Barber Pole Worm checking

I want to post a caution for all sheep producers to not ONLY depend on Famacha scores to determine whether or not your sheep are carrying those terrible parasites.

One of our yearling ewes hasn't been gaining at the same rate as the others but she has plenty of energy, eats great and her Famacha score was very near the top of the card. We took a fecal sample to check for coccidia and come to find out, the fecal shows that she has a major load of the Barber Pole parasites. The point of the post is that If her weight gain had been up with the rest of the ewes, we would not have wormed her based only on Famacha. This is one reason we get them on the scale at least every 3 months or so while we do our checks and we lay hands on them at least once a month not counting the routine hands on out in the field.

Good info - thanks!

I agree, and I think this goes for fecal samples as well. If fecal is clean but famacha looks poor, it's time to worm.

I don't give up on lambs if I think there's a chance of survival and that my treatments aren't too hard on the lamb.I have tube fed premature lambs for a week (Two ewe lambs, of which I still have one, and the other recently went to market....both produces over 10 healthy lambs in their lifetimes). I respect the views of others who do not choose to go down this route.

How is the lamb doing? I DO hope he can make it.

Is that the ewe that is the prettiest ewe you ever had?

Baymule said:

Is that the ewe that is the prettiest ewe you ever had?

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That is the one.

Sheepshape said:

I don't give up on lambs if I think there's a chance of survival and that my treatments aren't too hard on the lamb.I have tube fed premature lambs for a week (Two ewe lambs, of which I still have one, and the other recently went to market....both produces over 10 healthy lambs in their lifetimes). I respect the views of others who do not choose to go down this route.

How is the lamb doing? I DO hope he can make it.

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She seems to have recovered and is putting on weight again. We will do some fecals over the next few weeks to see if she can maintain before we decide what to do with her. It seems that everyone around us that has sheep or goats are having more issues with all of the wet and on again/off again warm temps.

She has so much going for her, give her a chance. After having a lamb, if she still struggles, then sell her. But I sure wouldn't be too quick to cull, it is being a hard year for parasites for a lot of people.

If she is your pretty little favourite, pulling out all the stops is not an option. Convalescence can be a bit slow, but she'll get there. That scrawny little under-one-pound lamb with chihuahua coat as my avatar is large, fat and fertile now.

Over in this damp, dank and dingy part of the planet we usually have water dripping from everywhere and mild winters are the norm......so parasite infestations abound. I have had a fair number of sheep suddenly and heavily affected.....but haven't knowingly lost anybody to parasites since the first year when I was not familiar with liver fluke and the devastating affect it can have.

Good Luck.