Ewes blowing guts out

Man_in_black

Member
Livestock Farmer
How do

Due to start next week. Tex X lleyn in lamb to tex. Brought them in ny eve. Week later one had prolapse but another one had (my gaffers words, I wasn't there) just shot everything out its fanny. He insists it not a prolapse and everything had come out in bloody mess, obviously dead. Two more have done it today (again I'm not there isolating). Thoughts?? Are they aggressive prolapses or someone else?? My gaffer reckons its too much hay.......??

Adlib hay in ring. 900g head/day split in 2 feeds. Plenty of space at troughs.

Tia
 

Six Dogs

Member
Location
Wiltshire
How do

Due to start next week. Tex X lleyn in lamb to tex. Brought them in ny eve. Week later one had prolapse but another one had (my gaffers words, I wasn't there) just shot everything out its fanny. He insists it not a prolapse and everything had come out in bloody mess, obviously dead. Two more have done it today (again I'm not there isolating). Thoughts?? Are they aggressive prolapses or someone else?? My gaffer reckons its too much hay.......??

Adlib hay in ring. 900g head/day split in 2 feeds. Plenty of space at troughs.

Tia
In my experience there is nothing you can do and is possible link to low calcium and ewes putting down internal fat mid pregnancy which is a case of damned if they do and damned if they don’t
 

beardface

Member
Location
East Yorkshire
How do

Due to start next week. Tex X lleyn in lamb to tex. Brought them in ny eve. Week later one had prolapse but another one had (my gaffers words, I wasn't there) just shot everything out its fanny. He insists it not a prolapse and everything had come out in bloody mess, obviously dead. Two more have done it today (again I'm not there isolating). Thoughts?? Are they aggressive prolapses or someone else?? My gaffer reckons its too much hay.......??

Adlib hay in ring. 900g head/day split in 2 feeds. Plenty of space at troughs.

Tia

900g, that's 2lb a day! How many lbs are they scanned with? I'd only feed that level to triplets.
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
I've had this in the past - the couple years after we restocked from F&M in '01 ewes were chronic for it... you go round them and everything would be laid out on the ground behind them no warning and nothing you can do.

It's definitely prolapse and not coming out the arse. They push to the point of bursting which sends the intestines out onto the ground.


Probably too late now, but be harder on the ewes next year.


(Edit; my experience is in outdoor lambing situation. I'd say if indoors they need checked more often/keep a better eye on them)
 
Last edited:

hally

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
cumbria
Often starts with a prolapse and if you are there to put it back in no problem but often as not she will just push thinking she is lambing to it all comes out, if you are not. Generally only a bother here in years when ewes are very fit, but we get a couple every year without fail.
 

NFI

Member
Livestock Farmer
I've had this.
I bought some three in one feeders a couple of years ago and wished I'd never heard of them.
Couldn't stop them gorging themselves on them no matter how tight I adjusted the feeders. They were on whole barley and protein pellets. We used to use rolls with a snacker.
Ultimately their BCS got too high creating too much pressure and bang.
Took the feeders away and replaced with troughs and cut the feed back. Stuck the fat ones in another pen without hard feed and yes I ended up with TLD. So put in a high energy tub. That slowed them up a bit.
This time the scanner says in November "they're looking well" which worried me no end. Introduced hard feed slowly in troughs in the beginning of December. Started lambing at Christmas and we've nearly finished with two prolapses ( they lambed the following day with no problems).
Like everyone else is saying BCS is the key here.
Everyday.....
 
We did have a few every year but havent had any since we reduced concentrates and fed energy licks with mag in- we use the black Crystalyx ones as intakes are better. We try and avoid feeding sbp pre lambing as well.
 

shumungus

Member
Livestock Farmer
Don't think there is anything you can do at this point, you'll just have to weather the storm. What they are doing is called evisceration, usually the muscle wall between the rectum/vagina splits and everything comes out, not saveable, always fatal. If at the point of lambing lambs may be saveable by emergency caesarean. There are numerous theories as to what causes it but none conclusive, some breeds are more prone than others and body condition and feed type have a lot to do with it, gorging themselves on long wet round bale silage would have been known as a culprit, but in your instance this is not the cause it seems. Don't reduce feeding dramatically as this will induce metabolic imbalance and as they try to utilise fat stored this will throw them into ketosis giving them 'fat twin lamb disease' which almost always results in at least a belly full of dead lambs if not a dead ewe. Not what you are wanting to hear but in my opinion with sheep when you are a week off the lambing your only a passenger at that stage.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,290
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top