Ewe conundrum....

[crazy_bull]

So lambs are 3 weeks old nearly, ewes are young and appear healthy, in good nick (not skin and bone) shed load of grass, heaps of mag blocks out, so why do we have two ewes drop dead with strong twins. Now have 5 on the milk bar when I was please to have just 1. We check round Morning and night, both times nothing untoward then next check sprawled dead. Very frustrating..... thoughts?

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

Magnesium.
They don't all take the stuff when they need it.
You may have almost too much grass!!

What are you doing up in the middle of the night?

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Milk fever

 

[jemski]

Pasteurella, mag or calcium.

 

[crazy_bull]

Magnesium.
They don't all take the stuff when they need it.
You may have almost too much grass!!

What are you doing up in the middle of the night?

Thought I'd got round the mag problem by putting buckets by the water troughs and dotted around the field, what's everyone else do? Mag in the water? Bolus? Or just more sheep to eat the grass....

Was just going to bed when I posted that !

C B

 

[copse]

mag flakes in water trough will help .

 

[jemski]

Does it look like they have scrabbled? If so definitely mag.

 

[exmoor dave]

After they died, did then quickly go up like a balloon and turn green/ purple?

 

[ladycrofter]

Mag tastes really bad, I had a particular brand of block out once and they wouldn't touch it. I would be inclined to jag them all with CalMag as a preventative. That way you know it's in them. It does happen fast, their legs go out from under them and pretty soon they're past the point of no return.

 

[jemski]

After they died, did then quickly go up like a balloon and turn green/ purple?

I've had one of those pasteurella ones last week [emoji30]

 

[crazy_bull]

After they died, did then quickly go up like a balloon and turn green/ purple?

not seen the latest one, but the last one didn't blow up at all and was 3 days before it got taken to the hunt.

C B

 

[Al R]

We hadn't had any surprise deaths all lambing and then lost 7 last weekend. 2 we knew weeks ago they may not make it after tough lambings so didn't give them lambs and we hoped they'd pick up a bit with no lambs but. 2 were ewe lambs at point of lambing really and just had basically all I can explain as a heart attack as i watched both go from standing to dead in under 30 seconds.
3 others were totally random and had lambs a few weeks old on them. Probably mag?

 

[spin cycle]

when i was at college in 80's they used to talk about calcined magnasite?....but never hear about it

 

[Northeastfarmer]

2 were ewe lambs at point of lambing really and just had basically all I can explain as a heart attack as i watched both go from standing to dead in under 30 seconds.
?

@bovine wont have that

 

[young&keen]

Has anyone come across a magnesium bolus that will last 3 month ish? All the ones i see all need re doing at 3 week intervals?

 

[milkloss]

Liquid mag molasses is more likely to help but you need lots of feeders to make sure they get their share.

 

[crazy_bull]

Any idea how much mag flake to put in the troughs?

Have found one reference to 250gms per 100ltrs for dairy cattle.

C B

 

[GTB]

Does it look like they have scrabbled? If so definitely mag.

Agree. If they just died without struggling then probably calcium. I never use high mag buckets as the sheep find them unpallatable. They only need a tiny amount of mag and there's plenty in general purpose licks.

 

[copse]

Any idea how much mag flake to put in the troughs?

Have found one reference to 250gms per 100ltrs for dairy cattle.

C B

make a few holes in bag then throw 1 bag in each trough.

 

[crazy_bull]

make a few holes in bag then throw 1 bag in each trough.

Can't overdose on it then?

C B