Iodine supplement for sheep

[Global ovine]

No, the peanut oil stuff is Lipiodol (see my earlier post #9). Flexidine can be used on frosty mornings.
Don't waste your time doing animals again after 6 weeks as it should cover them for months.

We use depodine, bloody awful to use in cold, but it works[/QUOTE]


Sounds like Lipiodol under a different name. Both injectables work wonderfully well, but the difficulty of use saw Lipiodol replaced by Flexidine after about 5 years. The oil carrier in Flexidine is lighter and less viscous.

For general information; the Southland region of NZ is an alluvial flood plain with soil parent material washed down from the southern end of the Southern Alps. These rocks are devoid of iodine salts. Despite the weather all coming off the Southern Ocean onto Southland it was known as the goitre capital of the world. The local Kew Hospital pioneered goitre operations/reductions. Cretonism is another symptom of iodine deficiency in new born human infants. As a result of this knowledge, iodised salt was introduced to all NZ after WW2.

Iodine deficiencies can occur in places where sea breezes predominate, even if pH levels are in the best zone for pasture growth. Symptoms can fool a farmer for years leading to misdirected spending.

 

[Mr always wrong]

Symptoms can fool a farmer for years leading to misdirected spending. Doesn't tend to take much to fool me.....thanks for info,I'll look into getting other type in for next tupping

 

[Jonny_2]

Symptoms can fool a farmer for years leading to misdirected spending. Doesn't tend to take much to fool me.....thanks for info,I'll look into getting other type in for next tupping

I think we have been very fooled, had 3 years of ewes having a still born lamb, sent a dozen to VI centre, blood tested for abortion and after 3 years blood tested 8 triplets that all had a dead lamb and 3 were positive for toxo. Know the link with iodine and still or borns so bolused, maybe should have blood tested to them to check they had enough.

Drenched the majority of the flock today with highest iodine mineral drench I could find and housed them. On very good cake and mineral buckets however still worried it could be to late to make a difference pre-lambing. Going to sort some KI this week and drench again a month before lambing.

We’ve several that look like this for awhile, tried worming them and feeding better then blamed a bad spring and hard summer. Does this look like it lacks iodine? I thought a footer would be more pronounced

 

[Mr always wrong]

I think we have been very fooled, had 3 years of ewes having a still born lamb, sent a dozen to VI centre, blood tested for abortion and after 3 years blood tested 8 triplets that all had a dead lamb and 3 were positive for toxo. Know the link with iodine and still or borns so bolused, maybe should have blood tested to them to check they had enough.

Drenched the majority of the flock today with highest iodine mineral drench I could find and housed them. On very good cake and mineral buckets however still worried it could be to late to make a difference pre-lambing. Going to sort some KI this week and drench again a month before lambing.

View attachment 760902

We’ve several that look like this for awhile, tried worming them and feeding better then blamed a bad spring and hard summer. Does this look like it lacks iodine? I thought a footer would be more pronounced

I'll wait for someone far more qualified to ask but certainly would suggest blood testing. We tested 4 weeks after being bolused with highest iodine level bolus we could find and were still very low. We infect about 6 weeks pre tupping now and last year tested 9 months later and levels were all within range.

Sorry I can't be more helpful

 

[Farmer Fin]

I think we have been very fooled, had 3 years of ewes having a still born lamb, sent a dozen to VI centre, blood tested for abortion and after 3 years blood tested 8 triplets that all had a dead lamb and 3 were positive for toxo. Know the link with iodine and still or borns so bolused, maybe should have blood tested to them to check they had enough.

Drenched the majority of the flock today with highest iodine mineral drench I could find and housed them. On very good cake and mineral buckets however still worried it could be to late to make a difference pre-lambing. Going to sort some KI this week and drench again a month before lambing.

View attachment 760902

We’ve several that look like this for awhile, tried worming them and feeding better then blamed a bad spring and hard summer. Does this look like it lacks iodine? I thought a footer would be more pronounced

The problem with iodine is that sheep don’t necessarily look ill. I know someone on here before reported poor performance with iodine but not really seen that bad in the uk. Can have low iodine as related to intakes but still ok thyroid function.

Worms / fluke / cobalt / selenium / copper always have to be ruled out.

I used to work on the north downs and saw a fair bit of low iodine along the Berkshire / Oxfordshire side. Definitely so an improvement at lambing when drenched.

 

[Farmer Fin]

I think we have been very fooled, had 3 years of ewes having a still born lamb, sent a dozen to VI centre, blood tested for abortion and after 3 years blood tested 8 triplets that all had a dead lamb and 3 were positive for toxo. Know the link with iodine and still or borns so bolused, maybe should have blood tested to them to check they had enough.

