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bottle jaw


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Has anyone here dealt with bottle jaw before? I have a 5 month old lamb I suspect has it. He suddenly became thin, weak, wobbly. He has a little bit of swelling under the jaw line. I have seperated him into a stall by himself. I've given him antibiotics, dewormed, and vitamin b. I am going to order some iron supplement. He's eating hay and grain. His attitude seems to be improving and after the second day his appetite increased.

 

The other three he was with look great. I was thinking I'd go ahead and deworm them again, although everyone was just done in September, thoughts?

 

Is there anything else I should be doing? Or is there something else it most likely is that I'm overlooking?

 

Thanks

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If it is Barber Pole worms the eye lids will be pale this usually occurs before the bottle jaw check the eye lids of the other lambs for color

What did you give the antibiotics for was there some type of infection as well?

Are the lambs in a confined pasture or eating off the ground?

What are you worming with and are you following the dosage chart under dosing can cause problem of re occurence

alsp check your area to see if drug resistent worms are present

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Thank you for your response. I will check the eyelids if the other two when I get home tonight and call the extension office regarding parasites. I gave the antibiotics bc he seemed so weak that figured they wouldn't hurt. I do follow the dosing charts and usually tend to dose on the high side, but there's definitely room for human error with my weights. The lambs are in a confined pasture space, nibbling grass and have free choice from a round bale of hay.

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If they were clear of worms from the September worming and this is a clean Pasture would not have expected the worm load to build that fast

I asked about the antibiotics to see if there were any other factors

As for guessing weights I was surprised how much difference there can be in lambs that look to be the same weight

I hope you have good luck with this lamb and the rest

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Living in the hot, humid south, I have dealt with bottle jaw plenty. When a lamb gets weak, it's due to anemia from the worm overload. The worms can live on pasture for a very long time, and a rainy period will cause them to travel up the blades of grass where they are ingested by the sheep/lambs, so even if the sheep haven't been on a particular pasture for a while, unless you've had other species grazing there, the worms can still be lying in wait, so to speak. When you have a lamb severely affected, the best thing to do is make sure it gets plenty of good quality hay, supplemental grain, and plenty of fresh water. Many of us will use a product like Nutri-drench or Powerpunch for a little extra support. Good nutrition is important because the worms are essentially sucking all the nutrients away from the lamb, so the lamb needs extra. Remember that when a lamb or sheep starts looking like it's doing poorly then it generally is already pretty far gone, because as a survivial mechanism they won't show signs they're not doing well until they are really not doing well.

 

Definitely treat with iron dextran, 1 cc now and again 10 days later. Most feed stores carry it and I'd probably go get some ASAP rather than waiting for it to be delivered.

 

If you want to make sure about what you're dealing with, see if you can get a vet to check a fecal on your sheep. You can also learn to do this yourself, but will need a microscope to do it. Barberpole worms are the main anemia-causing parasite around here, but often people focus solely on them and forget there are other parasites that could be affecting their sheep as well or in addition to the barberpole worms.

 

Sometimes the worms do become resistant, and here in the south using ivermectin or any of the white wormes (Safeguard, Valbazen) is virtually pointless (except Valbazen can be used when the ewes aren't pregnant if you want to take care of tapeworms). Most folks around here use Cydectin (moxidectin) or Prohibit (levamisole). I noticed this summer for the first time that I had to do multiple treatments with cydectin (usually three days in a row) to clear up bottle jaw.

 

There are plenty of theories out there about pasture rotation, whether you should worm and move to clean pasture or worm and leave on "dirty" pasture, and so on. Much depends on the amount of space you have, whether you have other species grazing, and so on.

 

Bottlejaw is a direct result of the anemia. So if you check the mucous membranes on the other lambs and they are pale, go ahead and worm again.

 

J.

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Thank you so much for the input. The little guy is looking much better and putting some weight back on, I'm still going to deworm again and treat with iron and vitamin b. Upon checking the other guys they looked good, but I went ahead and dewormed again just to make sure.

 

The local extension office is having a sheep and parasites seminar in January. I'm already signed up!

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Here's a link to an article on how to slow the development of resistance to deworming agents. Although I'm NOT an expert on sheep (don't own them - yet), it seems to suggest that deworming the whole flock "just in case" could actually be counterproductive.

 

Of course things could be different in your area than in mine...

 

I went ahead and dewormed again just to make sure.

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Thanks for the link to that article. I hadn't come across that one before.

 

I do agree resistance is something to keep in mind. Many equine people in the area have switch to fecals 2-3 times a year and deworming only when needed.

 

I didn't deworm the entire flock again as I didn't feel like everyone was at risk but being that the young guys had all been together and are about the same age it seemed like a good step. I think choices like this of boil down to past experience, there is so much out there that contradicts one another.

 

On a good note the little sicky finally seems really good. He is completely perky, moving well, eating a ton and putting on weight. He ended up with loose stool, but it is back to normal too. As soon as we get over this cold snap he's going to join the other fellows again.

 

Here's a link to an article on how to slow the development of resistance to deworming agents. Although I'm NOT an expert on sheep (don't own them - yet), it seems to suggest that deworming the whole flock "just in case" could actually be counterproductive.

 

Of course things could be different in your area than in mine...

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