ewes in late gestation aborting

SussexLad

New Member
I had a ewe abort last week three weeks from due date, normal looking lamb but stunk. The week before I had a shearling with a bloody/brown discharge. Yesterday found another shearling who is due in 6 weeks with bloody/brown discharge. She's closed but could just feel something with the tip of my finger. Doesn't smell very nice. And found an in lamb ewe lamb with blood on her tail but no signs of passing anything.

Spoken to the vet this morning about testing a foetus once she's aborted.

Can anyone give me some ideas. I don't buy in apart from rams which i did this year but only one of these ewes was to him and they are in separate tupping groups.

I've have never had anything abort before but I'm worried as my wife is pregnant so I'm being extra careful. Could this be a result of worrying?

They have been out in the field with no additional feeding apart from a flake or two of haylage. No cats around.

I can't get my head around Toxo or EAE.
 

Jackson4

Member
Location
Wensleydale
Dont panic whatever you do,can happen for many reasons more some years than others, even if it is toxo unless you are very unlucky its manageable. Do you vaccinate for toxo or enzo?

You say they have had no additional feeding are they in good body condition the aborting ewes? Though i would think if they were aborting lambs because they cant carry them (knackered teeth/age/fluke etc) then they would be aborting healthy lambs.

If they had a knock at handling they can lose a lamb and these will either be reabsorbed if small enough or carried to term with no effects or they can become an infected mess and force the ewe to abort a healthy lamb dead before term. 6 weeks is a funny time to be aborting? When i had toxo it was more 3 weeks in... if it was toxo you would probably have part barren at scanning as well, did you have more barren than normal? The in lamb ewe could just have reabsorbed and is just cycling again.

With these things best to see what vitinry says first.
 

SussexLad

New Member
Thank you. I am most definitely panicking!

I don't vaccinate fir either as I've never had a problem so didn't have need to. They are in good condition and fit healthy young ewes.

The first shearling with the blood was a couple days after doing heptavac and the ewe that aborted last week was a week later. I didn't think they were too stressed but there are always a few wilder ones.

I had no barren ewes at all this year just more singles than normal but I put that down to lack of grass at flushing.
 

spin cycle

Member
Location
north norfolk
I had a ewe abort last week three weeks from due date, normal looking lamb but stunk. The week before I had a shearling with a bloody/brown discharge. Yesterday found another shearling who is due in 6 weeks with bloody/brown discharge. She's closed but could just feel something with the tip of my finger. Doesn't smell very nice. And found an in lamb ewe lamb with blood on her tail but no signs of passing anything.

Spoken to the vet this morning about testing a foetus once she's aborted.

Can anyone give me some ideas. I don't buy in apart from rams which i did this year but only one of these ewes was to him and they are in separate tupping groups.

I've have never had anything abort before but I'm worried as my wife is pregnant so I'm being extra careful. Could this be a result of worrying?

They have been out in the field with no additional feeding apart from a flake or two of haylage. No cats around.

I can't get my head around Toxo or EAE.

surely you're vet could blood test the ewe that aborted and if toxo or enzo then antibodies should be present? @bovine ?

i had toxo issues one year but didn't notice it...low lamb % and few weekly lambs....i only found out when i had bloods done last summer on ewes that had slipped (they came back clear)...but two older ewes i had done as a control had toxo antibodies:eek:

if it is toxo a jab of AB would help as a 'firebrigade' action i believe?....your vet sounds a bit dopey to me:rolleyes:
 

Guiggs

Member
Location
Leicestershire
surely you're vet could blood test the ewe that aborted and if toxo or enzo then antibodies should be present? @bovine ?

i had toxo issues one year but didn't notice it...low lamb % and few weekly lambs....i only found out when i had bloods done last summer on ewes that had slipped (they came back clear)...but two older ewes i had done as a control had toxo antibodies:eek:

if it is toxo a jab of AB would help as a 'firebrigade' action i believe?....your vet sounds a bit dopey to me:rolleyes:

Now I may be confused again but I said the same and I'm sure I was advised by the tff gurus that it's Enzo you jab with AB'S!
@SussexLad how many ewes are their in total...4 out of 40 I'd panic but 4 out of 1000 is nothing!
 

