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one of our sheep has been struck. I noticed she was not herself and prefering the shade of the field shelter.. and a dark patch on her side. we caught her and had a look. just about decided it was only mud, when I saw a maggot.

We have clipped the wool back around the area - and scraped off the disgusting maggots, and put on some cream. have to hope for the best now

Other sheep keepers have been telling me its too early to worry about flystrike and certainly standard practice for shearing is middle of next month, for this county. goes to show how much warmer it is this April.
now trying to arrange for the sheep to be shorn this week. if we can't, we shall borrow equipment and do it ourselves (with help) its just too much of a danger.

hope she makes it.

Horrible aint they?

She'll be alright, we had one really disgusting case of it here last year, make you want to throw up!!

Just keep checking her daily and treat as necessary, you can get new maggots everyday, you may have got the maggots but not necessarily the eggs.

Get her shorn ASAP, if you can, shearers can be hard to find at times, then treat with some flystrike prevention treatment.

thanks Bonnie

We will be checking her daily. and have a shearer booked for in three days from now - hopefully. We are trying to see if we can improve on that. if we can;t or this guy lets us down, we will borrow and do ourselves. You are right need to get them shorn and get a pour-on on!
eww it is disgusting.

Puts you off eating rice for at least a week!

red wrote: Other sheep keepers have been telling me its too early to worry about flystrike and certainly standard practice for shearing is middle of next month, for this county. goes to show how much warmer it is this April.

We had to worm some of our sheep a few weeks back - the shepherd said that worms were impossible this early in the year, but a faeces analysis at the vet's proved him wrong...

At least we can blame it all on the weather.

blummin global warming....

what made you do a test?

Regarding drenching, ideally it is better to take a poo sample to a vet for a faecal egg count, then you have some idea whether or not your animals have a worm burden. If they do, then you drench, you then take another poo sample a week later for testing and see if the drench has worked.
I'm a firm believer that you should only fix something if it's broke!!

Too much drenching unnecessarily allows the worms to build up a resistance to the drenches and then what do you treat them with???

Signs of drenching could be weight loss and often scouring, amongst other things but it not always the case. I can normally tell by the animal condition of they need worming or not.

well looked at her again today and found yet more maggots, and on her back as well as first place on her shoulder. we have clipped some more, and removed what we found. trying to see if we can improve on shearing three days from now - would be best to get them done now. not easy to track anyone down on a Sunday..

red wrote:blummin global warming....

what made you do a test?

Shitey backsides on quite a few of them!

ina wrote:

red wrote:blummin global warming....

what made you do a test?

Shitey backsides on quite a few of them!

see - i would probably think.. oh time to drench then. Doing a test is a new one on me to be honest. you feel its worth doing then?

well - our sheep are now bold and cold.

and hopefully that has stopped the flies for now. not before time either - we were just chasing the maggots around that poor sheep, and left much longer she would die.

the shearer said he and his guys had started 5 weeks earlier than usual. So thats gives an idea of how much warmer it is for this time of year

someone I know had to have the fallen livestock bloke round to pick up a dead calf (got trampled) and said that the lorry was full of dead flystruck sheep. The problem is no one is expecting trouble at this time of year, so the pour-ons have not been used, the sheep are still full of wool, and as word gets out everyone is trying to get the shearers.

red wrote:see - i would probably think.. oh time to drench then. Doing a test is a new one on me to be honest. you feel its worth doing then?

We don't always do it - they get drenched regularly through the summer anyway. But because it was so early for worms, we wanted to make sure that that was the problem, and not something else - otherwise you could drench and still have dirty bums!

Sheep will get worms anytime of the year and shearing sheep will not stop them getting maggots.

I'd say that may depend on where you are...