Scour in lambs

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
SCOPS parasite forecast is a very useful tool in predicting neamatodirus outbreaks.
White wormer is your first port of call for this years crop of lambs and I guess 90% of farms will dose at the first sign of dirty bums of lambs on grass but it really should be used following a fecal egg count done cheaply by most vets following the collection of about 5 samples of lambs muck.
All wormers kill dung beetles that do incredible work in your pasture. If you have multiple fields designate one smaller one to turn wormed sheep into and keep the rest working as nature intended.
 

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
My worming field has far less bugs in it. If I pasture top it there are far fewer bugs on the mower cover than when I top any other field and dung remains on the surface for longer than my other fields. Scottish dung beetles are not the dung rolling beetles beloved of David Attenborough instead they simply lay eggs into dung. Between the action of the beetles and birds searching dung for larvae they greatly facilitate dung breakdown. When my daughter in law kept her regularly wormed horses here the muck could sit for months without breaking down (she was not as well taken with muck picking as she was keen on keeping them).
 

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
A quick google of scour in new born lambs suggests e. coli to be the most likely cause.
I was concerned with the withdrawal of Spectam that I may have issues this year so I've used a pre and probiotic from my vet at birth along with iodine and touch wood with the oldest 21 days and the youngest less than 1 day I've had no watery mouth and no scours even in a handful of pets. If I remember I'll get the name when I'm next in the shed around midnight.
The removal of Spectam from the armoury it has certainly brought to mind the need for heightened cleanliness. Could I have done it without the probiotic squirt? Sure, many folk do. Do I sleep a little easier? Yes.
I had one pet that went of it's milk at 3 days and looked dour, gave it half a mill' of pen and strep and another squirt of 'the good stuff' and in 8 hours it was right as rain.
 

Longlowdog

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Aberdeenshire
This is what my vet recommended. I've no proof it works and no proof it doesn't, just had no issues with shed raised lambs despite no Spectam.
 

primmiemoo

Member
Location
Devon
Redness (not blood) in the dung in the first couple of days can be a colouration from the colostrum itself, can't it? I know the first time I saw it in calves from the sucklers that was the explanation given when I asked. They didn't have a check, though. 🤔
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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