Sheep

The Practice caters for all Flock sizes from pet flocks to the 1000 head units.

A large percentage of our work is for the medium sized 20-70 sheep flock where we offer individual flock health plans designed as a guide to advise  on feeding, condition scoring, parasite control, vaccination and disease prevention as well as routine  fertility management .

These Health plans are highly informative and are of our own design , giving day to day advise specific to your flock through out the year.

Featured Article

Survey shows need for abortion vaccinations

Latest results from Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health’s annual FlockCheck survey revealed that almost two-thirds of flocks tested positive for toxoplasmosis. Yet a survey of farmers this summer showed that two-thirds don’t vaccinate for it.

This leaves flocks at risk of barrenness, abortions and the birth of sickly and weak lambs. These typical signs of toxoplasmosis were reported by farmers surveyed and suggests that ewes could have been infected while pregnant last year. Some 15% of the farmers had had lower scanning percentages than expected; 12% saw more abortions; while a further 15% said that they had seen weak and sickly lambs. Such losses easily erode performance and profitability.

Although sheep develop their own immunity to toxoplasmosis, particularly when infection occurs at any time other than pregnancy, it’s a risky policy, to hope that infection occurs when ewes are not in-lamb. The scale of damage caused by the protozoa depends on the stage of pregnancy. In the first 60 days, the foetus is re-absorbed and the ewe appears barren. From 60 days, there is abortion in late pregnancy with mummified foetuses, stillbirths or weak and sickly lambs that often die.

The most reliable form of protection is using a live vaccine such as Toxovax®. This requires a one-off injection for the whole flock, after which only replacement females will need to be vaccinated.

Any flock with barren or abortion rates greater than 2% should investigate the cause. Talk to the practice about ordering supplies of Toxovax to protect your flock this winter.