Ewe & Me

Once you start raising sheep, you’ll discover that you need to become a part-time vet.  When there’s a medical emergency, there just isn’t time to call the veterinarian.  And at least where I live, it’s even harder to find a vet who will even see sheep.  I tricked one once into coming, by telling him my calf had scours.  My calf did, but once he was here, I begged him to help me save a ewe.  She’d been in hard labor for over an hour (too long for sheep!) and by then the lamb was already dead.  The vet pulled the lamb, which was breach, then delivered the surviving twin.  I named the lamb after him, but he would never come to my farm again.  When I called once, his secretary hung up on me.  I’m not sure why vets don’t like to work on sheep.  I have a few theories.

First off, there’s an expression, “a sick sheep is a dead one”.  Sheep are pretty hardy.  They don’t show symptoms until they are critical, and then it’s often too late to save them.  And where I’m at, there just aren’t that many sheep farms, so vets may be a bit rusty.  Maybe there’s just too few vets for too many farms, and they can afford to be picky?  It’s pretty rediculous, though.  I had one vet 45 miles away to treat my llamas.  Another vet 30 miles away in the opposite direction for the dogs.  We had a vet who raised sheep 60 miles away, and would help me when he could, but he wasn’t often available.  There was yet another vet 10 miles away to help with the cows.  And no one would treat our horses, period.  Gone are the days when one could develop a relationship with just one vet who would treat all the critters on the farm?

Okay, I’ll get off my soap box now, and get to the point.  There are some basic supplies every shepherd will want to keep on hand.  I started with a plastic container with a handle.  It was probably meant to carry sponges and sprays while cleaning house, but it suited my purpose.  I’ve got too much stuff in it now, but when I get a barn built, I can have some shelves mounted and a small refrigerator installed to hold some of the stuff.  So, here’s what I carry:

1. antibiotics
2. syringes
3. needles
4. cotton balls
5. sterile plastic gloves
6. selenium
7. dewormer
8. vitamin B
9. iron
10. sheep nutri-drench
11. hoof trimmers
12. rectal thermometer
13. sterile wipes
14. scissors
15. vet wrap
16. sterile bandages
17. uterine boluses
18. iodine
19. liquid benadryl
20. pepto-bismol

The uterine boluses only get put in the kit during lambing season. They are antibiotics in a pill, that goes into the ewe any time you have to put your hand in there.  So hopefully, not every often!  But there may be times when you have to assist with a delivery.  Even if you just feel around, and decide she can deliver the lamb alone, if your hand went in, the bolus goes in when you’re done.  Otherwise she could come down with an infection two days later, and it would be too late to save her. (See comment above, a sick sheep is a dead sheep)

Selenium may or may not be needed, depending on the breed of sheep you raise and where you are located.  The soil in the USA is low in selenium pretty  much all over, and I raise Icelandics, which originated in a land that tests high for selenium.  We find our sheep do much better with two injections a year of selenium.  When we skip the injections, we see poor horn growth, horns that are ridged and cracked, hooves with cracks, and lambs are unthrifty.  Be careful, though.  I’ve been told that selenium overdose symptoms can be the same as underdosing.

Antibiotics: I usually get Tetracycline, because it doesn’t have to be refrigerated, unlike penicillin.  I give this to a sheep any time I see more than a small spot of blood.  I don’t over-use the drug, as there has been so much talk lately about the overuse of antibiotics and bugs that are developing an immunity to it.  But my sheep are pretty healthy most of the time.  When they head butt, sometimes there’s specks of blood at the base of the horns. I ignore that.  Sometimes they’ll tear the skin on a thorn, and a speck of blood appears.  These are minor.  But if I’m trimming the hoof and it bleeds, I put iodine on the spot, and follow up with a shot of antibiotic.  The hoof steps in manure, there’s just not a good way to keep it sanitary.  If you notice a ewe or lamb coughing much, it could be pneumonia.  Sheep will cough when they eat hay, especially if it’s dusty.  This is normal.  So you have to notice if the coughing is the same sheep all the time, or excessive.  Does the sheep have a fever?  (See list item #10).  Sheep’s normal temp is 103.  Anything higher than that is a sign of infection.  Give a shot.

