listeria

DartmoorEwe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Yelverton, UK
Vet just diagnosed listeria in a hog with 2 week old lamb and another has just gone the same way. There was one dodgy bale.

What is the disease progression? Recovery? Survive but live with long term problems? How can I get the hogs to drink? Has anyone tried tubing fluid in; she's aspirating with a dosing gun? I've already spent the money on the vet and abs so full on intensive care is the way forward but what works?

Feeling really glum and need some support from my FF friends.
 

pine_guy

Member
Location
North Cumbria
Vet just diagnosed listeria in a hog with 2 week old lamb and another has just gone the same way. There was one dodgy bale.

What is the disease progression? Recovery? Survive but live with long term problems? How can I get the hogs to drink? Has anyone tried tubing fluid in; she's aspirating with a dosing gun? I've already spent the money on the vet and abs so full on intensive care is the way forward but what works?

Feeling really glum and need some support from my FF friends.

I think prompt diagnoses and getting the ABs early enough is the make or break in listeria treatment.
 

DartmoorEwe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Yelverton, UK
Thanks for the replies.

One's standing drooling and can't swallow but is still feeding her lamb, the other's on her side with her head back, can't catch her lamb but that will soon be too easy to do.

Vet told me to give daily doses of 6ml pen and strep i/m for 7 days, 10ml engomicin i/m for 3 days and 3ml metacam s/c until well as well as a rumen support drench that gets mixed with milk to keep the bugs alive for if they start to eat.

I'll keep nursing them and not give up hope yet.
 

LAMBCHOPS

Member
Warm water carefully given. plenty of ABs and when you open a bale it needs to be completely cleared in 3 days as the Listeria will develop when air is let in . We would always fork away any that looks like being left. Bales are also able to be inoculated"ecobale" which is sprayed on to the swath "afixed" to the baler. Costs £1 a bale which we do ..
 

DartmoorEwe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Yelverton, UK
The iffy bale was a big square shared between 15 hogs and it was taking about 10 days to finish. It was therefore an accident waiting to happen - oh well, every day is a school day. Bought in so not much choice about inoculants but I'll speak to my supplier. The vets fees for this event can be added to the feed budget for next year.

Every time I turn lying down hog she does an enormous smelly belch, her lamb's now caught and she's looking much more with it so things are looking up.
 

Bury the Trash

Member
Mixed Farmer
For sheep you can't beat old fashioned (good )hay. or even nice straw..

One way in which clamp silage is better for sheep than baled .. is that the fermentation is a bit different to that in the bale and it would be a pretty poorly managed clamp or bad luck for it to be a problem,,,...
... but of course.you still have to make sure its either cleared up or cleared away after a few days
the listeria can multiply like crazy in the bale environment.
Damper stuff might be a bit better at being anaerobic but don't forget that listeria is in the soil , dung ie all around it just needs the right conditions to cause trouble.... cattle can resist this challenge better than sheep although some sheep will cope with it better than others also. ir.. …. it is much easier to feed cattle thats for sure. :rolleyes:

difficult to treat successfully when they get
proper listeriosis.(n)
 

primmiemoo

Member
Location
Devon
Hope they both recover and there are no further cases @DartmoorEwe.

Had a ewe come down with listeria during the Beast from the East. We felt that the extreme cold actually helped her recover more rapidly than she might otherwise have done.

I gave her metacam as well as the antibiotics. Someone I know had bacterial meningitis (recovered!) mentioned the headache, so thought an anti-inflammatory might help.
 

DartmoorEwe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Yelverton, UK
Its now a week since diagnosis and both hogs are up and eating and trying to feed their lambs. They are a long way from well but neither looks about to die. The hardest bit was keeping the down ewe hydrated but she got used to drinking from a syringe in the end, I added some twin lamb drench to give her energy as well as fluid. I spent half of yesterday getting her on her legs and then holding her up until she could support herself. She has a couple of pressure sores on her hock and leg, the skin's just broken but now that she is standing to pee they should heal.

Thanks for the replies and support, lots of lessons learned and notes for the future - once again TFF saves the day!
 
Over the years iv'e kept some survivors but most had some form of brain damage , holding their head at an angle being awkward to move as part of a group , so after a few tries I then decided culling at the first chance was the way for me
 

primmiemoo

Member
Location
Devon
That's a shame. I was wondering what next for them.

It does depend on the sheep. I've found that if they're inconspicuous within the flock when they're grazing, and are within the usual range of behaviour when gathered and in the penning system, they'll carry on more or less normally.

One did self-select as a pet once recovered. She became a fairly reliable nanny ewe to the ewe lambs at weaning.
 

Bell77

New Member
I had it on a cow , caught it while she was still on her feet , but had facial paralysis etc 5 weeks treatment and full recovery. If you catch it early then good chance of recovery with anti biotics and palliative care , sheep have a higher mortality rate
 

wrenbird

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
HR2
It does depend on the sheep. I've found that if they're inconspicuous within the flock when they're grazing, and are within the usual range of behaviour when gathered and in the penning system, they'll carry on more or less normally.

One did self-select as a pet once recovered. She became a fairly reliable nanny ewe to the ewe lambs at weaning.
We had a ewe like this too,know as "Beady",(or BD,short for brain damage!). She was already a bit of a pet before Listeria,and when she did recover,which took a while,she always held her head on one side with one eye half closed. She went on to lamb again several times and was also useful to run with just weaned lambs, or other bunches of half-wits, to make moving them around much easier.
 

DartmoorEwe

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Yelverton, UK
They have finished their antibiotics and were on their feet looking ready so I let them out. A happy ish ending except one lamb is taking almost a liter of milk a day. I'll have to go into the field with a bottle and see if lamb gets the idea.

The hogs seem able to run in a straight line and stick together so hopefully they'll just blend in with the rest of the flock. They've already given me a lamb each so they have earned a second chance.
 

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