Healthy ram with constant scours

[Grem]

I started working for a farmer late last year and one of the rams has permanent scours. He looks perfectly healthy, keeps his weight and has proven his worth but has a filthy back end. Any clues?
Could it be a parasite that normal wormers are not touching?

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Have you done a fec on him? You don’t wanna be breeding off wormer resistant stock

 

[spin cycle]

has he got a blackface

 

[Grem]

has he got a blackface

He's a bought-in Charolais.

 

[Grem]

Have you done a fec on him? You don’t wanna be breeding off wormer resistant stock

Most likely not, he was here when I started. Was only thinking tonight, after posting my question that he could be wormer resistant, and yes, he has fathered quite a few lambs. Would you get rid of his lambs? I thought the resistance was in the worms, not the sheep??

 

[GreenerGrass]

I thought the resistance was in the worms, not the sheep??

You are correct. If you have wormer resistance it is a farm level problem, not individual sheep. That said I wouldn’t be keen to breed a ram who has permanent scours.

 

[andybk]

pross damaged gut from early cocci/ nemo ,or poss copper deficiency , though some sheep are like that , have any offspring got dirty behinds ? Would still get rid off before the flies do it for you ,

 

[GTB]

Worth doing fec and bloods just to see what's going on. Could be worms or some sort of mineral / TE deficiency. Or as said, gut damage from cocci or worms as a lamb?

 

[digger64]

I started working for a farmer late last year and one of the rams has permanent scours. He looks perfectly healthy, keeps his weight and has proven his worth but has a filthy back end. Any clues?
Could it be a parasite that normal wormers are not touching?

Fodder beet ?

 

[Grem]

Fodder beet? Do you mean is he on fodder beet? No, just poor grazing on a Welsh mountain - not scrub, just grass.

 

[Grem]

pross damaged gut from early cocci/ nemo ,or poss copper deficiency , though some sheep are like that , have any offspring got dirty behinds ? Would still get rid off before the flies do it for you ,

mmm. Anything is possible I suppose. His lambs are a max of 6 weeks old and still clean at the moment.
As for flies - we rarely have problems here as we are 850-1000' up

 

[Grem]

Worth doing fec and bloods just to see what's going on. Could be worms or some sort of mineral / TE deficiency. Or as said, gut damage from cocci or worms as a lamb?

I think we may have to check this although he does have various mineral licks. We never saw which ram it was but one was chewing the old post and rail fencing pre Christmas. Vet once told me this was a phosphorus deficiency. Maybe scours is another sign?

 

[Grem]

You are correct. If you have wormer resistance it is a farm level problem, not individual sheep. That said I wouldn’t be keen to breed a ram who has permanent scours.

Thank you. I only work there, I don't make the decisions!!