Hughesy

Member
Location
Pembrokeshire
I can totally understand your worry! My wife was pregnant during lambing last year, we were very careful, it was easier as we don't live on the holding my parents do! I always showered before going home, complete change of clothes and my mother washed all my farm work gear! She came to the house at the farm but never out onto the yard! Just a few precautions can set your mind at ease!
Hope everything settles down as you've got enough to worry about! Good luck! And best wishes for the rest of her pregnancy!!
 

milkloss

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Your wife can get tested to see if she's had toxo in the past, mine had a blood test and never had it so extra careful! Ask the doc.

Edit: it doesn't really matter but does take a weight off if you're worried about it.
 

bovine

Member
Location
North
There's a heap of different causes of sheep abortion and many can cause problems in pregnant women. Change clothing, wash your own overalls (or take them somewhere else - mums?). I don't think you can be too careful with this (although I know vets who've lambed sheep early in their pregnancies when they didn't want to tell people with zero problems).

Bloods tell you if there has been exposure but don't tell you the cause of abortion. The best solution is sampling the lambs and the afterbirth/cleansing. Far more causes can be identified that way. Bloods are useful if there is nothing to test or at flock level if deciding on a vaccination plan.

Enzootic most common, followed by toxoplasmosis followed by campylobater. Then a heap of others.
 

SussexLad

New Member
So the ewe who I thought was starting to abort must have already done so out in the field as I tried to put my hand in and couldn't find anything and she's spat out the rotting afterbirth. How do you go about testing if the afterbirth was retained? As obviously it's not fresh. I'm touching wood as I type this but so far nothing more so hoping it's just stress related. We've had problems with dogs before :(
 

Bones

Member
Location
n Ireland
There's a heap of different causes of sheep abortion and many can cause problems in pregnant women. Change clothing, wash your own overalls (or take them somewhere else - mums?). I don't think you can be too careful with this (although I know vets who've lambed sheep early in their pregnancies when they didn't want to tell people with zero problems).

Bloods tell you if there has been exposure but don't tell you the cause of abortion. The best solution is sampling the lambs and the afterbirth/cleansing. Far more causes can be identified that way. Bloods are useful if there is nothing to test or at flock level if deciding on a vaccination plan.

Enzootic most common, followed by toxoplasmosis followed by campylobater. Then a heap of others.
Is there a vaccine for campylobater .
 

bovine

Member
Location
North
Is there a vaccine for campylobater .
Yes, but it's on an import licence. Slightly odd as it's a NZ licensed product but there is often a stock in the UK. Not expensive.

The problem is campy tends to be sporadic and you get many good years after a bad year. This means you use the vaccine after a problem and potentially think its amazing.....
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
IMO, with Campy, you get a storm (I had 15% abort in 2010 before blanket abs stopped it) every now and again, then several years of next to nothing. In those 'next to nothing' years, you still get a few out of maidens that you think might be....
I started vaccinating the replacements with Campyvax this year. Cost in NZ is about 30p/dose, import license from vet was £15, then there would be a cost to shipping it if you don't know anyone flying over with a cool box, likely to be as much as the vaccine.
 

bovine

Member
Location
North
I got some last year and it was less than £1/dose onto farm. I think shipping on the batch was nearly £1000 so it needs a reasonable order to make economic sense. I had someone else keen but it's a primary course of 2 injections and he ran out of time.
 

Razor8

Member
Location
Ireland
@bovine I've had a few ewes have a perfectly healthy lamb along with a blob even had a few triplets have 2 healthy lambs and a blob in the cleaning so must of died shortly after scanning

I had both toxo and enzootic back in 2012 but vaccinated everything after that year and now do replacements

Is there any logical reason for this? Have sent them off to lab today
 

bovine

Member
Location
North
No. Sounds interesting. Generally would suggest toxoplasma to cause that, but less likely if properly vaccinated.

Be interested to hear if they find anything.
 

ISCO

Member
Location
North East
We had campylobacter 29 years ago (year we got married how I remember) 30 % aborts or weak lambs. Never had problem since, vaccinate for enzo and toxo however have ewes aborting this year in first batch of 250 and vet diàgnosed campylobacter on 2 seperate samples. Only around 10 % infected and wondering whether to vaccinate next year.
On the original subject when wife was pregnant I always washed and changed outside and kept her away from sheep. Only way to be sure is PM them.
 

bovine

Member
Location
North
You should get a robust natural immunity from campylobacter infection this year, so what ever you do next year you are very unlikely to see disease!
 

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