Prolapse ewes, much higher than normal?

[Farmer_Joe]

So i usually cull prolapsed ewes, tend to get very few maybe 1 a year and it often an old girl ive let have 1 more year, but to be fair its usually every other year i see one.

this year ive had 2 rigged prolapse and push all there guts out, so badly they had to be put down (never had to do this before was roughly a week before the were due to start) caught 2 more rigged and put spoons in to hold them, has another 3 ive caught beginning to prolapse walking around! (now a week into lambing, lambing nicely so far)

now 1 was an old girl which i would have expected, 2 are 2 shears, 2 are 3 shears and 1 shearling, wtf is going on, i tagged them all for culling but cant understand the massive increase this year!

any suggestions?

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Indoors or outdoors?

 

[Northern territory]

So i usually cull prolapsed ewes, tend to get very few maybe 1 a year and it often an old girl ive let have 1 more year, but to be fair its usually every other year i see one.

this year ive had 2 rigged prolapse and push all there guts out, so badly they had to be put down (never had to do this before was roughly a week before the were due to start) caught 2 more rigged and put spoons in to hold them, has another 3 ive caught beginning to prolapse walking around! (now a week into lambing, lambing nicely so far)

now 1 was an old girl which i would have expected, 2 are 2 shears, 2 are 3 shears and 1 shearling, wtf is going on, i tagged them all for culling but cant understand the massive increase this year!

any suggestions?

We have had 3 put all the lot out and died, put it down to fodder beet, (not convinced) had 4 normal prolapse with harness and spoons, usually get a few. Only been lambing a few days but getting more issues than normal, ringwomb tonight.

 

[neilo]

So i usually cull prolapsed ewes, tend to get very few maybe 1 a year and it often an old girl ive let have 1 more year, but to be fair its usually every other year i see one.

this year ive had 2 rigged prolapse and push all there guts out, so badly they had to be put down (never had to do this before was roughly a week before the were due to start) caught 2 more rigged and put spoons in to hold them, has another 3 ive caught beginning to prolapse walking around! (now a week into lambing, lambing nicely so far)

now 1 was an old girl which i would have expected, 2 are 2 shears, 2 are 3 shears and 1 shearling, wtf is going on, i tagged them all for culling but cant understand the massive increase this year!

any suggestions?

Out of a dozen ewes, or a thousand?

 

[neilo]

For the first time in my memory, I haven’t had a single ewe prolapse before lambing (Grazing beet).......until they hit the lambing paddocks last week. Had half a dozen since (1%), with the first having lambed ok through her harness by first rounds this morning.
What causes it, it’s certainly not my ewes being too fat this year.

 

[A1an]

Speaking with our shepherd today and he also mentioned the amount of prolapses he's had in the last couple of days. He's never seen the like before

 

[Northern territory]

For the first time in my memory, I haven’t had a single ewe prolapse before lambing (Grazing beet).......until they hit the lambing paddocks last week. Had half a dozen since (1%), with the first having lambed ok through her harness by first rounds this morning.
What causes it, it’s certainly not my ewes being too fat this year.

Do you use the spoon with the harness and how tight do you tweak it up.

 

[neilo]

Do you use the spoon with the harness and how tight do you tweak it up.

I had some of those spoons, many years ago. I’m pretty sure the damned things all went on the fire about 25 years ago though, before they could cause any more irritation in my patients.

Harness only ever since, along with a shot of Metacam to reduce the inflammation for a couple of days (& ab’s if I feel it’s needed, but not always). I ‘tweak it up’ as far as I feel it needs to be to hold everything in place, which varies on a case by case basis.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

I've had slightly more than average prolapse this year but the difference has been the severity. I'm usually very disappointed to lose any but often 1 or 2 will die but this year I've lost several.
This week I've had 2 that have shown no sign of prolapse before expelling their intestines. I'm not going to say it's never happened before but to have 2 in 3 days is bloody horrific.

 

[yellowbelly]

We have had 3 put all the lot out and died, put it down to fodder beet, (not convinced)

"When I was a boy,"

in the days when we 'wound' swedes and mangolds through a turnip cutter by hand, they always told us that's what caused 'em to prolapse (too much bulky feed).

Last year we grazed a lot of cover crops and had a much higher incidence of prolapses and guts out the back.
This year, no cover crops and much reduced prolapses and no guts out the back (feck, I wish I hadn't just said that I know what'll happen today now).

Just an observation, make of it what you will.

 

[Skintagain]

Had a lot in beast from east year, fed them more cake than usual thought it had thrown them off balance. Had a couple last year when they came inside - one in the outside lambers too on zero cake just maxx or crystals buckets. Lambed all inside this year brought them inside 5 weeks before lambing on cake and silage and hay - no prolapse. The one only real difference this year is I have not bothered with any lick buckets for the first time in a long time so who knows

 

[Northern territory]

"When I was a boy,"

in the days when we 'wound' swedes and mangolds through a turnip cutter by hand, they always told us that's what caused 'em to prolapse (too much bulky feed).

