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My vet gave me a heads up of a recurring pneumonia going through the local sheep herds. I thought that after 2 years i had escaped it. I was wrong. last April i saw my first case, i didn't realize what i had at the time. It showed up during shearing. i had one ewe that had it lay down in the brush and i missed her. after shearing she got better nd rejoined the herd. what a surprise finding one ewe in wool in my herd. she recovered and is still with ue wool and all. but many of the rest were not that lucky.
I have a closed herd. of 350 ewes. in my herd i have three families white tags yellow tags and purple tags. this way i do not have to buy rams and ewes. I saw several that looked poorly but they recovered so i thought. about 60 days later they had a recurrence. that time i started to loose ewes. the losses were not staggering but hard on me one day they were fine the nest day they were down. I couldn't see that the ewes were sick and couldn't help. i noticed that the white and purple tags were barley fazed by the pandemic. but the yellow tags the pneumonia killed 20% of the ewes that became infected with it.
talking with my vet he said that what i was seeing was the same that he was seeing too. he felt that there was a genetic component and i was going to have to let the pandemic run its course. he thought that deer were a carer and that is how i got it in my herd.
My 20 bum ewe lambs took it hard. not having mothers milk left them vulnerable. and last fall i had 7of my bum ewes get it, that i was able to catch and treat. out of the 7 i have one still with me. she had a high temp last December. high temps cause the ewe to loose there wool. this ewe lamb is naked. i had a dog coat on her but with the the arctic front breaking over the continental divide the wind chill was going to be near -30F the dog coat wasn't going to help much. so last night in the dark i decided that she had to come up to my heated shop. when it is this cold my shop is only 15F but that is better than -27F we had last night,
this morning i went out and fed and checked the critters. it was so cold that when i blinked my eye lashes tried to freeze my eyes closed (i forgot to put on my snow goggles)
when i got in to the shop the naked ewe in her dog coat was happy eating.
when the temp is this cold every thing is so much harder. It makes the little things like the naked ewe eating are so much sweeter.
the pandemic appears to have run its course i lost about 30 head of ewes and lambs over the summer and fall.
I have a closed herd. of 350 ewes. in my herd i have three families white tags yellow tags and purple tags. this way i do not have to buy rams and ewes. I saw several that looked poorly but they recovered so i thought. about 60 days later they had a recurrence. that time i started to loose ewes. the losses were not staggering but hard on me one day they were fine the nest day they were down. I couldn't see that the ewes were sick and couldn't help. i noticed that the white and purple tags were barley fazed by the pandemic. but the yellow tags the pneumonia killed 20% of the ewes that became infected with it.
talking with my vet he said that what i was seeing was the same that he was seeing too. he felt that there was a genetic component and i was going to have to let the pandemic run its course. he thought that deer were a carer and that is how i got it in my herd.
My 20 bum ewe lambs took it hard. not having mothers milk left them vulnerable. and last fall i had 7of my bum ewes get it, that i was able to catch and treat. out of the 7 i have one still with me. she had a high temp last December. high temps cause the ewe to loose there wool. this ewe lamb is naked. i had a dog coat on her but with the the arctic front breaking over the continental divide the wind chill was going to be near -30F the dog coat wasn't going to help much. so last night in the dark i decided that she had to come up to my heated shop. when it is this cold my shop is only 15F but that is better than -27F we had last night,
this morning i went out and fed and checked the critters. it was so cold that when i blinked my eye lashes tried to freeze my eyes closed (i forgot to put on my snow goggles)
when i got in to the shop the naked ewe in her dog coat was happy eating.
when the temp is this cold every thing is so much harder. It makes the little things like the naked ewe eating are so much sweeter.
the pandemic appears to have run its course i lost about 30 head of ewes and lambs over the summer and fall.
