Cleaning Ear Tags and Rings

[Jerry]

Does anyone clean/disinfect lamb ear tags and rings before application?

I had a few joint ill cases last year which Im sure are due to tailing and tagging.

For info I lamb outside so most lambs don't come inside.

When lambs are dry and mothered up I uplift once a day from lambing field to put on fresh grass, thats when I ring and tag them.

 

[Bury the Trash]

maybe worth it with eartags using something like vircon s as long as in the youngest ones it doesntcause mismothering/rejction semi/rejection at a time when sucking milk is most important.

but with rings the bugs get in when the skin breaks which is a bit later than application.

 

[Jerry]

but with rings the bugs get in when the skin breaks which is a bit later than application.

Yes, that was my thinking with rings but an older neighbour swears it helps.....

 

[Bury the Trash]

Yes, that was my thinking with rings but an older neighbour swears it helps.....

i forget butisnt the ring already dusted in some sort of antiseptic powder?

 

[Jerry]

i forget butisnt the ring already dusted in some sort of antiseptic powder?

Yes, that as well.

 

[primmiemoo]

I know when I've been in a rush, and haven't had clean enough mits there's more likelihood of festering from eartags. That's why I put a drop of lambing gel on the pointy end of a tag when it's a very busy time.

Not all rings are powdered, I think. Bought some that weren't elastrator/Net Tex once that coincided with a bad year for joint ill.
When an uncle used to come over to ring my lambs when I was too young to do them, he'd hold the second ring for a ram lamb between his teeth for convenience. I'm sure that had consequences!

 

[Jerry]

When an uncle used to come over to ring my lambs when I was too young to do them, he'd hold the second ring for a ram lamb between his teeth for convenience. I'm sure that had consequences!

For him or the ram?

 

[primmiemoo]

For him or the ram?

Lessening my pocket money, cos of stiffy lambs, yu!

 

[Woolless]

Does anyone clean/disinfect lamb ear tags and rings before application?

I had a few joint ill cases last year which Im sure are due to tailing and tagging.

For info I lamb outside so most lambs don't come inside.

When lambs are dry and mothered up I uplift once a day from lambing field to put on fresh grass, thats when I ring and tag them.

I had a bad go with joint ill last year. Same as you, lambing outside and tagged at about 24 hours. I put a lot of it down to poor colostrum following a tough winter but a lot of the lambs had infected tags, so guessing that's how it got in. Interested to hear what others do with their tags.

 

[Bury the Trash]

obstetric Gel /lube might help the point 'cut' through ,especially on a thicker ear but is it actually antiseptic? or does it just have somethig in it that stops it going manky in the carton when its opened so to speak

 

[Jmorrow]

We have always have had problems with joint ill even though we clean and disinfect all pens before lambing. We also lime pens before another ewe and lambs are put into that pen. We also clean out and disinfect pens completely between lambing batches usually halfway through lambing. We always blamed the ringing of the lambs so we trialled disinfecting tags and rings in Milton just before tagging and ringing. We found that this reduced joint ill by half we still have some cases around 1-2% of lambs with some joint ill grnerally 4 days or so after lambing but we found a long acting antibiotic and metatacam usual sorted 9 out of 10 in the 1st treatment.

 

[Bury the Trash]

We have always have had problems with joint ill even though we clean and disinfect all pens before lambing. We also lime pens before another ewe and lambs are put into that pen. We also clean out and disinfect pens completely between lambing batches usually halfway through lambing. We always blamed the ringing of the lambs so we trialled disinfecting tags and rings in Milton just before tagging and ringing. We found that this reduced joint ill by half we still have some cases around 1-2% of lambs with some joint ill grnerally 4 days or so after lambing but we found a long acting antibiotic and metatacam usual sorted 9 out of 10 in the 1st treatment.

how do you apply that ?just dip the rings init or in a spray bottle and spray the area /ring when applying the ring to the lamb?
Edit

Consumer Home | Milton

i expect @exmoor dave has got some in stock

 

[primmiemoo]

obstetric Gel /lube might help the point 'cut' through ,especially on a thicker ear but is it actually antiseptic? or does it just have somethig in it that stops it going manky in the carton when its opened so to speak

There isn't antiseptic in the obstetrical gel I use. It seems to dry as a thin film around the shaft of the eartag and the piercing after the tag's applied, which I suppose stops any dirt lodging.

I cleaned an old spectam pot, decanted gel into it, and apply a ml at a time.

 

[Bury the Trash]

There isn't antiseptic in the obstetrical gel I use. It seems to dry as a thin film around the shaft of the eartag and the piercing after the tag's applied, which I suppose stops any dirt lodging.

I cleaned an old spectam pot, decanted gel into it, and apply a ml at a time.

ive used it on tags on older lambs to make it go through the ear possibly easier .

almost think that just a salt/water spray could be used

 

[SteveHants]

Can't you tag at weaning/first worming if you are lambing outside?

That's when I did it for slaughter lambs, appreciate it might be a bit different for lambs you might want to retain.

 

[Jerry]

Can't you tag at weaning/first worming if you are lambing outside?

That's when I did it for slaughter lambs, appreciate it might be a bit different for lambs you might want to retain.

Sorry, Yes I do tag slaughter lambs later. But I tag all potential pure breeding ewe and ram lambs at birth to monitor individual growth rates, traits, issues etc.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Tag mine in the trailer en route to the mart...never get any bother that way

 

[exmoor dave]

Surgical spirit in a spray bottle for disinfecting tags and the ring pliers,
The rings themselves are generally antiseptic anyway.

With the tags, we disenfect a couple of strips and put in clean zip bags.


Saying that . ..... having tagged at birth (plus recording) for a number of years, I'm not going to bother anymore, instead just tagging lambs I don't want to keep instead or lambs that have had to be individually treated for something.
And also any exceptional ram lambs for sale to a couple customers.

 

[primmiemoo]

... Writes a new papa ...

I can't use surgical spirit. It knocks out my sense of smell, and gives me headaches.

 

[Bury the Trash]

... Writes a new papa ...

I can't use surgical spirit. It knocks out my sense of smell, and gives me headaches.

yer not 'sposed to drink it