Merry Christmas to all my list friends!! This posting is probably not the best one for Christmas time, but I am in the middle of lambing. One of those lambing times that was not really planned for, but I must had had 3 month old Don Juan amongst the children in June & July.
Last week I had 2 ewes that had 2 misshapen lambs. Frozen joints, frozen spines, and one reabsorbed fetus. There are several possibilities of the disease, but the one that stands out the most is Chlamydia. In 2004 I brought in 2 head from a sale. A young ram and a 4 yr old ewe that had dwarf ears. Within 2 weeks I had pinkeye in almost the entire flock. It ended up with damaged eyes in 2 ewes. One is still here. the oldest one passed away last winter. I doctored for pinkeye with penicillin shots into the eyeball socket and was advised by an old old vet to vaccinate for Chlamydia. I did. I haven't had a problem since. However, this same vet advised me that he has observed a 3 year cycle with chlamydia. Whether this is how it runs its course with the way we sometimes forget to vaccinate or just how the weather works in this state. Wet weather helps to keep the bacterium alive longer so that it can be spread. Chlamydia is the number one cause of abortion and messed up lambs according to the Merck Manual. This was the first time in 10 years I ever saw that same old old vet look at his Merk Vet Manual!!!!! Just to reassure himself on the diagnosis. well to make a long story short, this infection could be traced back to June-July when I sold some sheep to a sheep trader who had pinkeye in his flock.. He drove his truck on to my place and we loaded 10 ewes out through the barn. Old Doc said that the trader probably had the bacterium on his shoes, in his clothes, and probably on his tires. I found out 3 months after I sold him the ewes that he lost 4 of them. He was thinking it was worms, we have had the wettest year on record. However, my sheep have a very low worm count, as we manage worms here. I did however get lax on my vaccinations as I had nearly 100 head and only myself for labor. Also with 2 bulging discs in my back, it gets difficult to work on 100 head. I only bring rams into the flock now, so I thought I more or less had a closed flock. the vet gave me some extremely long acting terramycin injectable, chlamydia vaccine, 8 way tetanus, overeating etc. to the tune of $300+ now I need to give the terramycin shots to the pregnant ewes to try to kill the disease if it has infected the fetus. I have to vaccinate the others to prevent it, as the ones that aborted were born since I vaccinated last. Some of you are raising organic flocks, and I commend you on that. I guess this post is just to reiterate that you should never let outside folks into your pens or pastures. If you are not raising organic, then you must vaccinate, as this problem is not just an abortion problem, but one that causes the white spots in their eyes from pinkeye. Also the lambs are so misshapen that they cannot be born without help as they are frozen in the position that they were laying in the uterus. Loss of the ewe during lambing is a good possibility. After you go through this problem, the ones that aborted are immune. However, this length of this immunity is not clear. it may be 3 years or it may be lifetime. This is a long post, but if it helps to prevent one lamb death, it is worth it. Lambing time is my favorite time. My good friend who is a vet and lives nearby, still argues that this could be one of 9 different diseases and I should not go injecting pregnant ewes in late term. The Old Vet has about 40 years more experience in practice and those years were also as the sheep vet for the 4H & FFA. So, you have to make a decision and go with it. I wish y'all a Merry Christmas and a great New Year. I hope you all get what you were wanting for Christmas. Cecil in OKla _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
