Old farm medicines

[Old Tip]

A friend found these when tidying up a barn they are renovating, I am guessing they are from the sixties as I don’t recognise them apart from the bottle of calcium of course. I used to go to F W Boons as a kid with my dad occasionally and they were still trading in the seventies and were bought out by Young’s I think in the early eighties.
Just wonder if any of the collective had any info on the products and if my hunch is correct.
By the way all the containers are full and never been used, maybe they were hidden from the FABBL inspector and they forgot where they hid them

 

[primmiemoo]

Astracalc isn't old! (Is it? >ulp!< )
Didn't Norbrook take them over?

Always miffed that the screw top threads were incompatible with Pritchard screw on lamb teats. Bottles were washed thoroughly and reused for lambs with plug in teats instead that invariably fell out when lambs were competitive.

I don't recognise the other two, sorry, but it would make sense that Young's took them over.
The Day's rep would call from time to time and sell black drenches containing turpentine that cured just about everything ~~~ unless the sheep was destined to die.

Where are you going to have them put on display?

 

[Y Fan Wen]

Carbon tet for the treatment of fluke as on label. There was an injectable carbon tet as well which had to be heated to keep it thin enough to suck in the syringe. You can imagine what it was like keeping a Primus cooker going balanced on the top of the fold wall!
The lethal dose of C T was only a bit more than the dose so you had to take care with it.
https://www.drugs.com/international/mansonil-all-worm.html

 

[Al R]

Their in really good condition too!
I’ve seen quite a few metal canisters or tins holding pesticides/herbicides before that I’m guessing were from the 50/60’s?

You may find new chemistry in an old bottle like you’ve found mind?

 

[Old Tip]

Carbon tet for the treatment of fluke as on label. There was an injectable carbon tet as well which had to be heated to keep it thin enough to suck in the syringe. You can imagine what it was like keeping a Primus cooker going balanced on the top of the fold wall!
The lethal dose of C T was only a bit more than the dose so you had to take care with it.
https://www.drugs.com/international/mansonil-all-worm.html

What era would have you been using it ?

 

[hendrebc]

My old farm.medicine story isnt as old as yours but i was glad to have it. I knew we had a couple of bottles of magnesium in the back of an old fridge made into a locker for storing things like that butnhad never had any reason to look at them they were just things i knew were there but in amongst the things i never use but are probably on every farm. Spare budizzo clamp, rusty hoof knife, obscure drench gun parts, orphoids and the mag bottles as well as a million other things im never likely to use.
Id never seen a ewe still alive with mag before this spring but i knew what it was. Rished home to get a bottle only to find the bottle had expired in 1998 20 years ago.... nothing to lose i jabbed the ewe with it. AND SHE BLOODY LIVED!! Shes still here running around somewere
I have bought a fresh bottle though

 

[Y Fan Wen]

What era would have you been using it ?

Dad moved from milk to sheep in 1957, which gives an earliest marker. It had been superseded when I joined him full time after college in '66. Trodax was the replacement by then. It is still in use now I think, but personally I use a dosable now.

 

[primmiemoo]

That one on the left: For the treatment of Liver Rot or Fluke.

Haven't heard of liver rot for a while.

There's one of Dad's drenching horns here somewhere. It's a horn from one of his cows. I remember him using it to drench a bullock with iodised? solution to treat wooden tongue.
That would have been early '70s, when I was even smaller than now.

Hope nobody's been on a tidying frenzy ...

 

[basford]

An old pre war remedy

 

[Lovegoodstock]

My old farm.medicine story isnt as old as yours but i was glad to have it. I knew we had a couple of bottles of magnesium in the back of an old fridge made into a locker for storing things like that butnhad never had any reason to look at them they were just things i knew were there but in amongst the things i never use but are probably on every farm. Spare budizzo clamp, rusty hoof knife, obscure drench gun parts, orphoids and the mag bottles as well as a million other things im never likely to use.
Id never seen a ewe still alive with mag before this spring but i knew what it was. Rished home to get a bottle only to find the bottle had expired in 1998 20 years ago.... nothing to lose i jabbed the ewe with it. AND SHE BLOODY LIVED!! Shes still here running around somewere
I have bought a fresh bottle though

Shame on you, disgusting. Surely you are, if trying to be farm assured, one of the worst examples of farmers ever. Using a drug out of date on an animal and saving its life rather than paying to dispose of the drug and let animal die must be a complete non conformity...

 

[xmilkr]

Talking of old medicines, did anyone on here suffer from organophosphate poisoning after using the old sheep dip, did anyone on here go to London as part of a group of farmers being tested for the problems this chemical caused, think it was 1994/ 1998, l went but cannot remember the year, the stuffs still playing hell with my memory but now well in my seventies l can now blame my age.

 

[primmiemoo]

The enforced dipping happened when I was a child. I always, always felt dreadful for a long time after each bout of dipping that I attended, and after handling the dipped sheep when I hadn't been near the dipping itself. The Law enforced two dippings per year at one point.
My job was to bring sheep up to the pen prior to the dip, and move dipped sheep back to their particular fields afterwards. I was always splashed, and there was always dip spray in the air.

