Eunice has loose bowels and I think it may be from lush pasture although the lambs don't have the same problem. Her butts getting pretty messy from this. Other than that she seems fine. What should I be doing to either help her dry up or at least keep her comfortable? Should i try and catch her and wash her bum to prevent flies atrracted to it or will that just make it worse? These are my first sheep and I just got them yesterday and my books don't tell me what to do for loose poops from pasture. They have hay and grain and mineral and water available too. plus she was wormed in the winter. there..now you know what I know..LOL Thanks in advance.

-- Alison in N.S. (aproteau@istar.ca), June 13, 2001

Answers

This may not help but we found with the goats if digestion hasnt been complete due to the rumen (stomachs) being upset or lacking proper yeast cultures feeding a yeast (probotic of sorts)helps. Vickie gave me the name of a good brand that we use its Diamond V yeast and here is there address they can send you a dealer list in your area.

http://www.diamondv.com/

Hope this helps. God bless and have a great Day.

-- Charles Steen (Xbeeman412@aol.com), June 13, 2001.

We always had this problem in spring if we weren't careful with a few things. Too much fresh grass- we would leave the sheep out just for a couple hours in the morning and evening. Too much barley - be careful not to give too much

You could try keeping her in the barn for a couple days and just feed hay. That would probably clear up the problem quickly.

-- kelly (kellytree@hotmail.com), June 13, 2001.

Another way of restoring loose bowels in all types of critters, including people, it to have them consume acidophalis milk; available at any large grocery stores dairy case. The milk is pasturized and then the benifical bacteria is put back in. Keep feeding the milk until the stool hardens or changes color.

-- mitch hearn (moopups1@aol.com), June 13, 2001.

First I would get a stool sample to your vet to see if she has a parasite problem. Worming in winter was a while ago and not every wormer is effective on different worms. No sense throwing your $ away on the wrong wormer. Next I would clean her up and than trim as much wool away as you can from her backside. You don't want to attract flies, which could lead to worse problems. Now it might be that she is just getting too much lush grass after being on winter hay and grain.Keep her confined in the barn with hay part of the day and than let her on grass. In other words, introduce the grass slowly.

-- Kate henderson (kate@sheepyvalley.com), June 13, 2001.

I agree with Kate, get a sample. I worm every month but live in the South where parasites is always a problem. Even when we rotate pastures. Yougurt, phobiotics, pepto bismo help. If she has a case of coccidious, corrid helps but I doubt if that is the problem. If it is grass, then only let her out at small times until she gets use to your grass and supplement with hay. Watch for flies. I use a fan at evening to air out the sheep shed the flies kinda leave too. I've had scours sometimes from feed. I feed my lambs heavy so I can market at 6 mts instead of 10 mts. In which case I have to lower the feed and get their rumens working properly again.

-- Debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), June 13, 2001.

A hand-pumped garden sprayer filled with soapy water would probably make cleaning her an easier task (spray it on - make sure it's warm, set it in the sun during the day - and let it set for a while to loosen crud, then hose off. I would then maybe "powder" her bottom with a pantyhose sock filled with DE to kill off any flies that land. If she resists washing, a good dusting with DE in any case will help dry up any waste as well as kill pests.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), June 13, 2001.

This time of the year is our worst for worms. We get lots of rain very quickly (this last week thanks to Allison) worm eggs and worms then float up with the puddles, clinging to the grass (remember these worms can't wiggle and move) they cling their until my goats come buy to re-ingest them! So when the pastures are at their prettiest my goats fecals are at their highest. When you do run a fecal, ask how many parts per gram of worm eggs you had, and what kind you had. Keep this information. I worm my girls when they are 200 parts per gram this time of year, where fall and winter the number can rise to 2000 before I would worm. Hemoncous worms, the blood suckers, are always our problems. I actually have to look up the other worm eggs to even identify them, we see them so infrequently. Having your vet say "yup you have worms" really isn't going to help much. Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), June 14, 2001.

Vicky, What I don't understand is that there is three classes of wormers and some schools of thought say rotate. So you would end up using all classes at some point in time. When I went to our vet all he would say is all kinds of worms. Really that was the best I could get out of this vet or any of the vets in S.E.OK. I am thinking of getting a book on parasites and good microscope and figure out how to do it myself. Do you or have you thought of doing fecals yourself? Debbie

-- Debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), June 15, 2001.

Thanks to all replies. I bought some Tramisol at the feed store and will try that when I can catch her. Until then I am throwing some DE in with her grain and minerals. She has been on pasture all spring and just got loose (or it was noticed) when her previous owner separated her from the flock for shearing and for me to pick up. We had a wet cool May here and maybe thats caused a worm problem or lush grass growth. Anyway, she's been loose since before I brought her home so I am pretty sure its not something I did. I will try catching her and washing and worming (man is she gonna hate me!). Sure do wish we had more than a shade shelter for them at this point since confining her a bit to tame her would have been the smart thing to do. Maybe when I catch her I should tether her for a while as well to get her used to being handled. Thanks again. I had no idea Pepto could be used on animals as well as people! Thats going in my notebook!!! :o)

-- Alison in N.S. (aproteau@istar.ca), June 16, 2001.

Eunice update: she is just fine and dandy. Shortly after worming everything dried up and she has been fine as wine ever since!

-- Alison in N.S. (aproteau@istar.ca), August 02, 2001.

Alison, glad she is better, it has been two months nearly, so it is about time to start watching them again. The lifecycle of the worms that bother us are around 21 and 36 days. Murder on young stock who don't have an immunity built yet, but with August fairly dry now, we won't have to worm until just before winter now on our older stock.

Debbie, didn't see your post, if you want to talk about doing your own fecals, I would love to help! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), August 02, 2001.

Thanks, Vicki. I am planning to worm everyone again in September before the October breeding session (if Willie is up to the task by then). Its been very dry here for the last month, ground is very dry and grass is drying up in places. Do you think the worming should be done sooner than September?

-- Alison in N.S. (aproteau@istar.ca), August 06, 2001.