[luckylady]

Oh Pedwardine, you must be physically and emotionally exhausted.  What an awful week you have had.  Sending you a  .   

[Pedwardine]

Thanks so much. It helps it really does. Bless you guys.

[Foobar]

I'm so sorry to hear that you've lost so many animals, it must be heartbreaking. *hug*


Don't give up though, it will get better.  The fact that you still managed to save your cockerel even after all that means that you've got what it takes .  Just think how much you've learned.  Next year will be so much better.


I would be looking for another vet though - ask your local farmers to see who they use.  If they are all using yours then I'd be having words with the vet and tell 'em that their service was not up to scratch.  I think sometimes farming vets forget that 1 dead lamb to a smallholder could mean 10% of their crop lost, but 1 dead lamb to a farmer is just <1%.

[SallyintNorth]

I think sometimes farming vets forget that 1 dead lamb to a smallholder could mean 10% of their crop lost, but 1 dead lamb to a farmer is just <1%.

We  don't like to lose them either.  I don't know many farmers who farm by numbers, really.

But it's true some agri vets make assumptions about what a farmer's decision is likely to be.  Not once they know you, though.

[SteveHants]

Oh, gosh, Pedwardine - what  horrible time you and your lambs have been through.    {{{hugs}}}

It's hard to piece it all together from the postings - I know what it's like : you're going through it, your thoughts about what's happening and happened are changing as things occur, meds are tried, vets and others give advice...  it makes the story hard to follow.  Quite likely for you as well.

But I do get a sense that your vet has not been quite on the ball.  There does seem to have been cocci present, normal / routine wormers do not affect these organisms, and yet the vet was still saying to try another drench, not yellow - it makes me wonder if your vet is a small animal vet, not an agricultural vet.  I maybe am picking it all up wrong, failing to piece it together correctly - but if not, I would strongly advise you to look for a large animal vet before you need one again.

But all that is for later.  For now, you need to grieve, and to enjoy the other animals, and heal.  Our thoughts are with you.    {{{hugs}}}

I still don't think the vet is on the ball, for what its worth.

It doesnt seem to add up, some worms, moderate cocci present...... I've had all of this with this weather and lost a grand rotal of 1 lamb out of 180 odd.

Im wondering if its one of the colostridials that heptavac doesnt cover....

[SallyintNorth]

Im wondering if its one of the colostridials that heptavac doesnt cover....

Or, vaccines don't work relaibly if the animals are unwell at the time of jagging.  So if they were struggling with cocci when they were jagged...

[woollyval]

Big Hugs Pedwardine  Change vets would be a good bit of advice, my vet keeps sheep so several years ago when we had a cocci problem he was on it like a shot and also issues a prescription for a load of medicated buckets to act as a preventative the following year. We didn't lose one and owe a lot to this chap. We had taken on some new grazing and the field was infected 
Don't give up, you will learn from the experience and it will not happen again......

[SteveHants]

Im wondering if its one of the colostridials that heptavac doesnt cover....

Or, vaccines don't work relaibly if the animals are unwell at the time of jagging.  So if they were struggling with cocci when they were jagged...

Yes.


The pattern of morts seems to be similar to those described if you get colostridial disease, although the symptoms arent so much.

[moprabbit]

What a dreadful time you've been having, my thoughts go out to you. I hope now things will start to improve.

[Pedwardine]

Ok, now I've come downstairs at 1am as I'm so twitchy to reply to your comments...
My vet is wonderful. He is incredibly overstretched because he is so wonderful and because there is only himself and one other vet at the practice run by him who deal with livestock. He has called out to us on a forty mile round trip before he has started work of a morning and after he has finished at night. I can't imagine ANYONE more dedicated to the care of animals than him.
 
We had had scours in the lambs for a week or so after putting them on new grass which was very long. We hadn't topped as we couldn't top because the land here is clay and the fields we use are the site of the old medieval village and have so many undulations and trenches and are boggy in many spots in all but the longest driest spells of weather. The tractor just wouldn't have got far without sinking in. WE WERE WRONG in that we had left it too long before our first Ovivac injection(OH was in repeatedly poor health, rain had been incessant and we had no covered area to treat). The sheep had been on the field for less than a week when we spotted signs of strike and were continually working our way, sometimes repeatedly, cleaning up pooey bums and checking for eggs and maggots. We had one moderate case with surface damage to a wether and about six or seven cases of either just hatched young larvae or eggs found under dried poo on some lambs. We have had scours in years past due to overlush grass which is what we'd put this down to also. OUR CALL. OUR MISTAKE. We knew we had to treat against flystrike, worm and Ovivac. We were extraordinarily tired. We have local friends, also shepherds, who came and helped us with all we had to do on 28th July. Our first lamb died 29th July. She was struggling with her breathing following the treatment and we thought, because of that symptom that an accident had occured and some wormer had slipped down the wrong way. It shouldn't have happened but it seemed it had. We hoped she'd be okay but we found her the next morning with liquid on and around her nose and mouth. We took this to mean she'd choked and it was awful as we'd known it was avoidable with more care and precision. In hindsight we think she may have been the first case of Coccidiosis as of yesterday we have experienced a flailing limbed lamb frothing at the mouth who died in a similar body position to hers. There were still brown scours following our treatment so we moved the flock onto recently topped shorter grass and fed them dry matter as well as creep for the lambs. We hoped as in times before that this would 'dry up' the scours problem. We didn't know what we had before us but watery scours appeared which we had never witnessed before and we knew it wasn't a good sign. We contacted the vet on the Wednesday who was to come out to us as soon as he could. On Thursday we moved all our very poorly looking lambs to a sick bay we'd put up by the house so we could monitor them better. On Friday morning we had another dead lamb, rigour had set in so it had happened in the middle of the night. This lamb we had very nearly brought over the day before as he was runny (but not watery) but he was also very, very wriggly and lively, not listless and limp like the others so we'd left him  . I think it was around here I'd posted(?). We called the vet again and he said to immediately bring the dead lamb and a live lamb with the symptoms over for the PM/examination. He made people with routine appointments wait as he did this for us. He said nothing was overly evident. He and my brave OH who helped with the PM, both noticed the stomach tissue was paler than was idea. We asked about Coccidiosis as someone responding to the post had mentioned it.  He said it could be but he would like to send off tissue and faecal samples to be sure. In the meantime he recommended we dose against the Coccidiosis with Vecoxan. We did this upon returning home. Over the course of the next few days I've already posted about.
So you see, he did as much according to the info he was given and he was as quick as he could be. This man has nothing to apologise for and I have nothing but praise for him.
Can I finish with big thanks for all the love and hugs. Am going to mourn these wee ones for some time. They were such little characters. The little ewe lamb, due to be registered as Pedwardine Freya, was a particular sweetie. Took a while to come around to my wiles but was such a sweet waggy-tailed cutie when she realised, although I was a funny looking sheep, I was alright. She had a really good sniff of me, mostly my face and neck, before I was allowed to touch her. It was lovely and tickly and I miss her and I'm crying and I'm going to bed now...