Sheep vaccinations through out the year!!

[James169]

Hi
I'm hopfully taking a new farm on in the near future. The farm I used to work on weee very slack with vaccinations/worners through out the year. I was wondering what different vaccinations people use and at what point of the year? We uses to worm sheep before tups went in. Then a copper tablet 6 weeks before lambing. Then inject with a 8 in 1 just before lambing started. Then dectomax before sheep went out with lambs. Then thst was about it until preparing for next years tupping. There was maggot spray ect.

Wondered if and what different drugs people used.

 

[bovine]

Massive subject. I'd encourage you to sit down with a vet with an interest in sheep and bash out a flock health plan.

Clostridial vaccine practically vital. Can discuss the merits of +/- pasturella cover.

I'd vaccinate for Enzo/Toxo if they were mine.

Scabivax if an infected flock.

Footvax?

Have a good chat about worming, but don't copy what happened on your previous place. They are over wormed (no need pre breeding) and Dectomax every year would be foolish. Need a chat about egg counting for burdens.

Fluke risk?

Minerals will depend on the farm and you need to so some testing to establish need.

 

[scottish-lleyn]

Hep p last week in feb bolus with copper cobalt selenium iodine end of jan. Do fec test rest of the year worm or dont according to results. <(This is what i do)....Every farm/area is different speak to your vet and make a health plan but dont be banging dectomax into every sheep every year or worming before tupping if they dont need it. @bovine beat me to it.

 

[Yale]

IIRC the heptavac needs to be given 4-6 weeks before lambing starts to allow an immune response and the colostrum to build up containing the appropriate antibodies.

 

[scatterbrainedlass]

@bovine @scottish-lleyn Was told by our vet to Decotmax all new sheep coming onto our property, best all-round wormer plus vaccinating against scab. Any reason why not to do them every year? We rent land and there has been scab on some of the fields in previous years so I'm a bit paranoid about trying to prevent it.

 

[scottish-lleyn]

Maybe when you first bring them on but not every year. Using it every year for no good reason is just asking for resistance problems adult sheep shouldnt really need wormed(some do) but culling the cheapest option for them. I would ask the vet again he did probably mean to use the dectomax as a quarintine treatment not every sheep every year...i hope.

 

[spin cycle]

Massive subject. I'd encourage you to sit down with a vet with an interest in sheep and bash out a flock health plan.

Clostridial vaccine practically vital. Can discuss the merits of +/- pasturella cover.

I'd vaccinate for Enzo/Toxo if they were mine.

Scabivax if an infected flock.

Footvax?

Have a good chat about worming, but don't copy what happened on your previous place. They are over wormed (no need pre breeding) and Dectomax every year would be foolish. Need a chat about egg counting for burdens.

Fluke risk?

Minerals will depend on the farm and you need to so some testing to establish need.

are they sheep or pin cushions?

 

[bovine]

are they sheep or pin cushions?

Unsure whether you are serious or just pushing my buttons. Was up half the night and had a busy day so I will rise to it.

You have these dumb animals in your care. You have moral and legal responsibilities to care for them and prevent unnecessary suffering. We are in a climate where it is becoming increasingly important we use medicines responsibly. This means we prevent as much disease (and therefore treatment, suffering and death) as we possibly can. The pain or discomfort of 1000 sheep receiving a simple vaccine (by a skilled operator, regularly changing needles etc) is miniscule compared to the suffering from those diseases.

Very much like the uninformed parents choosing to leave their children vulnerable to infectious disease.

Moving forwards it will be vital to maximise the penetration of preventative vaccines into the sheep sector, really there is no excuse for not using clostridial, pasturella, enzootic and toxoplasma abortion vaccines. If you have orf or footrot then they are also essential. I would like to see some good figures of how many people use these products. I'd also love to see a comparison of vaccine use compared to medicine treatments. I can show in dairy those using most vaccine and most professional time are more productive and treat less disease.

 

[spin cycle]

no problem with clostridial.....but i'dve thought it better that he sourced good stock to hopefully avert scab/foot problems....which can also be lessened with management practices

surely testing for abortion and if enzo clear keeping flock closed?...with toxo...adopt a risk based approach?

 

[bovine]

From my experience farms cannot successfully keep abortion agents out. Enzo and toxo remain the most common diagnoses despite us having good vaccines for a lot of years. It gets pretty depressing each year. We know the enzootic health scheme doesn't work, if you want a laugh ring the SAC and speak to George Caldow about it.....

I agree about healthy stock and avoiding lameness, but few people can really eradicate footrot (and that's quite possible).

 

[Tim W]

I agree about healthy stock and avoiding lameness, but few people can really eradicate footrot (and that's quite possible).

Afraid i disagree here ---IMO the footrot vaccine is the biggest misused vaccine on the farm . Mainly by lazy folk who can't be bothered to treat/separate & cull ALL offenders
Footvac as part of a well though out eradication plan is fine & I have used it as a one off as part of a comprehensive plan to get rid of footrot from farms

 

[neilo]

Does it not depend on the system though? Eradicating, or even reducing footrot, is a non-starter if you are a flying flock buying in replacements annually, as many (the majority?) do. In that situation, to cull out offenders is a very expensive hobby, and not even particularly effective if the replacements bought could be just as susceptible.

The use of Footvax in that situation is perhaps more sensible.

 

[scatterbrainedlass]

Maybe when you first bring them on but not every year. Using it every year for no good reason is just asking for resistance problems adult sheep shouldnt really need wormed(some do) but culling the cheapest option for them. I would ask the vet again he did probably mean to use the dectomax as a quarintine treatment not every sheep every year...i hope.

I'll speak to the vet again next time I go in, worming seems such a minefield, each farm is different and there doesn't appear to be any set approach to it. We had a worm count done late last autumn and it was low so we're holding back on worming for now.

 

[Tim W]

Does it not depend on the system though? Eradicating, or even reducing footrot, is a non-starter if you are a flying flock buying in replacements annually, as many (the majority?) do. In that situation, to cull out offenders is a very expensive hobby, and not even particularly effective if the replacements bought could be just as susceptible.

The use of Footvax in that situation is perhaps more sensible.

True enough...in that case it should be the breeder who needs to do a better job with culling for feet problems. Surely no breeder should be using footvac regularly

 

[neilo]

True enough...in that case it should be the breeder who needs to do a better job with culling for feet problems. Surely no breeder should be using footvac regularly

Did I hear that you were giving a talk at the NEMSA agm?

 

[hally]

Good luck with that. I think the mule boys would be more tolerant of you getting off with their wives than face criticism of the way their lambs are bred.

 

[Tim W]

Did I hear that you were giving a talk at the NEMSA agm?

You offering to be my bodyguard? ----I'm game

 

[90hp farming]

for one moment there tim, I thought your `bodyguard` reply related to the @hally post on mule breeders wives..........

 

[hally]

You offering to be my bodyguard? ----I'm game

You will need one. Once after a few pints in the pub I may mentioned that breeding bonny faces and legs was hardly future proofing the breed. For a while I was about as popular as rabies in a guide dogs home and learned to keep my big mouth shut.