Syringes and needles: I buy disposable, and I dispose them.  I don’t like boiling needles, and I’m never sure that they are really clean.  Icelandic sheep typically cost $400 each and up, so why save a few cents on needles?  That said, I do re-use a needle sometimes.  For instance, if I am giving CD&T vaccine, the dosage is 2 mm each, regardless whether it’s a newborn lamb or a full grown ram.  So I’ll get a 12 cc syringe, and a single 18 gauge, 5/8 inch needle, and pull out the full amount.  Then I can vaccinate six sheep.  I dispose of the needle (I pop it into a small, empty soda bottle), get a new needle, and use the same syringe until all the sheep are vaccinated.  I dispose the syringe then, and use a clean, new one next year.

You’ll want syringes in several sizes, but only one style!  I personally hate the “slip lip” syringe style, where the needle just pops on the end.  It has just popped off the end on me too many times, sticking into the sheep!  Sheep do not hold still while you are treating them.  The other style is called “lock tip”.  The needle twists on and off, and remains in place securely until you are done.  The price is about the same for each.  I keep 12 cc syringes, 6 cc, and 3 cc.  Then I get some 60 cc syringes (no needles) for giving sheep oral drench.  They chomp on it, and eventually crack it.  I’m looking into getting a metal drencher for the dewormers.  For needles, I prefer 18 gauge, 5/8th inch.  You don’t want a needle too thin that it bends or breaks off in the sheep.  Too thin, and thicker medicines won’t want to come out.  Too thick, and you make a big hole in the sheep’s skin, for the meds to trickle back out, or bacteria to wander in.  All sheep shots are given subcutaneously (under the skin) so you don’t need to have a longer needle.

Vet Wrap is an invaluable tool, even if I’m allergic to it.  It is stretchy latex, comes in bright colors, and it sticks to itself, so you don’t need tape to hold bandages in place.  Put a gauze pad over the wound, wrap it on securely (not too tight!) with vet wrap, and it will hold long enough until the bleeding stops before the animal figures out a way to rub it off.  Usually.  This vet wrap kind of looks like the old elastic ACE bandages for people, which are getting harder to find now.  Now the stores are stocking “vet wrap” for people.  Hello!  What about us who are latex allergic?  I think there was some latex in the old elastic bandages, but not as much.  It was well-padded with cotton.

Sterile plastic gloves: these are sometimes sold singly.  They are clear plastic, disposable, and come all the way up the arm to the shoulder.  You put one on after washing up thoroughly with soap and water, before putting your hand inside the ewe, if you need to help her deliver a lamb.  The long plastic protects your clothing, as well as her.  The gloves are really cheap, like 25 cents a piece where I am.  I have only used three gloves in five years, which I will discuss in a future post about lambing problems.

Vitamins: I’ve given vitamin B anytime a sheep seems under the weather.  It is supposed to give them a little extra boost.  I give sheep nutri-drench to newborn lambs, and again a few days later.  Sometimes I’ve added vitamin E to the drinking water.  I had to give shots of iron one year when we were hit hard with parasites.  To my knowledge, not one single sheep that got the iron survived anyway, but if I had anemic animals, I’d still give them the iron.  As long as they are still standing, there is still hope.  (See comment above, a sick sheep is a dead sheep.)

Benadryl: Once in a while, you may see a sheep with an allergic reaction to a bee sting.  Benadryl can save their life.

Pepto-bismol: when a sheep stops eating, it can get severe gas build up in the rumen.  Pepto-bismol relieves the gas.  You still need to find out why the sheep isn’t eating, but this is a first step.

Not all sick sheep die, otherwise, it would be pointless to try to treat them.  The important thing to learn is that a sick sheep may not show symptoms for a very long time, until they are critically ill.  Or the symtoms are very slight.  So in a future post, I’ll discuss what to look for and what it means.  Until then, start collecting your “emergency kit” now, before you need it.  And maybe you’ll be lucky!  We didn’t need our kit at all the first year.