The Wintermutes
Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:44:16 -0700
Hi David, Worming programs are very dependant on your climate and stocking rate. The more sheep you get per acre the more likely you will need to worm. If you are in a desert environment then you might not need to worm. But if you are in a humid warm wet environment the more likely parasites will be a problem. If you are in a severe parasite area you will need to worm every 3 weeks. Basically there is a new crop of parasites hatching within every three weeks. The first step especially with the Blackbelly breeds is to determine if you really need to worm your sheep. Select one or two of your least healthy looking sheep and have a fecal test done. Another way to determine which sheep are in the most need of deworming is to roll down their eyelid and look at the color. If it is a strong red color they are likely OK. If the eyelid is pale or even near white the sheep is in trouble. A veterinarian can do the fecal test or if you have the desire and equipment you can do the test. If your fecal test comes back showing parasites determine what parasite(s) you need to eliminate. Then choose the appropriate anthelmic (wormer) to kill what your sheep have. It is always best to withhold food from sheep for around 12 hours before worming. This allows the sheep to expel as much matter from their rumen as possible. Then worm your sheep and continue to withhold food for another 12 hours. This allows the wormer to linger in the rumen. Without much matter in the rumen the wormer does not get diluted and the parasites only have the medication to feast on. I use a variety of wormers depending on season, labor and again what parasite I am confronting. Also pay attention to slaughter withdrawal periods for meat consumption. There are withdrawal periods for human consumption of milk as well. I do not use the long lasting wormers in my meat lambs so as to be sure there is no residue possible in their system at slaughter. IF it is hot and the sheep are drinking a lot of water I use Prohibit (levasole) powder drench. I weigh up the appropriate amount of powder and dissolve it into the amount of drinking water consumed in 24 hours. You must make sure the sheep are drinking this water/medication! This is the easiest way to worm but is not as accurate. I do this during the summer when my parasite load is not heavy and my labor force off from school disappears. The next cheapest wormer I use is Valbazen drench as used on cattle. I use 6cc disposable syringes that I have collected throughout the year. Valbazen is good for controlling tapeworms which most other wormers do not touch. BUT Valbazen should not be used on pregnant ewes as it can cause birth defects! The next wormer is Safe-guard suspension drench as used on cattle. It is also effective on tapeworms that most wormers do not touch. Safe-guard is the probably the safest wormer to use on pregnant ewes. I again use 6cc disposable syringes to drench the sheep. Ivomec Sheep drench is very effective but takes a rather large dose. It is also rather expensive if you have many sheep to do. I use Ivomec on problematic sheep. Typically I am using Ivomec on sheep that have not responded well to the Safe-guard, Valbazen or Prohibit mentioned above. I have also used Cydectin drench for problematic sheep in the same manner as the Ivomec mentioned above. This stuff really works but is expensive! Injectable wormers can also be found for Ivomec and Cydectin. Dectomax is also a good injectable wormer. Their biggest advantage is they are fast acting and last longer than the drenches. Although they can last up to eight weeks it is best to follow up these wormers with a drench wormer such as Safeguard three weeks after the injectable. This helps to avoid cultivating a "Super Parasite" that somehow survived the injectable anthelmic. There is no one size fits all answer for worming programs but I hope I have been of some help. Mark Wintermute I've been going through the many websites looking at all of the various pesticides for parasites. I have about a dozen AB and I'm not sure what a reasonable deworming program should look like, what product is the best/least expensive to use, or if fecal testing is really all that necessary. And is it better to use injection? or a drench? There are a lot of horse ranches around my area, but those products don't necessarily translate well and I'm rather leery of trying them out, especially when dosages are so different. I'm calling around to some large animal vets but just like any other business trying to make a sale I want to know I'm not being snowed into getting something I don't really need. I'd appreciate hearing what you all do and use. --David _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info