[blackbelly] Alternative Sheep drench or...Basic H #101

[Carol J. Elkins]

The following information is from Mary Faulk, the owner of Love Tree 
Farmstead Cheese (http://www.lovetreefarm.com) in Wisconsin. Mary's farm is 
organic and she's been in the dairy sheep business for almost 20 years. 
Even though there is no scientific evidence that Basic H is an effective 
dewormer, I respect Mary and feel confident that the information she 
provides is worth studying. I was particularly interested in her 
description of Basic H as a fly repellent/killer. Flies are really bad on 
my farm right now, and I may give this a try.

_________________________________________________________
In response to a few people requesting this info, I am reposting it Free 
Choice in their Water If you want to cleanse the flock and no one is near 
death, then give the Basic H in their water, it HAS to be the only source 
of water for the whole time they are treated.  For every 20 gallons of 
water add 1/3 cup Basic H and maintain the treated water as the only source 
of water for no less than 4 days.  If the sheep are on pastures that are 
dewey or wet from rainfall, then the sheep will not consume enough water so 
you will need to move them to a dry lot, or tighten up their grazing for a 
few days and supplement them with hay.  We also add about 1 ounce of BH to 
one quart of water and use it to spray down our milkhouse walls, any flies 
in the milkhouse will be dead by the next morning.  You can use the same 
dilution as a spray for flies on horses, if the flies are REALLY bad, 
double the dose of BasicH from one ounce to two ounces to one quart of water.

As a Drench ( this is what we use if a sheep gets bottle jaw) To one quart 
of water add one ounce of Basic H and give the affected sheep 8 ounces of 
the diluted mixture.  If the bottle jaw has not disaappeared within 24 hrs, 
repeat the drenching.  We use a turkey baster for the drenching ;-) The 8 
ounce dose is what I typically give to an adult or nearly fully grown 
sheep.  If it is a very little lamb ( under 25 pounds) then I would cut the 
dose in half, but there is plenty of room to play with it...if you want to 
give a lamb under 50 lbs less than the adult does,then try around 5 ounces 
of the diluted mixture, but if it has a bad case of bottle jaw I would hit 
it hard and use the 8 ounce dose.  If it is a pain to get 8 ounces down a 
bunch of sheep, you can cut the water rate in half and just give them 4 
ounces but keep the dose rate of BH the same ie to one pint of water add 1 
ounce of BH.  I use a quart of water for dilution just because most people 
that will finally try BH have waited until the sheep are in the bottle jaw 
status and then sheep can use the extra fluids for rehydration.  Also make 
sure that your sheep have access to free choice minerals, makes a big 
difference in their immune response and recovery.


Mary
at LoveTree
http://www.lovetreefarm.com


_______________________________________________
This message is from the Blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info mailing list
Visit the list's homepage at 
Blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info@lists.blackbellysheep.info
http://lists.blackbellysheep.info/listinfo.cgi/blackbelly-blackbellysheep.info