Sheep People-Advice Please!

[cassie]

Quote:
When I had my goats, my vets told me to give all shots (except IV) under the skin, not in the muscle. It is easier to give shots under the skin, less likely to cause injury or hit a blood vein, and less stressful on the animal.

 

[nop169]

Read your whole post and the many good advice replies and I am sure you are correct about the parasite load being the primary cause of her illness.... that being said please also examine your pasture and surrounding plants that the sheep come in contact with. Many signs of toxicity are similar to symptoms of a parasite load. Since she responded to your treatment over time and was parasite positive from the fecal examination, that may have been the only issue, however, in my area especially this time of year & in times of drought, we see many cases of toxicity from common weeds, green acorns, and common landscape cuttings. These cases manifest when pasturage is not as rich or available and the animals tend to eat plants that are often ignored in times of plenty. Also being in Florida - many of your native plants can be classified as toxic at certain levels. Your state may have a plant identification website or you may contact your agriculture extension or local college for more information on common plants in your area.
My SIL had a goat that exhibited similar symptoms repeatedly - she would deworm & the animal seemed to respond. The a few weeks later the cycle began again.... her issue turned out to be green acorns and was finally resolved once she moved her sheep & goats to another pasture away from the oak trees. She had had animals in that pasture with the oaks for years with no signs of problems until this year. Unfortunately, she lost 2 animals before I happened to be visiting & saw the green acorn hulls on the ground.... her vet never had noticed & though she simply had genetically parasite sensative animals.
Again - I am not second guessing your diagnosis or treatment but wanted to advise you to walk your pasture & familarize yourself with local plantlife that could also contribute to your issue.
I am happy that she has responed to treatment & wish the best for your small flock.

 

[NateinFL]

The shots I have been giving her under the skin, but I'm new at it and always afraid I'm going to hit something. I know how to do it now, and the 20 gauge needle is making it much easier than the 18's that I was using.

I bought some fresh hay today and she's eating that.

And about the acorns:

I DO have oak trees and I DID see her eating acorns! I heard her munching on them and realized it was acorns she was eating. Could it be? Also, a few weeks ago, they decided to start stripping bark off all my trees and eating the viburnum bushes. I had to fence off the bushes and wrap chicken wire around the trees. Maybe her illness was partly contributed by eating noxious substances. I have strong doubts that the fecal was processed in the first place for several reasons. Not saying she didn't have worms, I am sure she did, but maybe the ingestion of bark and acorns made her condition worse.

Now I have a NEW problem. When I was giving her the mid-day shot, I noticed that she had diarrhea. I thought it was diarrhea hanging from her "whatchamacallit" but then she pooped, upon closer inspection, it's some type of discharge, a brown glob-like substance and there were about 10-15 flies around that area. Maybe she is aborting a baby from all the stress and dewormers.

Oh I hope I DONT have to call a vet out again for this

 

[NateinFL]

Just called the vet's office to speak with head vet about the fecal. Head vet is out of town for 2 days but the receptionist said I should have been given a paper on site about positive or negative for worms. DIDN'T GET THAT FROM HIM.

AND, he told me he would process it at the lab, she could not find any record of it being processed at their lab. He IS lying! Just like crooked doctors, there are crooked vets. Who knows if she is sick from worms or not now. That, compounded with the lack of follow-up advice, and even the MISINFORMATION about giving her more B Vitamins would just cause her to "piss it all out" has me thinking he should not be a vet, or at least read up on his subjects before examining them.

Marjorie would be dead right now if it wasn't for Dr. Sara.

 

[cassie]

If she is aborting, you don't need a vet. Her body will take care or it. There is not much a vet can do about it, anyway. Except give her a shot of lutalyse to make sure everything is cleaned out. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[NateinFL]

Quote:
Thank You. I am positive that is what she is doing now....so sad.

 

[zzGypsy]

do you have a ram in your group? if you do, once she's feeling better you can put her back in with the ram. she may breed back, I've had sheep breed into early january (although not all will).

do look up your local poisonous plants... we've got poison hemlock growing in a lush patch on our fenceline... the local extension office says sheep and goats generally won't eat it unless it's getting to where there's really nothing else... and then they can tollerate a little without damage. sounds like you could have similar conditions.

good news on eating the hay.

 

[nop169]

I am sorry she is aborting... that can be a side affect of the deworming or simply from her getting in such low condition. However, many many toxins also cause abortion. I do not want to alarm you but this ride may not be over... if it was actually toxicity from certain plants, the affected animal can often show signs of improvement after supportive therapy only to suddenly abort & then die. I had this happen several years ago. We had 5 fainter goats who managed to find a hole in our fence from storm limb damage & they went over into the neighbors swampy back property. When I arrived home they showed classic signs of poisioning and I immediantely treated them with activated charcol & supportive therapy & atropine. They all seemed to recover over the next 3 days.... at day 5 after ingesting what I now believe was "fetterbush" 2 of the girls spontaneously aborted and the were dead within 2 hours... the other 2 lived 2 more days before doing the same. Taking samples we learned that it was an alkoloid based poison - probably an evergreen type plant (& I found fetterbush on the neighbor's property). What happens is that the toxin concentrates in the unborn fetus, the liver & kidneys. Although we treated them within 5 hours (the time I was away from home - not actual ingestion time) the toxin had already spread into the liver & kidneys. Although it did not kill them within a few hours, we had kidney & liver failure over the next week. Miscarrage of the fetus was the body's last ditch chance of preserving the life of the mothers. Only one of the 5 survived & although she also aborted & was sickly again after the misscarriage, she did come out of it with no longterm issues.... bloodwork shows her liver & kidney functions within normal ranges a month after exposure.
This was a horrible thing to go through.... I ultimately felt guilty & almost sold out of all of my animals. But things happen.... my fences are good - just had storm limb damage I hadn't found on the 24 acres. I keep my pastures mowed, walk them often & am familiar with the common flora here. Needless to say, there are actually 2 perimeter fences now.... the inner fence is the limit that the goats & sheep can go in, the outer limit holds the donkeys & cows.
Normally, my goats would have not ate this plant.... but it was about this time of year, little greenery in the pasture & cold & icy. They were tired of hay & found something "green" on the neighbor's land. So I learned a heartbreaking but valuable lesson. Now the sheep & goats are pastured on the front of my property in the winter - easier to see them constantly, more predator proof and less "weeds" on this 4 acre pasture - rotate them from the 4 acre to a 2 acre every 4 to 6 weeks to help with parasite control. In spring after the lambs & kids are about 4 weeks old, I turn them into the main big pastures & rotate them following the horses from the 5 acre pastures in a large circular movement until we are back at the front pastures.

Again, I hope your issue was just parasites.... but please keep an eye on your girl as this may not be over. Best of luck...

 

[NateinFL]

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Yes, I was glad she was eating it, I got her coastal, they didn't have the T&A hay but she is eating this.

VERY VERY WEAK still. Not sure if she aborted, I never found anything, but who knows the dogs could have eaten it

But there is no more gooey junk hanging from that area. She was squatting alot yesterday evening but nothing was coming out.

 

[NateinFL]

Quote:
I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if what happened to your goats happens to Marjorie. Sorry to hear about them, that's one sad story. I think if she had an abortion, it has already happened as that area is cleared up but I searched the yard and didn't find anything. Still hoping M pulls through. Did and doing best I know how. I too, am thinking of giving sheep up altogether, at least not getting any more. This is turning out to be way more difficult than what I was told. I wonder if them stripping the bark off my trees suddenly had anything to do with trying to offbalance the toxicity of acorns.