Cough? Gag? Rumen issue?

[Mrs.Gray1211]

Hey friends,
We have a pelibuey/dorper ewe. Not sure of her age but we’ve had her approximately one year. In October she birthed a healthy female lamb. About 5 days ago I noticed her doing an odd thing. She was almost like coughing with no sound? Yesterday she started kind of baa-ing while she coughs. I know it sounds strange. I have a video but can’t figure out how to attach it here. Does anyone know how to do that?
She is eating grain, drinking water, grazing with her herd, otherwise appears normal. No obvious weight loss, no discharge from eyes or nose. She has been vaccinated with CDT and antitoxin. On Monday we gave her a dose of LA200. It doesn’t seem to have helped or hurt.
I’ve tried searching online for what this might be but cannot figure it out.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Alaskan]

@Ridgetop @Baymule

@secuono

??

 

[Baymule]

No idea. Maybe lung worms?

 

[Mrs.Gray1211]

We are pretty new sheep owners. If this were your sheep, would you call the vet or wait and see what happens?

 

[Alaskan]

We are pretty new sheep owners. If this were your sheep, would you call the vet or wait and see what happens?

If they have never had a vet visit, then I would search out a good livestock vet and have them come do a home visit.

Have paper and pencil at the ready. Ask and write down:

1. what your local parasites are, and what drugs they do and do NOT respond to

2. Any local deficiencies? Like selenium.. that you need to know about.

3. What shots at what frequency does he recommend
.
4. Have him show you how to do a blood draw

5. Have him show you how to castrate

6. Have him show you how to check for anemia

And... anything else you can think of.


If however you have already had a vet visit... then I would decide how valuable she was to me... if she is worth less than $100, then no vet visit. If she is worth more than $400 then yes, vet visit. If she is worth between 100 and 400.... eh.... depends... as long as she is acting super healthy, nice pink under eyelids, and not temperature... then no vet.

 

[Alaskan]

Oh.. and ask about any local toxic plants that tend to cause issues

 

[Mini Horses]

My first thought was, like Baymule, lung worms. When last wormed and with what?

 

[Baymule]

Most of us perform our own vet care because it's hard to find a sheep/goat vet. But a good relationship is important and since you are in the learning stage, a vet visit could be well worth it.

 

[Baymule]

You can learn a LOT from past posts in the sheep forums. Read them. If you have questions, ask them. We will be happy to help, especially when we see that you are trying to educate yourself. There is tons of information in the forums, pick a forum and start reading. There is no dumb question, if you don't know, you don't know. We all had to start somewhere and I can think of no better place than right here on BYH.

 

[Mrs.Gray1211]

My gosh, y’all thank you so much!!

We feed Dumor Sheep and Goat DX mixed with the all stock sweet feed a couple times a week. They have approximately three acres of coastal hay that they graze on at all times. Should we be using a drench regularly in addition to the medicated feed?

We vaccinate CD/T and Antitox ourselves and we have LA-200 on hand for a pink eye outbreak we had a few months ago.

We do have vet care established- but he is the only large animal vet in our area and very busy. I feel bad calling him out for something that is not life threatening. I will put in a call to him though and see if he can come out in the next few days to answer some of the questions you've posed.

Thank you again so much for all of your input! So happy to be part of this group