Possible Border Disease in lamb

[Chasingmytail]

Had a lamb born yesterday - one of the last. Its shaking, hairy and spindly legs. I am going to call the vet out on Monday to take bloods to confirm if Border Disease or Swayback.

So far though there was only been about 5 odd lambs. One of a twin was absolutely tiny and spindly. 1 mutant, 2 abortions a few weeks before due. Some tiny lambs spindly but cant recall any hairy ones.

If this is Border how did it come about? We havent bought anything in for over 2 years and cant recall anything randomly last year. We have had some what I call pygmy lambs so impossible to get fat. My only suspicion is that its in the flock. Can it come off the commoners - welsh sheep.

Jumping the gun a bit. Still dont get how it can travel as there would have to be sheep with border close to early pregnancy so Dec/Jan but as we bring in the ewes around February can fat lambs close or nose touching be an issue?

Never seem a lamb like this before. Just to say we bolus and mineral blocks. We are low in minerals incl copper on the farm. There is also option that the ewe was missed or spat out the bolus.

 

[DKnD]

From your post it does sound like border. Get some bloods done. What's your barren rate like the last few years?

 

[Plopper]

Sounds exactly like when we had it last year , scanning was fine but then had a few abort with scrawny looking things then there was 4 or 5 hairy lambs at birth and one hairy shaker, this stopped shaking within a couple of days but never got going and died about 2 or 3 weeks old , culled what we thought brought it in and any lambs from ewes in that group but I’ve had a set off twins born small and hairy this year so scratching my head abit as nothing else bought in other than them ewes last year .

 

[Farmer Fin]

Do you have cattle with BVD nearby? Cattle BVD virus can cause the same effects as sheep BDV. Your vets will be able to explain more and the labs can normally distinguish which virus is causing the issue. Makes a slight difference to management going forward especially if you keep cattle as well.

 

[Chasingmytail]

vet coming on Monday to take bloods from the ewe initially and take it from there. Yes we have cattle and had full BVD test a few months ago all clear bar 4 which showed a positive (not sure of the technical term) - they were carrying it.

Barren rate low. No issues but there are a lot of pygmy lambs.

Because I also had a cracking size lamb with serious facial disfigurement that also raised the flag. Twins in which the 1 lamb looked well prem. Its all a bit suspicious.

 

[Farmer Fin]

vet coming on Monday to take bloods from the ewe initially and take it from there. Yes we have cattle and had full BVD test a few months ago all clear bar 4 which showed a positive (not sure of the technical term) - they were carrying it.

Barren rate low. No issues but there are a lot of pygmy lambs.

Because I also had a cracking size lamb with serious facial disfigurement that also raised the flag. Twins in which the 1 lamb looked well prem. Its all a bit suspicious.

Sounds like you have an issue in your cattle which needs addressing first. Good luck in getting in sorted. Stick to your vets advice as they will know your system and you and together come up with the best plan.

 

[Chasingmytail]

POSITIVE - nothing to do with my cattle the risk is to the cattle now as zero BVD. Going to have to cull a lot of the ewes at weaning and if we decided to keep any lambs will blood test those. Good ewes left will all have to be blood tested. All tups to go. Having to ensure zero border in the next purchase.

 

[ShooTa]

bugger - sorry.

 

[LAMBCHOPS]

Do you have cattle with BVD nearby? Cattle BVD virus can cause the same effects as sheep BDV. Your vets will be able to explain more and the labs can normally distinguish which virus is causing the issue. Makes a slight difference to management going forward especially if you keep cattle as well.

We had Hairy Shaker lamb syndrome some 10 years ago. Bought some yearlings who had contracted the problem from cattle on their farm of birth that had BVD. They had spread it as carriers of the virus to the other yearlings we had bought through tupping time onwards . Fortunately we always mob yearlings together and it did not affect rest of flock(2 to 5 yr olds) as they had not mixed at tupping time. Identified the bunch that were carriers and secreters of the virus and sold them in store/old ewe section as two year olds with strict announcement that they should only go for slaughter. The rest which were not carriers but were infected became immune as it had only affected the lambs and lambed ok next year . Some 80 lambs were born that year and we did sell them eventually but small . However we got to the bottom of it by selling the carriers if not they would have kept spreading year on year

 

[LAMBCHOPS]

Think we identified them as they had the disease from very young and had built up immunity and had healthy lambs. They were the only bunch who did not have issues just normal lambs. The 4/5 other bought in bunches all were infected as foetus was forming.