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Ewe Vaccines


Denise Wall
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Hi Denise,

If I can get the ewes around 4wks before lambing I use Glanvac 6 because it covers CL, the only gruesome sheep disease I've ever had in my flock. If I miss that window of opportunity I do the lambs with Covexin or Tasvac 8 in two doses, since apparently you can't use Glanvac on very young lambs. Then I do the new crop with Glanvac 3 at some later time to get the CL coverage. Damned if I know if that's the best approach, but nobody could tell me different when I asked around and did an internet search on it last year. I would certainly welcome input from some real sheep producers.

A.

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Does anyone know whether CL can cause an absess? I knew someone who used it and one popped up - but they were never sure whether the sheep had been exposed, whether it was a random absess event (an RAE :rolleyes: ) or whether the vaccine had caused it, even though it did not appear at the vaccine site.

 

The vet thought it was a RAE but they sold the sheep quickly anyway. So they never found out.

 

On the vaccine question, CD-T (as you probably know) is effective against 95% of what you'll ever see around here (speaking to you specifically Denise) - according to my vet.

 

However, if your dogs ever work cows, and ever take a wee nip of the sheep that breaks skin, you'll want to stick with something with blackleg, ie, any of the seven or eight ways (but I think only Covexin has tetani). I had the most horrendous thing happen here last year. I got some sheep from a place that had also run cows, and was forced to "break" the ewes pretty forcibly. Within a couple of weeks, every ewe that lambed, or any sheep that got any kind of scratch, came down with this horrible disease I'd never even heard of. It took an autopsy to figure out what was going on, but not before I'd lost three of my best sheep and three good lambs. On the bright side of it, the vets at NC State got to "experiment" on my flock to develop an effective treatment and they actually came up with something that worked (it was double doses of pen-procaine and LA combined).

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Sorry, thought I mentioned it - blackleg is what the cattle folks call it. C. chauvoei is the bug.

 

In sheep, it causes severe inflammation of the extremities and wasting diarhea - condition loss is dramatic - the sheep seems to disappear before your eyes. I'd never heard sheep moan with pain so much.

 

One ewe was completely off her feet but had twins - a ram and ewe. She would turn over and let them kneel and nurse even though the effort made her roll her eyes and pant with pain. I wanted those lambs to live so bad, not to mention the ewe - but typical of clostridii, it hits the toppers the hardest and she and both the lambs died, even though I was bottle feeding them and eventually pulled them to try to save the ewe.

 

I don't know about Denise, but I wasn't using the Covexin before last year because of the tissue damage it causes - it's actually the carrier. It's usually not significant but occaisionally I've seen big absesses, especially if you use a site that doesn't naturally drain with gravity.

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Hi all,

 

Thanks for the responses. Basically I'm trying to vaccinate as little as I need to.

 

Robin, I'm not opposed to using Covexin 8, just wondering if there's better out there now. I had heard about abscesses and reactions but have never had any on my sheep that I've noticed.

 

Andrea, Thanks for the info. It still amazes me that lambs are immunocompetent almost from birth.

 

I don't think I want to vaccinate for CL. I haven't had problems with it as far as I know. Wool sheep like mine tend to have internal abscesses from CL more than the external ones hair sheep and goats get though. I always wondered if I had it but just didn't know it. Since I've been using my cull ewes to feed my dogs, I've not found any internal abscesses so I feel more confidence that I don't have it. And at this point, my flock is pretty closed except for the new rams each year.

 

Thanks again.

 

Denise

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I've never had any trouble using Cov8 either. As for the CL vaccine, it will cause an abcess at the site and your sheep will limp pretty good after getting it as well. I used it for awhile but haven't for a couple of years. If you don't have a problem with it, i wouldn't use it.

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Originally posted by C Denise Wall:

Since I've been using my cull ewes to feed my dogs...

Hi Denise, do you slaughter and butcher the cull ewes yourself? I have a ewe that has a severe back injury (slipped in the mud) and I was going to take her to market, but I would rather use her meat and bones for my dogs.
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do you slaughter and butcher the cull ewes yourself?

 

I have done it myself, with the help of some friends, but decided we'd rather send them to a local slaughter house. Last time I just waited until I had three to take (so they wouldn't be stressed) and had them done there. They cut the ewes up for me in big pieces and then I handle the rest of the cutting up at feeding time. I have a room at the barn with a heater, sink, hot water, a freezer and a refrigerator so I can handle all the dogs' food there.

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I have a room at the barn with a heater, sink, hot water, a freezer and a refrigerator so I can handle all the dogs' food there.
I'm moving to your place. We are setting up a small "dog kitchen" in the new kennels, if we ever finish them, but it's pretty primitive. And it will be too small to fit the freezer.
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Originally posted by C Denise Wall:

Basically I'm trying to vaccinate as little as I need to.

The guy with the healthiest flock I've seen vaccinates his lambs for tetanus after banding and that's it. I'm relatively new to this, but it seems there's something to the "less is more" approach, although I did use CDT last year and plan to do so again this year.
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