Mum took me to the GP once because I experienced very bad headaches and lethargy, but, on account of being female, everything was put down to hormones.

I'm sure the OP dip that we children used to treat the flock for fly strike was the most dangerous, though:
Pour a quarter capful from the glass bottle of Coopers dip into a watering can full of water. Attach watering rose and spray penned sheep liberally until they're wringing wet. Rub the mixture in well to any area of a sheep's body that was struck by maggots. Maggots killed stone d. in no time.
No gloves even considered, no waterproofs, no warnings on bottle other than skull and crossbones - which, to me, meant do not drink the stuff.

So I was aged from 10 years old when exposed to OP dips, and did think to go for tests when the campaign for investigation into OPs was mounted, but how could I ever prove damage done?

 

[Old Tip]

I’m missing ch the same @primmiemoo uses to help dipping as a kid and got drenched in the stuff then as a teenager got a load of pure meat dip poured all over me when a keg on the wall above the dipper got knocked over and spilt all over me.
That time all the skin peeled of my hands and feet like snake skin.
More recently I’ve been struggling with depression and found my thyroid levels are low and also low on serotonin. Docs can’t prove anything but say there is a possible link.

 

[primmiemoo]

I’m missing ch the same @primmiemoo uses to help dipping as a kid and got drenched in the stuff then as a teenager got a load of pure meat dip poured all over me when a keg on the wall above the dipper got knocked over and spilt all over me.
That time all the skin peeled of my hands and feet like snake skin.
More recently I’ve been struggling with depression and found my thyroid levels are low and also low on serotonin. Docs can’t prove anything but say there is a possible link.

My thought is that there might be a great deal more known about possible effects of OPs had there been monitoring of farm families' health over a long study. Without doubt, some adults were affected ~ I can think of one in particular who I bought stock from when they had to decrease farming operations after being a contract dipper ~ but what of children?

There's an observation I can make is that my sibling's children have as much exposure to sheep as I did at their ages, but have never complained of feeling unwell other than perfectly normal tiredness from exertion. Their flock is never dipped.

I'm sorry to read of your health problems, Old Tip, and hope they do lift for you. I know that thyroid function underpins so much regarding our health.
A close rellie had a long period before the right dose of thyroxin was found, and then was prone to low mood. Thinking about it, my rellie was exposed to second hand sheepdip from washing clothes, and sometimes drove the van with a freshly dipped sheep in the back which couldn't get to the right field under its own steam - the dipping completely exhausted some sheep, especially Devon Longwools in full fleece.

My feeling, given my own experiences, is that something has reduced my capability for stamina (if that makes any sense?), and that my concentration span is unreliable unless it's a thoroughly ingrained task that I'm carrying out. Taking aboard new info is a struggle ~ and not related to age or frame of mind.

 

[xmilkr]

Interesting to note the thyroid part, l am tested on a regular basis and take a pill daily for this, my problem was not with sheep dip but a similar poison, Tiguvon and the like, which we had to pour on cattles back to kill the warble fly, did not affect me the previous three years but after treating the herd in 1987/8 l developed back ache, within a couple of weeks l could not climb down into the pit to milk, l spent three months laid on the floor, lost my memory and never climbed the stairs for a year, which at forty three years old was a worrying time. Doctors were convinced it was sciatica but l was not, reading an article in a daily paper written by a lady doctor in London rang a lot of bells for me so l rang her, she asked me many question then said , yes l believe you have suffered from op. A few weeks later she rang me to say that fifty sheep farmers had just been tested for op at the London hospital for tropical diseases and they were now looking for fifty dairy farmers would l be interested in going to London for tests, l went and had a number of tests mainly to find how long it took for various pains,pin pricks, noises etc to reach the brain. Over a year later l received the results, pages of numbers l did not understand, l rang the lady doctor in London who also had the results, she told me l had suffered from op although l had secreted most of it from my body , this would eventually clear, l did have memory loss this would recover but there was damage that would be a small part that would never return. l would like to have had that report in writing but that was over twenty years ago, going back to my first post, has any one on here been to that hospital for tests because l know sheep farmers went but never heard of any more dairy farmers going for tests.

 

[reverand]

You can throw all your medicine in the bin. All you need is

 

[Old Tip]

Brilliant @reverand

 

[bosses son]

Everyone is talking about the old sheep dip. Are the dip we use now any different? Its still OP. Might be wrong , but is some maggot spray ,ie crovect not OP as well. Maby just as dangerous.

 

[bosses son]

I never understand why there isnt more said about pour ons for cattle etc. The containers and pipe connectors are much to be desired. We tie them on our backs. How many of you have had it leak a bit on your back. Or worming cattle outside and spray back in your face. Always seem to get some on my hands. I consider it dangerous stuff and always wash hands etc asap when using it.