Kodesh Acres - This is my journal about sheep

KodeshAcres

Loving the herd life
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Since I can't remember where you are.....Yes, needles and syringes are available at most any co-op, feed store and places like TSC or Rural King ... Probably Atwoods ? in TX... They will come as singles or pkgs of 5 or 20 or something... You will seldom give more than 5cc at a time to small animals like sheep or goats... We use 5cc and 3 cc syringes most of the time..... Most vaccines are 2 cc or 5cc dosages. And we have a few 10(12) cc syringes for oxytet or Draxxin or other antibiotics for the cows... but they are dosed on weight most of the time...and most all things say not to give more than 10cc per site anyway...
We dedicate syringes to certain products ... and they can be reused ... but the needles need to be changed out. They get dull putting them into "living leather", the animals hide. Ideally you use a needle, single use... we use them on about 5-10 when vaccinating.... you can tell when they do not go into the skin easy, they are getting dull... and switch to a new one. For safety's sake, we use leur lock syringes... the needle twists on the end... some do not twist on, just push straight on the end, they are okay but if the animal jumps on occasion the needle will pull off the end of the syringe.....you can accidentally depress the plunger and shoot out whatever is in the syringe; or the needle stays in the animal so then you have to get it and pull it out.... Not the end of the world, but for high priced antibiotics like Draxxin... it is VERY costly to lose a syringe full .....
If an animal jerks and the syringe happens to fall to the ground, with a leur lock the needle might get contaminated in the dirt... you just put a new needle on the end... $.50 or something needle, as opposed to $25 or something worth of drug in the syringe.
Could you go to your name top right, down to account details and down to location and put in a state or something so people like me, with sieves for memory, will see it under your avatar and can tailor answers for your area...
Thank you so much for the detailed explanation, the whole thought of this makes me cringe 😆 have animals they said…. It’ll be fun they said 😅

Ok let me see about this whole location thing.
 

Margali

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Pasture is looking good, might start rotationally grazing more aggressively since we still had issues when moving them every 2-3 days.
The rain triggered dormant eggs to hatch leading to a spike in the parasites available to be eaten. There are 3 things to manage:
1) Don't graze a single paddock for 3+ days which is time for larvae to hatch and molt to infective stage
2)don't graze it too short (~<3") which is where the larvae hang on grass
AND
3) give each section enough time for hatched parasites to die before going back. Depending on article that is 21 days, 2 months, or 6months.

I think you are doing good on points 1 and 2. You may need to occasionally rotate them on a dry lot with hay to give enough time between grazing for any hatched larvae to die.
 

blessedfarmgirl

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Yes! What Sagehill said. I had no one to teach me to give shots and had to learn on my own, but after doing the first one you realize it's very simple and easy and doesn't really even hurt the animal unless it's something like ivermectin. I've learned to do SQ, IM and blood draws. Just getting past the initial nervousness was key for me.
 

Baymule

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I know that you want to stay organic. Bottle jaw is pretty much an indicator that the sheep is close to deaths door. Bottle jaw is telling me that as much as you hate it, it’s time to use a wormer. I tried the organic route when I first had sheep and lost several to bottle jaw, an excessive load of worms. Since then, I learned how to do fecal counts under a microscope, which had astounding results. I could identify the sheep that were chronically wormy and get rid of them. That enabled me to keep the worm resistant sheep for my breeders.

I seldom worm adult sheep now. I do worm the lambs because they haven’t built up resistance yet.

@Margali is right, a lot of rain plus heat creates perfect environment for a worm bloom. I lost 11 out of 31 lambs in 2024, working with my vet, using a rotation of wormers and watching them drop dead mo matter what I did. The survivors were scrawny pathetic creatures. I kept 7 ewe lambs out of that bunch, took the rest to auction and got the worst prices I’ve ever had. Those 7 ewes are ready to be bred now and I’ve never wormed them again.

This year I’ve lost 2 lambs, the day of and day after I wormed lambs. I wormed a few ewes that just looked bad, didn’t even bother with a fecal exam.

I used Zimectrin Gold the first time, it is a horse wormer with prazelquantel in it, which kills the head of the tapeworm not just the segments. It has 250 pound increments on the plunger stick. I set it at 2 nubs for lambs. Second round I used Levamed. I’m doing the third round now, using Levamed again. I can already see the difference.

My opinion for what it’s worth, is by all means, use the organic that you are using. In my experience those are good for maintenance but just can’t fight a heavy infestation. For what you are dealing with now, use a chemical wormer, keep them on that field for a couple of days, to expel the worms and eggs, then move to fresh grass.

You will probably only have to do this in spring and wet summers. The rest of the year should be ok with the organics.

If you don’t know how to do fecal exams, I will be glad to teach you. It is a wonderful tool for health of your flock.

I had 2 ewes that always looked good, but carried a worm load that should have killed them. The worms didn’t faze them, BUT they were dropping worms and eggs on the fields, infecting everyone else. I gave them away.
 

Baymule

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I need to add, in a heavy worm load, as worms die, they release toxins. A heavy die off can sicken or kill sheep. If you do decide to use chemical wormer, use Safeguard first, wait a couple of weeks, then use Levamed.

Levamed and Prohibit are levamisole. Dosage goes by weight of the animal. I don’t have a scale, so I have to guess.

Or wait a couple of weeks and use Cydectin.
 
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