Meningitis in lambs??

[Andyt880]

I’ve had 3 lambs went off their feet, 2 were quite stiff and had their heads thrown back, these 2 lambs died shortly after I found them. The third lamb went down but didn’t seem to be as bad the others, it has survived for a week but still hasn’t got up. The lamb that has survived until now was seen by my vet and they put it down to possibly being meningitis but really was unsure what it was. I would like to know what is causing this, any ideas? The photo I have attached is one of the lambs that died, (it was living in the photo) as I found it in the field. I seen them on Saturday evening and everything was fine and that photograph was taken at lunch time on Sunday.

 

[Bury the Trash]

one of the Clostridials, Tetanus ? .....got in wounds from ringing most likely.

 

[Andyt880]

one of the Clostridials, Tetanus ? .....got in wounds from ringing most likely.

We had considered that too. The ewes are on the heptavac P system and had their booster 5 weeks before lambing. The oldest lambs will be 6 weeks at the end of this week so will be getting their first heptavac P jab this weekend. I thought the heptavac P would have covered this? Two of the lambs had no sign of any infection in tail wounds or navels, one had a slightly dirty tail wound but the tail hadn’t fallen off long.

 

[Bury the Trash]

theres always a chance that the odd ewe wont be imunised for some reason or that lambs dont get enough colostrum.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

If it’s stiff as a board it’ll be tetanus

 

[Andyt880]

theres always a chance that the odd ewe wont be imunised for some reason or that lambs dont get enough colostrum.

Lambs got plenty of colostrum, I lamb indoors and only have 50 ewes so I have time to tube every lamb with its mothers colostrum after it’s born.

 

[Andyt880]

If it’s stiff as a board it’ll be tetanus

Is there any preventative or cure for tetanus? It seems to come over them quite quickly.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Is there any preventative or cure for tetanus? It seems to come over them quite quickly.

Ovivac

 

[Andyt880]

Ovivac

Is it just a one off vaccine for the lambs or is it similar to the heptavac P?

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Is it just a one off vaccine for the lambs or is it similar to the heptavac P?

Need doing twice 4-6 weeks apart, once older than 3 weeks

 

[Andyt880]

Rite ok. Now would be the time to do them then. I think I’ll give that a go. If it saved one or two lambs it would pay for it self.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Rite ok. Now would be the time to do them then. I think I’ll give that a go. If it saved one or two lambs it would pay for it self.

Covers them for a lot more than just tetanus as well so well worth doing them
If you heptavac your ewes and keep your own replacements then you’d be better of heptavacing them as that covers tetanus too...I just ovivac my lambs though

 

[Andyt880]

Ah rite so the heptavac should be covering them then. I plan to do the lambs at the end of the week so hopefully won’t have any more take it after that. When you only have approx 80 lambs to sell every one counts, don’t like losing them at that stage.