Bottle jaw (rams)

[GreenerGrass]

2 of my 5 rams have a swelling under their jaw that I noticed yesterday and the whole head looks a little swollen. Aside from this they appear well and have hard droppings.

I did a worm egg count and 200 strongyle type and 330 of another type photo attached, they are nemo sized or bit bigger. I think either liver fluke or Paramphistomum?

Never had fluke detected on the farm when tested for it before. I do have haemonchus but the strongyle count is v low. It has been very dry but the weather broke on Thursday and have had a good belt of rain. They were also in a paddock with oak tree and we had fairly strong winds on the weekend.

Spoke to vet practice but all vets are out on call at the minute. Appreciate any thoughts- TY!

 

[GreenerGrass]

Vet called back, thought unlikely they were fluke eggs (didn't see photograph though) - given the number and that they said they don't usually show up great using saturated saline.

Bearing in mind farm history, and the recent weather they think most likely cause is that after the stormy weekend the rams have been hoovering windfall acorns. Recommendation is to keep a close eye on them and if necessary to flush them out with (I think) magnesium sulphate if conditions deteriorate. For now the rams seem content and not depressed, and have been moved to a paddock without an oak.

Anyone have any thoughts on the eggs shown above - there were 13 on my slides. Different size in photos is because I tried to zoom on camera .
nemo for reference found same time

 

[Downton_shep]

I’m no expert at fec’s but I would just count them as trichostrongyle. I don’t think that’s Nemo either at the bottom. I’m sure @Tim W will know.

It could be acorns, they normally get the sh1!s pretty bad and look pretty down though.

 

[Tim W]

I find it difficult to identify eggs with a photo but think they are all strongyle

Acorns? Not sure of the procedure for this diagnosis as i haven't come across it

Your plan of dosing them with an anthelmintic, moving to fresh pasture and monitoring seems the best approach

Good luck!

 

[Al R]

I know nothing about fec’s but could the lump on the rams mouth be molar infections?

 

[GreenerGrass]

Appreciate hard to tell from photos, but those eggs are really big, much bigger than strongyles I have seen before and same size as nematodirus have seen in lambs this spring.

Don't think is molar infection - it's not hard but soft, albeit the skin is tight to swelling. But they do seem a bit agitated when touch it. One of them the swelling seems smaller now, the other about the same I would say, and his face seems a bit swollen. They seem perky enough. I have given the worse one white drench at fluke rate as a precaution, and none to the other. Vet said swelling should go after a week or so if was fluke/worms and treated, and if was oak poisoning similar timeframe, so hopefully this way I'll get an idea on the cause.

Vet suggested much more likely that if it was fluke or worms that I'd be seeing it in growing lambs rather than adult rams. OK they are not running together. They are in separate paddock with these oak trees, and it has been so dry until last weekend risk low? We had a lot of windfall apples/crab apples in the garden and grazing was tight in their old paddock, so possible that any windfall acorns were hoovered. I found no evidence of acorns under the tree, but I did see a couple of sprigs that had fallen and leaves had been stripped.

Thanks for replies will update, and if any other thoughts I'd welcome them. Droppings still firm pellets, and appetite seems OK.

 

[An ancient git]

I occasionally get 2 year old ewes with bottle jaw . First one ever got fluke drench = no response ......
Since then I hit REALLY hard with White drench , at above the extra fluke dose level .
Must be haemonchus , but the high dose rate covers a multitude of sins !

 

[Downton_shep]

Had a handful of ewes this last week showing similar symptoms, looks like it’s Haemonchus.

 

[DartmoorEwe]

A few years back some of my flock developed bottle jaw and a couple died. Assumed fluke, lost a few more, sent fec to vet who advised to worm again in spite of medium count and sent it off for further analysis, 2 weeks later after losing more result came back haemonchus.

Your vet might be right about acorns and flock wide treatment for haemonchus may be more expensive than a vet's fees. Has the vet confirmed its not haemonchus?

 

[GreenerGrass]

Thanks for the replies! Just an update to the original post with answer for my situation. With hindsight the acorns and oak were a red herring, and I neglected to mention that running have had orf run through my flock, which is annoying as closed flock but must have had one or more carriers.

Anyway it was secondary bacterial infection, causing bottle jaw and swelling of the head and jab of Betamox and spray of cyclo every day for 5 days and they are almost completely better. The vet said she has seen some really bad orf this year, a very pathogenic strain about perhaps so just a heads up. We have always left rock salt out with them and before this year it was always v minor just a few bumps.

Did a worm egg count of the lamb flock and they are low. I guess it could quickly change now we have this wet weather though so will repeat in a couple of weeks.