- Location
- Montgomeryshire
It seems that we, along with several folk in the area, have got a heamonchus challenge from somewhere (nothing comes on here without Zolvix, so how did it get here? ). Everything has been grazing roots and off (contaminated?) grass since New Year, so not shedding any more eggs there at least.
A good bunch of the ewes are as fat as feck and scanned well, but the (biggest) group that were tupped on a particular field have gone to sh*t in a matter of weeks. Scanning numbers and empties are a lot worse from that group and condition is poor, and falling. Mob FEC sample1200 epg.
I had the Charollais ewes through for pre-lambing boluses & jabs today, and nearly half of those are going the same way, in a group that I'd removed all the leaner ones from a month ago (those were 1000 epg at the time and responded quickly when wormed/housed/fed). They had a mob fec of 1500 epg and I tested a particularly squitty individual at 2850epg.
All ewes have been crutched, done with clear drench this week, apart from a few of the fatties, and lean ones pulled out from the Charollais mob to put in a separate field. Hopefully sorted out and can regain condition before lambing on good fodder.
On a separate block we have 230 ewe lambs that have done the same thing since the rams came out, with 3 dieing about 10 days ago. Mob FEC was 1300epg and I went through them with Zolvix to guarantee a clear out. They were different lambs within a couple of days so it's done the job, but not looking forward to scanning and a lot of crutching to do!
80 rams have just come back from (clean) tack grazing and onto stubble turnips, and have a zero FEC, so thankfully dodged it.
As I understand it, heamonchus primarily winters in the sheep and pasture contamination is killed off by frost. By 'doing the right thing' and leaving fit/single bearing ewes unwormed every year, have I been inadvertently allowing numbers to build up over time? Those singles are always summered on the parkland fields where the worst affected ewes were tupped. All ewes are off pasture here for at least 3 months every winter, so theoretically I should be able to break the cycle by cleaning the ewes out?
My plan is to inject everything with Cydectin 2% at lambing as a one off, something we haven't done for quite some time, to try to hoover up and reduce the little barstewards that might get through the winter on pasture, and all effected ewes have been wormed now, whilst still on roots.
I know some of you folks have experienced the problem before and would be interested to know how you manage it. Several local farms have had an issue this year, despite it being practically unheard of round here (my very good sheep vet says he hasn't had to deal with it since he qualified 25 years ago, and will have to read up on it again!), so maybe down to weather conditions in recent years/climate change?
Is there anything more I can do?
A good bunch of the ewes are as fat as feck and scanned well, but the (biggest) group that were tupped on a particular field have gone to sh*t in a matter of weeks. Scanning numbers and empties are a lot worse from that group and condition is poor, and falling. Mob FEC sample1200 epg.
I had the Charollais ewes through for pre-lambing boluses & jabs today, and nearly half of those are going the same way, in a group that I'd removed all the leaner ones from a month ago (those were 1000 epg at the time and responded quickly when wormed/housed/fed). They had a mob fec of 1500 epg and I tested a particularly squitty individual at 2850epg.
All ewes have been crutched, done with clear drench this week, apart from a few of the fatties, and lean ones pulled out from the Charollais mob to put in a separate field. Hopefully sorted out and can regain condition before lambing on good fodder.
On a separate block we have 230 ewe lambs that have done the same thing since the rams came out, with 3 dieing about 10 days ago. Mob FEC was 1300epg and I went through them with Zolvix to guarantee a clear out. They were different lambs within a couple of days so it's done the job, but not looking forward to scanning and a lot of crutching to do!
80 rams have just come back from (clean) tack grazing and onto stubble turnips, and have a zero FEC, so thankfully dodged it.
As I understand it, heamonchus primarily winters in the sheep and pasture contamination is killed off by frost. By 'doing the right thing' and leaving fit/single bearing ewes unwormed every year, have I been inadvertently allowing numbers to build up over time? Those singles are always summered on the parkland fields where the worst affected ewes were tupped. All ewes are off pasture here for at least 3 months every winter, so theoretically I should be able to break the cycle by cleaning the ewes out?
My plan is to inject everything with Cydectin 2% at lambing as a one off, something we haven't done for quite some time, to try to hoover up and reduce the little barstewards that might get through the winter on pasture, and all effected ewes have been wormed now, whilst still on roots.
I know some of you folks have experienced the problem before and would be interested to know how you manage it. Several local farms have had an issue this year, despite it being practically unheard of round here (my very good sheep vet says he hasn't had to deal with it since he qualified 25 years ago, and will have to read up on it again!), so maybe down to weather conditions in recent years/climate change?
Is there anything more I can do?
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