Unidentified bugs making sheep itch?

ohiogoatgirl

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One of my ewes has chewed at an itchy spot on her side twice in a row. Today she did it again during chores and the spot had been obviously chewed at a bit.
I opened up the wool and rubbed at the area of skin for her. I looked real close and saw some kind of tiny bugs. Probably as long as a flea but long and thin with a central body and long backside section that was a different shade of orangey-brown (??) than the main body.
My internet searching turns up lice and mites that dont look like this.
Also Lambing is due to start early as February 24 and late as first week of April. They are wool sheep and I was planning to shear them after they lamb and hopefully the weather will level out by then. So they are all in a full year fleece. Mostly 3-5 inches with the one ewe (the itchy culprit) that is dual coated and about 6.5 inches staple wool now.
Any ideas of what they are? And treatment (and preggo safe vs not safe)? I was planning on worming them when I shear.

I have some DE (diatomaceous earth) that I am going to take up and try to part the wool and sprinkle near the skin. I have taken down a recipe for a dewormer (aid) that is made up of garlic powder and molasses and a bit of water. I hadn't thought to try it until late spring but I will try it before lambing if I think they need some kind of boost.

Thanks!
 

Latestarter

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Ummm DE is going to be a waste of time IMHO... just applying it in the affected area will cause the bugs to move to another patch of skin. No way you'll be able to get skin contact on 100% of her skin while in fleece, so no way to ensure complete kill on the bugs. Not sure if you can use something like frontline on a pregnant ewe... but some topical bug killer would probably be best. However, you'll need to get it down to skin level below the fleece for it to work. Alternatively, depending on what the bugs are, ivermectin might kill them and as far as I can recall is safe on pregnant animals... I'm NOT a vet, don't own sheep, so am just thinking out loud here...

Can you get pics of the bugs? Maybe scrape a few out and bring them to a vet for ID? or post here as someone might know? Hope you get it taken care of. I know I hate to itch though sometimes there's nothing better than a good scratch ;)

ETA: just getting rid of them on the one ewe may not be sufficient... If she has them, they may also infest your other sheep. Not only that, but you'll need to find the source so you can eliminate that so they don't get re-infested after you get rid of them on their bodies.
 

Roving Jacobs

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Congrats, it sounds like you've got lice! They're super common in a lot of species in the winter, although don't worry they don't infect people. DE never did a darn thing for my animals. Ivermectin can help and has been tested safe on pregnant animals, there are also safe permethrin based pour ons. I would definitely treat them all and repeat after shearing. The only thing that finally defeated my angora goats' lice was frontline spray right after shearing but I'm not sure I'd use it on a pregnant ewe without talking to a vet first.
 

ohiogoatgirl

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Thanks. I got Ivermectin and will be wrangling them up (with some help from dad) to dose them all. I am about to order the blades and cutters for my electric shears and unless something changes I don't think I will be able to get them shorn before at least mid March. I will dose them all again after that.

I don't have weights on them. I was planning to measure them and use one of those 'weight tape' estimations. They are all at least 100#. Two of them are probably right around 100.. I think the ewes are all right around 125-150.. The big ram is probably 175-200ish..

Is it safe to do these estimations for dosing the Ivermectin? I got a lamb sling and scale but I have no way of actually weighing them all.
 

Sheepshape

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We use Crovec (cypermethrin) or similar pour on .....use an arc behind the head and a line down the full length of the body....takes about 15seconds. Whilst our closed flock remains parasite free, the neighbour has sheep out on the common land. When they come back onto his land in late Autumn, they often pass lice (or scab) onto our sheep. As I have 'become wise' to this, I make sure that my sheep cannot be the other side of the fence to the neighbours until he has treated them himself.

Por ons usually seem to be pretty effective.
 

greybeard

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Most livestock get lice and or mites in the winter. They are naturally in the hay we feed.
Dunno about other species, but with cattle, close observations will easily find them around the tailhead and poll.
 
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