ewe with 106.1 temperature

[dwbonfire]

my young jacob ewe caught my attention this evening when i brought hay out to the pasture and all of the other animals came up to eat and she was laying in the middle of the pasture and was not interested in the hay. when i rode past her she got right up and seemed to act bright, and otherwise fine. she ate her grain when i brought them into the barn but i decided to take her temperature just to be sure. it was 106.1 which i was very shocked it is so high. i took the temperature of my other ewe just to compare, and she was 102.? so i know something is not right. i gave them some hay and they are all eating fine, and she seems bright eyed. i am going to start her on penicillin but im not positive of her weight. i think she might be about 65-70 lbs, can i give her a strong dose for 100 lbs?
i have not noticed any other symptoms, no coughing or sneezing, but i have been quite busy lately so may not have seen if she has. i know there is many possibilities of what could cause her high temperature, but back in october i lost a young ram to pneumonia and never knew he had it. he had a high temp of 105 and i gave 5 days of penicillin and he seemed fine, then a month later i found him dead so i believe i did not treat long enough with the penicillin. is it most likely i am dealing with pneumonia again? temps here in NC have been dropping at night, but quite warm during the day. also we have had alot of heavy rain last week and my sheep stay out but have shelter if they choose, so she may have got wet and chilled. what else should i consider?

 

[dwbonfire]

Any thoughts this morning? I guess i will continue with the penicillin to be on the safe side and monitor her temperature..

 

[bonbean01]

I've been watching your thread and hoping someone had good advice for you...also hoping your ewe is getting better. I have no clue...no symptoms besides the temperature being high? If it were me...I would be doing exactly what you are already doing to be on the safe side.

Hoping she'll be okay!

 

[Bridgemoof]

Somebody has to have advice, because I am having the SAME problem. My young ewe Bon Bon has been not coming to the feeding trough for the past coupe of days. I thought maybe she just had a little belly ache or had been eating a lot of hay. But tonight I brought her in and took her temp and it was 105.6! No sneezing or wheezing or scours or anything else with her, either. We gave her a dose of La200 and some Bute, which hopefully will reduce her fever. I fear she may be pregnant too. So same kind of symptoms as you, dwBon.

What other signs can we look for to see if it may be pneumonia? What else causes a high fever? Hoping for some advice, too.

 

[RemudaOne]

I didn't post until now because I feel like I'm always shouting out PNEUMONIA!!!! But I bet that's what is going on. I've had two cases in the past three months or so but they were both in my lambs not the ewes. The only sign I had with them was shivering in the morning. When I took their temps they were at 106. These cases were a couple of months apart.

LA200 and bute OR banamine is what I used both times and it worked like a charm. Love the LA200 as you only have to give it every other day and apparently it works pretty well on respiratory issues. Bridge, I bet you see improvement quite soon.

I lost a ewe to pneumonia but I didn't know what I was looking at. She lagged behind the flock when they came to eat, if she ran a little bit she would be breathing open mouthed after. She lost her appetite, by the time I realized what was happening, I think her rumen had shut down and it was too late. If you catch it early though, I think it's quite treatable.

ETA: on the advice of Dr. Kennedy with Pipestone, the lambs got 1cc sub q and 1cc orally of the LA200. Can't remember the dosing for larger sheep, but I just remembered about the oral thing. I think that's a pretty stout dose for about 20 pound lambs, but it darn sure worked, and fast.

 

[SheepGirl]

When my ewe had a 105.9* fever, the vet told me to give 5 cc two times per day (10 cc/day total) for five days straight. She was all better by the end of the five days.

I would recommend doing the same thing. Good luck!

 

[Bridgemoof]

Thanks you guys so much! Bon is about 11 months old, she's a suffolk x so she's pretty big. I'm guessing around 80 pounds. She definitely has been lagging behind. But she sure had a lot of energy when we were trying to catch her! She was not out of breath and no labored breathing after we got her down. We normally would have given her Bantamine but we're out :/ I'm not sure what dosage Tim gave her on either medicine. I'll check. I hope her rumen has not shut down, but I swear I think I saw her nibbling on some hay the other day. LA200 is supposed to be a 5-day treatment. It is Tetracycline. Pipestone says don't use it on breeder rams, it will make them sterile, but after further research I see that that is unsubstantiated.

I remember when your lamb was sick Sheepgirl. Was that penicillin you were dosing her with?

dwBon, how's your ewe doing? I sure hope she has improved!

 

[Bridgemoof]

Guess what? Bon's temperature is down to 102.6 this morning and she is eating! We'll keep her in the barnyard and monitor her for a couple of days. I guess we'll do another treatment of LA200 too. The dosage we gave her was 5cc SubQ.

 

[Shelly May]

Great news, glad she is improving

 

[dwbonfire]

bridge- glad your girl is better! i have not taken my ewes temperature again, i am going to shortly. she has been eating right along with the others so im not quite sure what is going on. i gave her another dose of penicillin, but now i see that yall recommend the LA200, can i get that at tractor supply?
my ewe has been exposed to a ram, not sure if she has been bred or is pregnant yet but shes about the same age as your girl bridge, 11 months i believe. will penicillin or the LA200 be ok if she is pregnant? i dont know how much she weighs, she is a jacob sheep so shes really not that big yet, id guess 65-70 lbs and the penicillin says 1ml per 100lbs, but i know you can give them a stout dose to start with so i gave her 1.5ml.. should i continue this and for how long? or should i switch to the LA200 and what dose should i give a girl her size? i know the bottles usually say but it seems like people give higher doses than the bottles instruct.
i will post back with her temperature once i get it this morning, but again shes very bright acting and eating just fine, so im hoping i caught all of this early and can get rid of it! thanks for all the advice!