New to sheep

[sandy01]

Howdy, folks.


I have been lucky enough to acquire a small group of young ewes (mixed hair sheep). We are going to pick up an American blackbelly ram youngster, hopefully this weekend.


Due to us having no history on these, we do need to catch them up and vaccinate and worm these girls. We were trying to let them settle down a little bit and get over the scours they got from too many changes all at once (that is better now).


So, when we de-worm our goats, we use injectable ivermectin, orally. I need to ask, is the dosage the same for sheep as for goats. For goats we use the dosage recommended by tennesseemeatgoats.


Thank you for your help and have a great day.

[Maura]

It should be on the label.

It will help a lot if you use rotational grazing. After you medicate them, move them off the pasture they are on or they will reinfect quickly. You should be moving them every couple of days to let the pasture regrow and to keep parasites low. You can also plant a little artemisia (wormwood). Broadleaf plantain (which is probably already growing in your pasture) and hawksbill (tall dandelions) are also good for them.

[sandy01]

Sept 8, 2021 16:29:19 GMT Maura said:

It should be on the label.

Thank you for the response.
Unfortunately it is not on the label. Cows and pigs, but not sheep.
 We do intend to rotate them, we need to put up some more fencing for them. this job has been planed for next week. So much to do, so little time without rain. Lol.

[Maura]

I trained my sheep to come to a whistle. They should be on pasture, but if you go out every day with a little oats, and whistle when you have the oats, they'll learn pretty quickly.

[Melissa]

We used to give our sheep a little molasses in their feed and feed them pumpkins. The seeds are supposed to help with worming.

[mogal]

We use the dosage for cattle for our sheep, goats and as a heartworm preventative for our dogs. 1 ml/110#.

Also, years ago levamisole was sold as Tramisol and used to death. It was pulled from the market. Now it's been relabeled as Prohibit and while it's off label for goats, our vet prescribed it. Since nobody has used it so long, it's quite effective to give you something to use later. I have a friend who uses cydectin but it's pretty pricey.

Yep, get them gentled ASAP. We had a neighbor who had a herd of Blackbelly sheep. They might as well have been deer. Good luck.

[sandy01]

Sept 8, 2021 17:56:19 GMT Melissa said:

We used to give our sheep a little molasses in their feed and feed them pumpkins. The seeds are supposed to help with worming.

I had forgotten about the pumpkins. And it's almost that time of year again. All my girls love pumpkins. Thank you so much for the reminder.

[sandy01]

Sept 8, 2021 19:29:44 GMT mogal said:

We use the dosage for cattle for our sheep, goats and as a heartworm preventative for our dogs. 1 ml/110#.

Also, years ago levamisole was sold as Tramisol and used to death. It was pulled from the market. Now it's been relabeled as Prohibit and while it's off label for goats, our vet prescribed it. Since nobody has used it so long, it's quite effective to give you something to use later. I have a friend who uses cydectin but it's pretty pricey.

Yep, get them gentled ASAP. We had a neighbor who had a herd of Blackbelly sheep. They might as well have been deer. Good luck.

I was taught to only use cydectin as a last resort, and I have stuck to that. That way in a worm emergency I have something that will work. Thank you for the info on Prohibit, that is very good to know. I am very much hands on with them, as much as they will let me. This way I can see who and what the problems are going to be going forward. So every day they get a little bit of feed so I can touch them and they can touch me if they want to. I think some were bottle babies because they will call out to me when they see me walking by.