Drenched the majority of the flock today with highest iodine mineral drench I could find and housed them. On very good cake and mineral buckets however still worried it could be to late to make a difference pre-lambing. Going to sort some KI this week and drench again a month before lambing.

View attachment 760902

We’ve several that look like this for awhile, tried worming them and feeding better then blamed a bad spring and hard summer. Does this look like it lacks iodine? I thought a footer would be more pronounced

It’s not too late. Iodine is quick acting. On diary heifers we could see a run of still borns treat the rest with iodine and within a fortnight problem disappeared.

As I said before on this thread be careful with drenching too close to lambing as messes up colostrum. May stop still borns but get more issue with deaths.

Rebecca Mearns a vet at Biobest is a good source of knowledge on the uk situation and treating.

 

[neilo]

The problem with iodine is that sheep don’t necessarily look ill. I know someone on here before reported poor performance with iodine but not really seen that bad in the uk. Can have low iodine as related to intakes but still ok thyroid function.

Worms / fluke / cobalt / selenium / copper always have to be ruled out.

I used to work on the north downs and saw a fair bit of low iodine along the Berkshire / Oxfordshire side. Definitely so an improvement at lambing when drenched.

+1 Iodine can only ever be one piece in a jigsaw. I’d be very wary of going in with KI drenches providing 2-300mg in one dose, without establishing a need with extensive testing. I’m not sure what levels would cause toxicity problems, but I suspect large repeated doses are going to be risking just that. The better spec general TE drenches only provide around 30mg iirc and boluses 4-6mg/day (but questionable longevity on the I).

A mineral guy I was doing some forage testing with was saying that he commonly sees raised Iodine levels in pastures on farms that bolus, suggesting a lot of that 4-6mg in the boluses isn’t actually needed on all farms, and just gets excreted from the back door.

The trouble with PII testing is that it costs near £100 for a pooled blood sample and the results can take up to a month sometimes. It needs doing strategically in order to build a picture of what’s going on on YOUR farm, which might be different right next door (dairy farm next door to here is completely different, presumably from decades of mins & slurry application?).

I gave a KI drench along with a Mayo 5-in-1 bolus to my store lambs on roots a fortnight ago. They’ve been on roots since October but only growing slowly. I noticed yesterday that they were bouncing and skipping up the field, as thriving lambs do, despite it being a howling gale. I’ve not seen them doing that before. Happy days.

 

[LAMBCHOPS]

Ewes bolused with Tracesure se co and iodine at tupping and scanning. Smartshot b12 injection( imported from NZ) been given six weeks ago to lambs and they are booming. Now at weaning going in with a home mix Potassium Iodide mix bought off ebay 50g mix to I Litre of water drenching at 5ml --this will mix with the clear drench wormer. We feel we have our deficiency sussed but would recommend every body does blood test as all land different. Injection of Smartshot lasts for 6 months and you can inject after 3 weeks of age which is a lot earlier than a bolus.

 

[GreenerGrass]

Response to I supplementation here, and on other farms locally, has been dramatic to say the least, despite all of us bolusing already. We have been seeing poor performance generally, with lambs appearing ‘wormy’, although not according to FEC, complete with dark scours that would make you think of worms. Why it’s recently become an issue is anybody’s guess.

Hi neilo, sorry to drag this one up. But didn't you say a couple of years ago you stopped with the lick buckets and nuts. Do you think there could be a link and those products were doing enough to mask /prevent becoming issue before?

 

[pgk]

Ewes bolused with Tracesure se co and iodine at tupping and scanning. Smartshot b12 injection( imported from NZ) been given six weeks ago to lambs and they are booming. Now at weaning going in with a home mix Potassium Iodide mix bought off ebay 50g mix to I Litre of water drenching at 5ml --this will mix with the clear drench wormer. We feel we have our deficiency sussed but would recommend every body does blood test as all land different. Injection of Smartshot lasts for 6 months and you can inject after 3 weeks of age which is a lot earlier than a bolus.

Any thoughts on putting potassium iodide in water. We have some low in iodine and their water supply is from tanks.

 

[ShooTa]

or seaweed in a teabag in the water tank.

 

[neilo]

Hi neilo, sorry to drag this one up. But didn't you say a couple of years ago you stopped with the lick buckets and nuts. Do you think there could be a link and those products were doing enough to mask /prevent becoming issue before?

Of course. All those supplements will contain mins, so I changed to bolusing at the same time. That worked well, until the last couple of years, for whatever reason. Neighbours having similar issues and they like cake lorries and mineral buckets.

 

[neilo]

Any thoughts on putting potassium iodide in water. We have some low in iodine and their water supply is from tanks.

I would think the intakes would be massively variable. Unless it's really hot, or sheep are milking hard, they don't drink water, or mine don't anyway.

 

[pgk]

But you're in Wales where it always rains!?