Last year we grazed a lot of cover crops and had a much higher incidence of prolapses and guts out the back.
This year, no cover crops and much reduced prolapses and no guts out the back (feck, I wish I hadn't just said that I know what'll happen today now).

Just an observation, make of it what you will.

Inclined to agree, would you say the same about hay. Always think ewes milk well when they have come off beet.

 

[yellowbelly]

would you say the same about hay.

I guess it doesn't help. There's only so much room inside a ewe, when the pressure builds up, if there's a weakness there, somethings going to have to 'give'.

 

[Poorbuthappy]

Was an interesting section in the booklet @easyram1 gave us from the guy who came over and spoke with @Global ovine ref prolapse.
Talked of the relationship of various trace elements inc mag and calcium on prolapse, and the effect of uptake of said elements by grass growing in colder conditions.
It's certainly been a colder spring, until now. Interested to see if cases tail off going forward now.

 

[yellowbelly]

Was an interesting section in the booklet @easyram1 gave us from the guy who came over and spoke with @Global ovine ref prolapse.
Talked of the relationship of various trace elements inc mag and calcium on prolapse, and the effect of uptake of said elements by grass growing in colder conditions.
It's certainly been a colder spring, until now. Interested to see if cases tail off going forward now.

Interesting, in the past, we always gave them a dose of calcium. Not done it for ages - had quite forgotten about that.

 

[polk_farmer]

"When I was a boy,"

in the days when we 'wound' swedes and mangolds through a turnip cutter by hand, they always told us that's what caused 'em to prolapse (too much bulky feed).

Last year we grazed a lot of cover crops and had a much higher incidence of prolapses and guts out the back.
This year, no cover crops and much reduced prolapses and no guts out the back (feck, I wish I hadn't just said that I know what'll happen today now).

Just an observation, make of it what you will.

Just as a flip side to that, first year growing beet here. Only had one prolapse out of nearly 500. Been strip grazing beet since Xmas, then fed beet all through lambing too, on our last trailer load now, tipped out on grass. No cake so no scrums though

 

[Al R]

traditionally dad used to use a cereal based system feeding the twins and triplets with the snacker. Even with culling every year you could guarantee 30-40 out of 600, only 1-2 would be post lambing, most would be from 6-2 weeks pre lambing while being fed.

ive moved onto a forage based system of turnips for the twins and triplets and grass for others where it’s available. This year I had 1 triplet 7 year old (a few days before lambing) all 3 survived and she’s rearing one as her udder was one sided. Another ewe which prolapsed was a 7 year old draft ewe, lambed triplets all fine a week later. Then a ewe lamb carrying twins who died from assuming toxicaemia?
So 3/1280. Some of my ewes are BCS 5-7 and none prolapsed. I think it’s mainly down to not running for food each day or fighting for food?

 

[Tim W]

A couple of weeks ago i was boasting on Twitter about not remembering when i last had a prolapse -----should have kept quiet as i've had 2 since
Both carrying triplets, both fat and both just moved onto lush long grass

 

[Al R]

A couple of weeks ago i was boasting on Twitter about not remembering when i last had a prolapse -----should have kept quiet as i've had 2 since
Both carrying triplets, both fat and both just moved onto lush long grass

I was saying to a lad that works for me that my lamb losses at 3-4 weeks old hadn’t happened like most years for things like pulpy kidney/tetanus etc. Yesterday 5 of my best lambs all 4 weeks old all dead! We always thought it was tetanus from ringing the tails but all of these were entire and long tails ?

 

[Farmer_Joe]

I've had slightly more than average prolapse this year but the difference has been the severity. I'm usually very disappointed to lose any but often 1 or 2 will die but this year I've lost several.
This week I've had 2 that have shown no sign of prolapse before expelling their intestines. I'm not going to say it's never happened before but to have 2 in 3 days is bloody horrific.

I felt like this, had a really bad triplet and vet said over phone it was doomed. Which suspected as intestines were out she told me how to do c section just after shooting it all lambs also dead it quite depressing was a nice young sheep too. I had to shoot 3 before I even started lambing this year...

lamb out doors 275 sheep, like I said usually an old girl maybe every other year this year at least 5/6 some dead some recovered (well put spoon in and are still ok holding lambs) and yesterday 1 lambed 2 cracking twins unaided past spoon which was good to see

I tend to blame these on weather and uptake over winter, but as mentioned above mineral difficiency is an interesting one, however they have all been on a good sheep cake for 6 weeks pre lambing and first prolapse was 2 weeks pre lambing.
I don’t give em loads though slightly less then is recommended thing each drop out of snacker is around 350 grams more to triplets last 2 weeks, 1 each to twins last 2 weeks and singles get vertually nowt