Still Born Lamb and Mastitis Problem

[Jonny_2]

Hi, I keep a flock of 125 ewes lambing indoors at the moment. Last year we had a lot of multiple lambs born very small or normal sized but still born. Very rarely the whole litter, normally 2 normal and 1 dead. This was followed up with an outbreak of mastitis and joint ill however we had some inside for to long and crap weather outside. Several dead lambs were tested, one of which came back with toxo (a ewe lamb kept separate from main flock). We had a big problem with watery mouth for a week but managed to knock it on the head. Apart from 3 aborting 2 weeks early, 40 ewe lambs lambed in the same shed very well.

As we found no clear answer we have switched onto compound feed, bolused for Co, Se and I, lambed later to turn out faster and used more straw and lime to keep things as clean as we can.

This year however the same problem has aroused, starting with a sick ewe aborting 2 weeks early and dieing and 4 days early with a v weak set of twins. We use teaser tups but didn't expect to lamb over 80 out 120 in 2 weeks (20 of which carried over). Although not as bad we have had to many still born lambs again, perfectly formed just not breathing, and some live lambs half the size of its sibling. Since Saturday we have also had an outbreak of mastitis, beginning 12 hours after lambing. Ewes though are not sick with out a temperature, their bags are hard with very little milk. Jabbed with draxin they begin to milk quickly.

Vets have been out to look yesterday and can give no clear reason for mastitis, every thing is as clean as can be and ewes are in good condition so pointing towards a viral infection. More ewes with bad bags today so trying oxytocin to help milk drop. Tested lambs for common abortion and their negative and waiting for more results for other things and blood tested 5.

Sorry for the essay but I'm stumped and running out of motivation, I work full time and having to pack even more into the day. Has anyone seen something similar and got to the bottom of it? Schmalenberg has been mentioned however we have had no deformed lambs yet.

Thank you for looking

 

[bovine]

Rule out Schmallenberg - people want to blame everything on it including Brexit and Trump.

It's easy to sample the mastitis and find the cause. You need a sterile sample from a couple of fresh (untreated) cases.

Need some bloods to check mineral status in the ewes.

What is the vaccine status of the ewes (clostridia and abortion agents)?

What are the ewes getting to eat? What is their body condition?

Have they tested for salmonella and Border Disease? Abortion killing ewes is rare. Something seems to be suppressing immunity.

 

[Jonny_2]

Don't vaccinate against any abortion because it has only shown up once in aborted lamb from a ewe and have tested several more since. Some bought in shearlings 2 years ago lambed separate were blood tested as several had still born lambs and were scanned in lamb but never had a lamb and this test came back negative for enzo and toxo.

They are all at least bcs 3, mostly 3.5 fed on haylage and 13me, 18% nuts gradually from 6 weeks before with a small amount of minerals added as they only get half a kg per head for twins. Triplets get high quality blocks as well.

Scanned at 185, down from 210 last year but didn't flush. They were blood tested for copper in the autumn and were fine however soil tests last month showed we are short. Bloods went off this morning so hopefully hear back soon and hopefully get pm report back any day. I'll dig out the pm reports for last year but think they did check for borders and will check again for salmonella.

Thank you

 

[bovine]

OK. It looks like you have most bases covered.

I suspect you may have a toxo issue with ewed scanned in lamb not going on to lamb, and a positive diagnosis. I'd encourage you to get some blood sampled on the Flockcheck scheme before it ends.

Have you sampled any cases of mastitis? Much fatter than 3.5 and I'd be worried they may be over conditioned. That can lead to problems in itself.

Keep us posted

 

[Jonny_2]

Sorry for not getting back sooner been waiting for results. Problem hasn't gone away sadly, blood test for schamalenberg came back negative so vets thought it was borders disease. Took a dead lamb in and that was negative too. All vet can recommend is checking the ones that had a dead lamb for toxo and enzo on the Flock Check scheme however last time we did it nothing showed up.

No idea what to do now other than hope for the best next year. Tempted to vaccinate the younger ewes for toxo just in case we've a super version of it that doesn't show up on tests lol. Or blood test some ewes for borders as well in case it hadn't been passed on to the lamb we tested