram, though. He's penned up in a nice little area (8x28) next to the 'feed shack.'



If you go over to BackYard Herds and go to my lambing thread and my journal you can see 30+ photos. I don't feel like posting them all here

 

[ladyrsanti]

I have another stupid question. I know the last one hasn't been answered yet and that's usually a signal to shut up but here I go again anyway...

Does putting sheep out to pasture mean you keep them strictly inside otherwise? If I de-worm my sheep and they go straight out to the pasture where they picked up the worms, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the medication? I have three pastures. The smallest front pasture was open to them all winter so they could go outside. It's sort of the common space and access to the other two pastures. So as long as the barn door is open, they have access to it. I can't section it off, though I wish I could. Now, after the rains, it is a big puddle and muddy - surely a breeding ground for parasites. I haven't let them out to either of the other two pastures as they are not tall enough for grazing yet. We are very behind this spring here in the north.

So I guess I'm just wondering if I did wrong by leaving the barn door open all winter and into the spring.

 

[RoyalT]

For our sheep, "out to pasture" means off hay, out of the winter/sacrifice pen that gets so over-grazed it's practically just mud and out on grass. I don't lock up my sheep, they have a little shed and a covered space to keep them out of the weather, but they aren't shut inside all winter.

What worms are you treating for? If you got a fecal float and you know what you're trying to knock down, different meds work better than others, and if you're just doing a broad-spectrum de-wormer, you'll want to switch every other year or so to assure that the worms don't become resistant to your favorite go-to med.

I wouldn't have locked up sheep in a barn all winter, nor would I leave them without shelter - so no I don't think you did anything wrong. Everyone with dedicated 'winter pens' knows how disgusting they get in a winter season. It's just the nature of the rotational grazing's sacrifice pen.

All animals (including humans) have what's called an "acceptable parasite load" meaning we always have parasites in/on us. They only become a problem when we are immunocompromised (often caused by stress or other illness) and the parasites become over populated. That's the only time the parasites need to be dealt with. If you are just de-worming blind, I'd run some fecals through the Vet and see what all you actually need to be treating for, if anything

 

[RoyalT]

What makes you think the wether has a UTI other than the external infection? If he's not acting off at all, he's probably fine. You could always collect a urine sample to look for WBCs if you're concerned, though!

 

[ladyrsanti]

For our sheep, "out to pasture" means off hay, out of the winter/sacrifice pen that gets so over-grazed it's practically just mud and out on grass. I don't lock up my sheep, they have a little shed and a covered space to keep them out of the weather, but they aren't shut inside all winter.

What worms are you treating for? If you got a fecal float and you know what you're trying to knock down, different meds work better than others, and if you're just doing a broad-spectrum de-wormer, you'll want to switch every other year or so to assure that the worms don't become resistant to your favorite go-to med.

I wouldn't have locked up sheep in a barn all winter, nor would I leave them without shelter - so no I don't think you did anything wrong. Everyone with dedicated 'winter pens' knows how disgusting they get in a winter season. It's just the nature of the rotational grazing's sacrifice pen.

All animals (including humans) have what's called an "acceptable parasite load" meaning we always have parasites in/on us. They only become a problem when we are immunocompromised (often caused by stress or other illness) and the parasites become over populated. That's the only time the parasites need to be dealt with. If you are just de-worming blind, I'd run some fecals through the Vet and see what all you actually need to be treating for, if anything

Thanks for all the information! I like the name "sacrifice pen". That's exactly what it is and it's overgrazed and nasty just like you said. I took a sample in yesterday to the farm service and it came back positive for some parasite or another. It was hard to understand the lady over the phone but she gave me some safeguard pellets that were specifically for that parasite. It was nice that she dosed it out and everything so I wasn't paying for more than I needed. So they're treated now. I was just really concerned about putting them back out in the muck from whence it came. I grilled the lady at the farm service about all kinds of things but I forgot to ask her that one question. I just hope this grass gets growing from all this rain we keep getting so I can start weaning them into the pasture.

With the wether, I was just concerned because of the external infection. It looked nasty. I fed him a handful of grain the other day (bribe) and got down on my knees to check it out and it looked much better. He seems to be fine. I'll try not to worry too much. I'm just new to sheep so I get paranoid. I love them.

Thanks again!

 

[RoyalT]

If you're feeding hay, try feeding on a platform (or piece of plywood, anything) off the muck to avoid the re-introduction of the same parasite. Good for you for getting a float! I think I need to get some run on the yaks and the sheep just to check.

I'm sure your wether is fine UTIs usually come with obvious symptomatic/behavioral changes obvious to attentive owners!

 

[ladyrsanti]

Yeah, they're fed in the barn in a hay feeder off the ground. Should be good there. It's just all the grass growing in the muck that they're rooting for that bothers me. I'll just keep on the testing. They said to bring another sample in a month to make sure the safeguard worked. The thing was too, that when I got them they had diarhea really bad and the lady had them wormed right before delivery and their poo has been fine ever since so I was under the impression that parasites were noticeable. She told me to only medicate as necessary rather than once or twice a year as some apparently do. So I didn't know what to look for. Knowing where to get these tests done and to make them the regularly scheduled treatment is what I needed to know. It took me a long time to find a place that knows farm animals too. I scoured the internet and the phone book but was looking in the wrong town. The town to our north doesn't have any, the town to our south does. Hey! I'm learning! heheh.

Here's the first hank of yarn I spun from the wether, Tartan. Spun directly from the locks, it's very soft and strong, long staple length, sun-kissed tips, gorgeous. The yarns behind it are alpaca and german angora.