Lambs still scouring

[saitek1989]

Any one any idea why a lot of my lambs would be scouring I'd say a good 50%. Of them are maby and it has left them very dirty havnt seen lambs as dirty before it has been going on for a good 4-6 weeks now

They have been wormed about two weeks ago and I got a fec done and they had nothing would it be a mineral deficiency or something they are on very lush grass but no different from any other year tbh
Can't understand why they are so loose is it possible that. There is just a lot of water in the grass been very wet here past month or so

 

[polk_farmer]

If you have had the rainfall that we have had recently, could be the wet grass going through them, some of ours are like that

 

[bovine]

Most likely wet, lush grass. Can check minerals, and possibly a repeat faecal egg count.

 

[DB67]

We have had more dirty bums aswell, only since weaning though.

Putting it down to green lush grass though. Frustrating as not much you can do about it!

 

[Global ovine]

The lush conditions would be a background to this problem, but if it is worse than any other year then you need to ask some questions.
What has been done differently this year?
Have you applied lots of lime thereby releasing an overdose of molybdenum?
Is it another parasite not identified in a FEC test?
Have you used a rye grass variety with endophyte?
Have you done a drench efficacy test?
Can you put some hay or dry-ish haylage out for the lambs to pick at will?

 

[saitek1989]

Iv never seen lambs so loose that didn't have a problem I have a few very late lambs from a ram breaking into empties and are probably 8 weeks old or so now and they are starting to go the same way only In the last week or so


All the lambs arnt scoured but a lot are and it doesn't look normal to me I'll take a few pics

Vet said it could possibly be immature fluke as he said factories have been reporting issues with them in lambs

 

[Razor8]

Same problem here with lambs with dirty ends but thriving ok, a lot of the fields here are index 4 and it crossed my mind that it was the high levels of phosphorus in the grass was making them loose? Could be away off and not sure how I could prove it if it was the issue

 

[bovine]

fluke doesn't make them scour.....

 

[Razor8]

fluke doesn't make them scour.....

Not directly, but it puts pressure on their immunity to fight the worm challenge IMO

 

[bovine]

Not directly, but it puts pressure on their immunity to fight the worm challenge IMO

No evidence that I am aware of, but if I believe you, we would find eggs in the faeces.

 

[gavd]

Sorry off topic but does fluke cause scour in cattle?

 

[bovine]

Sorry off topic but does fluke cause scour in cattle?

no

 

[tinsheet]

Cocci ?

 

[bovine]

Cocci ?

That makes things scour, but would be picked up on a standard worm egg count.

95% sure it's the grass

 

[IH 684]

Grass is as rich now as it was in June, will probably have to wait for a cold snap to knock it back which will then dry the lambs arses

 

[Poorbuthappy]

That makes things scour, but would be picked up on a standard worm egg count.

95% sure it's the grass

What about number of worms ingested? If on dirty pasture and consuming high levels of larvae, even if recently drench and no eggs in fec - could that cause scouring? Certainly it can reduce performance. (Not advocating further treatment btw!)

 

[bovine]

It's an issue with nematodirus - yes. Not really with the other worms - it's the feeding adult (egg laying) worms that cause the majority of peoblems.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Ok. I wondered as I have lambs on cleaner, rich clover leys staying mostly clean, whilst lambs drenched and returned to dirty pasture have scoured to a far greater degree.

 

[mark perego]

Vit deficency? Ie. Selenium cobalt.. Is it not added to some wormers to aid drying up?

 

[bobajob]

I remember reading on here a while back the same thing. And lots of dirty tails was a lack of copper.

That and the molybdenum interaction (or something like that)

Anyway I can remember giving my lambs a copper and multi vit dose at the time and it dried them up. (yes I know some of these drenches are no use/ snake oil etc)
It might be worth trying dosing a few to see, or copper capsules.

http://www.beeflambnz.com/Documents...eractions in pasture-fed cattle and sheep.pdf