Search results

  1. twizzel

    Heptavac & rain

    I need to 2nd dose a group of shearlings by next weekend, but every time I’ve tried to do it, it’s hammered it down 🤬 Today was meant to be dry but it’s currently torrential rain. Do I do them when they’re wet? Can’t keep them in unfortunately. Not sure if it’s best to do it in the time frame...
  2. twizzel

    Aluminium/steel sheep hurdles recommendations

    We don’t have many sheep (30-40 ewes with lambs is the most we’d need to pen at once)but at the moment if I want to pen anything up we use bog standard 6ft looped hurdles, which are a pain to drag etc. I want to buy a few new hurdles to make life easier, so looking for recommendations on what to...
  3. twizzel

    Suckler cow boluses

    We are thinking about changing to bolusing our sucklers rather than using Lifeline and GP mineral buckets. Primarily because in the last 12 months we’ve spent over £1200 on the aforementioned buckets for 40 sucklers, which seems excessive to me? The calving pattern is v drawn out so to get the...
  4. twizzel

    Ram spilling cud

    Just noticed my 2 year old ram has been spilling his cud, his bottom lip is green and has stains down his front legs. I bought him last year and not noticed an issue until now. Been out all winter on grass and in looking very well for it, he’s grown a hell of a lot since he finished tupping...
  5. twizzel

    Alternative tagging options for sheep

    I have a ram with a big ear haematoma, and because he’s been shaking his head, the other ear is starting to fill too. We’ve already had to cut his eid tag out and there’s no chance of getting a tag back in that ear. If the other ear goes the same way we’ll have to cut the tag out of that one...
  6. twizzel

    Improving suckler cow colostrum quality

    We’ve been having a few rumbling issues this winter with calves and rotavirus (which we vaccinate the cows for), navel ill, pneumonia. The cows calve all year round but generally from nov - April. I try to get them scour vaccinated within the 3-12 week pre calving window. Anyhow, the vet was on...
  7. twizzel

    Navel ill prevention

    Having trouble this year with suckler calves getting navel ill. I iodine spray them at birth religiously and try to again a few hours later. Calving pens are deep bedded and they go out into a big shed with outside loafing area at a week old, which is bedded every other day. Doing nothing...
  8. twizzel

    Black bag mastitis

    Have a ewe that got ecoli mastitis back in May, vet treated with apotil. Got her through it, took her lambs away and has had the summer to recover. Now found her in field with a cold black udder, looks like blood collecting under the skin surface , though she is well in herself. I was planning...
  9. twizzel

    Moving lambs after worming

    I am going to dose my lambs tomorrow after fec showed high egg count (1450epg), along with a high cocci count. Vet advised keep lambs in for 24hrs after the worm drench, then go in with vecoxan, then can turn back out. I have been rotating them between 2 fields for the last couple of months-...
  10. twizzel

    Fly repellent for sheep

    Have my ewes at a bit of off ground and flies are bothering them pretty bad. They’re covered with Clik extra and have a garlic bucket, but I wondered if anyone has used spotinor or spot on as a repellent ? And if so can I use it in conjunction with Clik? I don’t really want to bring them home if...
  11. twizzel

    Sheep footbath solutions

    Haven’t footbathed my sheep before but picked one up cheap on fb marketplace. Have problems with scald more so over the winter so deciding what solution to use in it. Can run majority of them inside onto concrete to treat though my ewe lambs winter at another farm with limited handling. Is there...
  12. twizzel

    Parrot mouthed lambs

    Only have a small flock of 20 ewes, but this year had a cluster of lambs born with parrot mouths. Sorting all my lambing notes out last week and all 7 lambs noted for bad mouths, all born within 3 days of each other, out of 35 lambs born. Everything else born earlier or later is ok. All from the...
  13. twizzel

    Cocci buckets for lambs

    Every year I have to dose my lambs for cocci so I was wondering if the brinnicombe buckets would be worth a try instead. Has anyone used them rather than relying on vecoxan? Only 35 lambs but more hassle getting them in to drench. Lambs are 10 days - 4 weeks old and just spotted one of the older...
  14. twizzel

    Enzootic abortion

    Having a few problems with enzo so wondered if anyone could shed some light on a couple of things. 2 weeks ago 4 year old ewe aborted her 3rd set of twins. Pm showed enzo and nothing else. Ewes were toxo and enzo vaccinated in August 2020, after flockcheck bloods last spring on 6 empty/aborted...
  15. twizzel

    Ewe slipping lambs

    Had my ewes in for a few days as the wet ground was wrecking their feet. Turned back out again this morning having feet and field dried out. They are quiet ewes so housing for a few days doesn’t normally stress them out. One ewe looking a bit quiet, on closer inspection has a bit of pinkish...
  16. twizzel

    Calf won’t suck- any tips

    Calf born 2 days ago, had to snatch from mother so it never sucked her. Cannot for the life of us get it to suck. Had 6 litres of colostrum from another farmer in the first 12 hours spread over 3 feeds, tried several teats, bucket, chocolate in its mouth but it doesn’t have any suck reflex...
  17. twizzel

    Empty shearlings at scanning

    Just interested to see what others do with empty shearlings at scanning. Closed flock and started toxo and enzovax this year, my head says to cull any that aren't in lamb, but the cost of the vaccines is a bit offputting. I've got a few nice ewe lambs running on for next year. My shearlings this...
  18. twizzel

    Ewes with mouth lesions

    A few of my ewes seem to have lesions on their mouths- a couple have a single lump that’s wart type that are red, another couple have more lumps not so angry a bit like a dermatitis reaction. We do get the odd bit of orf at lambing mainly in the pet lambs but it’s controlled with salt and tubby...
  19. twizzel

    Semi portable sheep handling

    Looking at finally buying a little handling system but unsure what best value for money would be. Only have 20 ewes at the moment but scope to accomodate 30-40 would be good. At the moment we just use normal hurdles to pen up ewes and lambs and shed off ewes by catching and posting out of the...
  20. twizzel

    Cocci transmission between species

    Got a field that ewes and lambs grazed last year and lambs had a high cocci count around end of April- dosed with vecoxan twice and all ok. Suckler cattle grazed in the past week and now a number of 2-6 week old calves have a grey scour- does anyone know if cocci is species specific or can it...
Top