Ewe Mastitis

[DrWazzock]

We seem to have a lot of it this year, much worse than previous years where we would have a few cases after lambing but never before or at lambing as with this year.

Just starting lambing now after a fortnight of wet cold muddy weather. Ewes came off turnips before the weather turned wet. But since being on the smaller paddocks the grass has got a bit dirty, but not as bad some years, due to rain. We bring them in the shed every night onto fresh straw but we are having a lot of cases. We even had a ewe go down with it a week ago before lambing. We started treating her and she prolapsed overnight just to help.

Most frustrating. Does it accumulate in the ground/paddocks?

Particularly annoying tonight as patched a triplet onto a single and lo and behold one side hard and no milk.

I am suspecting the wet dirtier conditions are the root cause of the problems and having a lot of sheep in a small paddock and bring into shed each night isn't helping. It appears cleaner on the straw than it does in the paddock. But we have had wetter muddier years without many cases of mastitis but for some reason much more this year, though we are lambing a month later than normal and it was very warm a month ago.

A mix of breeds, mules, suffolk X, scotch halfbred, commercial flock.

Presumably the problem is reduced by spreading them thinner on clean grass and lambing outdoors maybe but that brings other problems for us with foxes, ringing them, and having 60 triplets scanned in 200.

Kind of rambling and answering my own question really but any other ideas welcome as to how we can prevent it. Very serious problem for us. We are just about fed up of it to be honest.

 

[liammogs]

I know there is more cost associated with lambing indoors, but wouldn't it be better to keep the ewes in full stop? Put down some lime underneath the straw to keep bugs at bay?

 

[yellowbelly]

Dad always reckoned ewes laying on cold and wet ground/snow made it worse.
Have they plenty of milk? Are their lambs 'banging' their bags 'cos they're hungry?

 

[DrWazzock]

Dad always reckoned ewes laying on cold and wet ground/snow made it worse.
Have they plenty of milk? Are their lambs 'banging' their bags 'cos they're hungry?

Unfortunately this year its taking hold before the lambs are born. Normally as you say, its after lambing with rough treatment of bags due to hungry lambs.

I know there is more cost associated with lambing indoors, but wouldn't it be better to keep the ewes in full stop? Put down some lime underneath the straw to keep bugs at bay?

I think you are right. I don't think we are gaining much turning them out during the day on to dirty grass. The only problem is they are fed beet outside scattered across the field. Not so easy inside, nor feed troughs either.

Whole thing needs a rethink.

 

[spin cycle]

i had a few to start but it got better further on into lambing....can you not bucket tip beet into pens?

 

[Devil's advocate]

I wonder if the problem stems back to last year, when the ewes were laid of wet sodden ground March/April. Worst spring for mud I've ever known.

We suffered 2013 in a similar way, seemed to develop 2 days before lambing. That was following the horrenderous summer of 2012.

Since then we have fed creep, lambed earlier, not grazed quite so tight (had to do some topping) & got the lambs away early or weaned early.

Just one this year so far.

 

[DrWazzock]

I wonder if the problem stems back to last year, when the ewes were laid of wet sodden ground March/April. Worst spring for mud I've ever known.

We suffered 2013 in a similar way, seemed to develop 2 days before lambing. That was following the horrenderous summer of 2012.

Since then we have fed creep, lambed earlier, not grazed quite so tight (had to do some topping) & got the lambs away early or weaned early.

Just one this year so far.

That's what we are seeing. Develops a couple of days before lambing. Normally it would be weeks after lambing.
Lambing a month later than normal here for first time ever. Probably not helping.

I wonder if these bugs build up or we have somehow acquired a particularly virulent strain.

Checked all the bags before tupping and culled any suspects.

We also had a serious outbreak of orf in the ewes in the autumn/late winter for first time ever but scratch vaccinated them. All mineral bolussed and good nutrition. Look fit enough. Very little twin lamb.

 

[Al R]

That's what we are seeing. Develops a couple of days before lambing. Normally it would be weeks after lambing.
Lambing a month later than normal here for first time ever. Probably not helping.

I wonder if these bugs build up or we have somehow acquired a particularly virulent strain.

Checked all the bags before tupping and culled any suspects.

We also had a serious outbreak of orf in the ewes in the autumn/late winter for first time ever but scratch vaccinated them. All mineral bolussed and good nutrition. Look fit enough. Very little twin lamb.

