Help! She died, and I need answers of what happened!

Kyle Kroeck

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3 days ago, one of our pregnant Ewes was down, she was eating, and drinking. But not standing. She was about due. The next day she looked more exhausted and you could physically see the babies moving around in her. Kinda like she´s gonna deliver. We called the vet due to her condition and recommended we give her electrolytes and Ivomectin, which we did. Yesterday night she looked horrific. All she was doing was vomiting constantly. She had a good Temperature. The babies in her weren't moving. Still couldn't walk, eat, or drink. ALL SHE WAS DOING WAS VOMITING! She would just lay there and it would keep coming out. The vet suggested moving her to a Soft area, so we moved her to the barn on a nice squishy bale of straw. And then this morning she was dead. Any answers??? Desperate for any!
 
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mysunwolf

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So sorry that this was what brought you to BYH :( but glad you are here. My best guess is hypocalcemia, based on the rapid onset of symptoms. All of us have had these kinds of horrific things happen in our flocks, and just have to take it as a learning experience. If you see this again, the rapid administration of calcium is often effective. And I am so sorry about your ewe :hit

Others may have some more ideas @Southern by choice @Latestarter @Baymule
 

Kyle Kroeck

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So sorry that this was what brought you to BYH :( but glad you are here. My best guess is hypocalcemia, based on the rapid onset of symptoms. All of us have had these kinds of horrific things happen in our flocks, and just have to take it as a learning experience. If you see this again, the rapid administration of calcium is often effective. And I am so sorry about your ewe :hit

Others may have some more ideas @Southern by choice @Latestarter @Baymule
Thank you very much, this is also what the vet suggested it was!
 

Latestarter

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Greetings and welcome to BYH. SO sorry for your losses... the ewe and her lamb(s)... What a shame. Terrible that's what brought you to us, but I'm glad you're here and hope you can find some answers. If you haven't already disposed of the carcass, you really should consider submitting it to either a qualified (your?) vet or the nearest veterinary university for a necropsy. It's normally not that expensive, & it's the only way to (hopefully) know/determine for sure what killed her, and even then, many times the answer will be a non-answer... in other words, they won't be able to determine. :hu

I don't own sheep, have only had my goats for about 6 months, & have no formal medical training, so I'm no expert by any stretch. But from what I've read, what you describe doesn't really match with hpoglycemia, hypocalcemia, or ketosis... You say her temp was normal which pretty much rules out infection... Normally with infection there will be an abnormal temp either high or low (normally high).

ALL SHE WAS DOING WAS VOMITING! She would just lay there and it would keep coming out.

Vomiting isn't really a common symptom with any of those. To me, that sounds like possibly a twisted gut, or poisoning of some sort. I would lean toward the latter as it would explain the death of the lambs prior to the ewe's demise. Is there any possibility that she might have gotten into something that could have poisoned her? Some man made chemical or noxious plant(s)...

Again, I'm really sorry for the loss. Hope you'll consider staying with us despite the loss. There's a wealth of information in the various sheep threads, and we have some really good Sheeple here who will try to help you when you ask.
 

Baymule

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I am very sorry about the loss of your ewe. She could have kinked her intestine. One of our dogs swallowed a hickory nut last fall, which lodged in his intestine. He kept throwing up and got lethargic, so to the vet and surgery he went. Your ewe throwing up sounds like a blockage. No way to know for sure. So now you have all these different opinions, it could have been anything. I am very sorry for the loss of the lambs and the ewe.
 

farmerjan

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It sounds like the basics have been covered. I would say pregnancy toxemia for the sudden onset of weakness and being close to lambing. Propolyene glycol is what we use. The sudden vomiting may also have been a result of the ivomectin? I would never give a close to lambing ewe, or any of our close to calving, cattle a wormer. Too hard on their system and it could have poisoned the lambs. There is a good possibility that there was a blockage....and if she had worms, and the wormer killed them, they could have obstructed her gut tract but that's a long shot. Still it could be why she was vomiting as that is not common in sheep.
If it is preg tox, and they are carrying multiple lambs, then they need more nutrition than they are getting and their systems get out of balance. We up their protein and feed very good alfalfa hay also close up before and after they lamb to help supply the increased needs. When there are multiple lambs, there is just not enough room for the ewe to eat enough because everything is so crowded in there.
I honestly would have taken the ewe to the vet the next day when she was vomiting and they could have seen her and at least done an autopsy.
Hope you have better luck with the rest.
 
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