We are still doing our twice daily chin checks here at the Small-Hold. Every morning and every evening we are making sure that no sheep have that tail-tell swelling under their jaw line indicating the Barberpole worms are back. So far we have been worm sign free for well over a month now even with all the rains we been getting but we have spent some money to keep it that way.
We had to order in every type of wormer we could find so we had enough rotation to catch the worm eggs that become immune to the last treatments. We had to dry lot the flock, which meant buying hay after we ran out of our own, and keeping the flock locked up away from the green grass they love. We really upped our mineral and salt lick stations in the barn lot. This last seemed to help some as well despite the fact that copper is not a mineral generally used in sheep licks. We also used some horse minerals to get a bit more copper out to the flock.
All this has sorely cut into my progress time on other projects. It takes much more time than you would think to physically examine 50 some-odd sheep twice a day. Along with the heat and humidity just another excuse to not get started on something it seems. Yet it appears the threat has either been greatly reduced or eliminated by our endeavors or perhaps the natural cycle finally catching up to the damned worms.
Hopefully by next year I will have more pasture to rotate the ewes in and out of when/if this issue hits again.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!
Great photo of Hillary. At lest this is good news with the flock
ReplyDeletethat is an insult to sheep.
DeleteAfter trying to do everything by myself for years, I know why my ancestors had such huge families and also would take in I guess what we would call foster children now. There are so many tasks to do that a lot of hands are needed.
ReplyDeleteGood for you on your worm control program. Sounds like a lot of work. We have been fortunate, so far, with our flock. Few worms, or resistant sheep, not sure which. (Oh man, I probably just jinxed myself.)
ReplyDeleteI've kept goats in South Florida for 8 years now and find that pasture rotation and buying high-quality hays for the herd is what helps keep parasite loads to a minimum. An ounce of prevention is definitely worth a pound of cure!
ReplyDeleteGlad your sheep are staying healthy! If it's not one thing, it's another, eh?
ReplyDelete