 

[neilo]

But you're in Wales where it always rains!?

Same applied at Moreton too, so not far down the road from you. water troughs are only usually needed to please the box tickers.....

 

[pgk]

Go wash your mouth out!?

 

[hubbahubba]

Up till weaning my lambs done very well. Since weaning 700 went onto a new grass lay with 1/2kg rape through it. I never dipped any under 40kg lambs as i nomally do about 170 in september as i wasnt expecting to have many left after 40 days. So fast forward still 300 left and been very slow going to get away fat. Low worm counts, blood tested 6. 1 low in selenium, 1 with fluke, all good levels of cobalt but now found low iodine in a mixed blood sample. Does iodine regulate the growth hormone?

Im wondering will a vit drench carrs ovithrive with 1090mg iodine levels or a vets vit drench with 5000mg be enough to lift them?

We have tested ewes for iodine in the past with no problems found. Can it be low as in young grass with rape or not really? I will look at bloods of a few ewes before scanning.

 

[Global ovine]

Up till weaning my lambs done very well. Since weaning 700 went onto a new grass lay with 1/2kg rape through it. I never dipped any under 40kg lambs as i nomally do about 170 in september as i wasnt expecting to have many left after 40 days. So fast forward still 300 left and been very slow going to get away fat. Low worm counts, blood tested 6. 1 low in selenium, 1 with fluke, all good levels of cobalt but now found low iodine in a mixed blood sample. Does iodine regulate the growth hormone?

Im wondering will a vit drench carrs ovithrive with 1090mg iodine levels or a vets vit drench with 5000mg be enough to lift them?

We have tested ewes for iodine in the past with no problems found. Can it be low as in young grass with rape or not really? I will look at bloods of a few ewes before scanning.

If any trace elements are in the low range on normal mixed species pasture, then they will be considerably lower in animal bloods if fed on brassicas, as the sulphur compounds in these plants bind up TEs in the rumen to be excreted in a nonsoluble form. Legumes, especially White Clover, have the highest concentration of TEs for what is available in any given soil type. Some soil types are naturally low, especially those derived from sand (sandstone and its metamorphosed variants). Fortunately iodine is one of the cheapest fixes for short term livestock, e.g. wiping tincture of iodine under and around the bare skin of the tail will give a months top up, as it is readily absorbed through the skin. Other solutions are given in the posts above.

Young growing stock can come to a sudden growth stoppage when iodine is deficient.

Do check your ewe bloods. If they have access to good clovery hay/silage they may be OK. Iodine deficiency won't lower scanning %, but it will influence lamb survival with symptoms resembling still birth. Cut up the neck of the dead lamb and under the jaw line on each side are the thyroid glands. These should be small pale lumps the size of a finger nail. If deficiency occurs, they will be enlarged to walnut size or more. Use Flexidine injection at least a month before lambing. This will protect both ewe and lambs to well after weaning.
Best wishes.

 

[Farmer Fin]

If any trace elements are in the low range on normal mixed species pasture, then they will be considerably lower in animal bloods if fed on brassicas, as the sulphur compounds in these plants bind up TEs in the rumen to be excreted in a nonsoluble form. Legumes, especially White Clover, have the highest concentration of TEs for what is available in any given soil type. Some soil types are naturally low, especially those derived from sand (sandstone and its metamorphosed variants). Fortunately iodine is one of the cheapest fixes for short term livestock, e.g. wiping tincture of iodine under and around the bare skin of the tail will give a months top up, as it is readily absorbed through the skin. Other solutions are given in the posts above.

Young growing stock can come to a sudden growth stoppage when iodine is deficient.

Do check your ewe bloods. If they have access to good clovery hay/silage they may be OK. Iodine deficiency won't lower scanning %, but it will influence lamb survival with symptoms resembling still birth. Cut up the neck of the dead lamb and under the jaw line on each side are the thyroid glands. These should be small pale lumps the size of a finger nail. If deficiency occurs, they will be enlarged to walnut size or more. Use Flexidine injection at least a month before lambing. This will protect both ewe and lambs to well after weaning.
Best wishes.

Please correct me if I’m wrong as you know far more than me, however is there not some work showing over dosing with iodine close to lambing decreased colostrum antibody uptake in the lamb?

 

[Global ovine]

Please correct me if I’m wrong as you know far more than me, however is there not some work showing over dosing with iodine close to lambing decreased colostrum antibody uptake in the lamb?

I haven't come across this, but will do a search. Huge amount of literature about correcting a deficiency situation, all advocating supplementation ASAP to give the lambs the best chance of survival and growing well.

Any TE given as an overdose tend to have adverse effects on mammalian health. However their bodies do have very efficient systems to excrete the surplus unless at toxic levels. Therefore a test to establish the base level prior to treatment should prevent any overdosing and save money.