I check every bag at weaning and if it doesn’t look right when brining flocks in i’ll Check the bags then to so most bags would be felt at least twice in the 9-14 weeks post lambing period, all culled at weaning.

Had a run of 5 triplets in a row all with 1 side, a few twins with 1 side and a few singles with 1 side all within 2-3 days near the start of lambing, a run of 250 ewes all perfect and then another 3 singles in a row I noticed while about to do a wet adoption, the following day 3 triplets who lambed in an hour all had 1 side. These sort of things always come and go every 2 weeks with lambing, days of a lot of breaches, a lot of head only’s and then won’t have problems for days..
A member of staff has said it could be summer mastitis from when they were dry and a lot of flies around during the drought which means it could have developed weeks after we’d bagged them. I have most ewes totally outdoor but some singles and triplets inside and they have shown more cases, whether it’s because we actually check every ewe in the shed when penned and then 12 hours later we notice it more as most outdoor you won’t grt near to catch and the only time you’d notice it at lambing is if they were caught to be lambed?

 

[Devil's advocate]

That's what we are seeing. Develops a couple of days before lambing. Normally it would be weeks after lambing.
Lambing a month later than normal here for first time ever. Probably not helping.

I wonder if these bugs build up or we have somehow acquired a particularly virulent strain.

Checked all the bags before tupping and culled any suspects.

We also had a serious outbreak of orf in the ewes in the autumn/late winter for first time ever but scratch vaccinated them. All mineral bolussed and good nutrition. Look fit enough. Very little twin lamb.

I just think it was sat their dormont, so impossible to spot.

Bugs from last years bugs, the sucking of lambs & general flow kept it away. Then developed very slowly in the dry period & exploded as the ewe bagged up for lambing.

You will already know but can spread very easily, so keep cleaning the sheds out & liming.

I've stopped checking udders, another way to spread it with dirty hands, just keep an eye on the lambs.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Dad always reckoned ewes laying on cold and wet ground/snow made it worse.
Have they plenty of milk? Are their lambs 'banging' their bags 'cos they're hungry?

They get black bag with that

 

[DrWazzock]

Had a better run during the night. Fingers crossed.

What sort of lime do people use? Builders lime or Ag lime (ground chalk)?
I was worried builders lime would stick to the floor like mortar and be difficult to wash out as well as being incredibly expensive for the amount we would need. Could use some Ag lime though.

We have been putting wood shavings in the bottom of the pens then straw. We also dust pens out with Stanisan(?) pink powder, but the main body of the shed is straw, though we keep on adding to it so its fairly clean. Does get mucky and wet underneath though as its on concrete.

We move out of pens after a day into a large bedded holding pen ready for turnout when it isn't blowing a gale and lashing down.

 

[liammogs]

Are you sending them out no matter what the weather is? There not having a draught on there bags so to speak?

Turning sheep out to the rain and bringing in wet sheep can't be much gain either, with straw usage!

 

[Bury the Trash]

It can be very difficult to know what an udder is actually like when checking after weaning or when dry ie last year when drafting out what's to keep and cull, its possibly some of last years problem ir

Main thing is to record any poor doing outfits or ewes that can only do one lamb sort of thing. This (milk yield) is one of the big advantages of Eid.... having that info down as an appropriate comment on just a few ewes would pay for software in one year at least.



Otherwise sharp ie oat or wheat straw can poke the udded a bit. Could also be an indication that you have got the feeding right for good milk yield........cant win

But the bugs are all around us unfortunately

 

[DrWazzock]

Another 10 lambed today with no cases. Maybe it was just a blip with the early starters. Going well. Dry and sunny,even if a bit windy and cold, is helping.

Being as fastidious as we can with pen hygiene. It's been a wake up call.

 

[andybk]

we found you cant put them out and keep bringing in , grass (and fodder beet ) will be to wet , and indoors , bedding just gets to wet and mucky encouraging bugs (will be big risk if any bad feet) , needs to be one or the other really , I would keep them in untill lambs strong enough then turn out at maybe week old early in year and leaving them out , but depends on your conditions . We are trying the vimco mastitis vaccination this year in the zwartbles as they have gallons of milk and get issues when it starts warming up in may .but we will see if it works,
need to be pretty strict at weaning with udders as i think any reservoir will give issues to the rest