Bo-Se Question

[Maralynn]

We have had a couple lambs show signs of white muscle. They seem fine after giving a shot of

Bo-Se. This area is selenium deficient, and we usually give both the ewe and lamb a dose soon after birth.

 

I am now wondering about giving the rest of the ewes a dose before lambing to maybe help prevent weak lambs at birth. But on the bo-se bottle in bold letters it says "do not give to pregnant ewes". Does anyone know if it can safely be given to the ewes? Or should I just wait until after they lamb?

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Gee, I hope it can be given to the ewes. We do it about a week before lambing on the advice of the vet - maybe it means not in the first couple of months of pregnancy, like a lot of stuff.

 

You can also give it to each lamb as soon as it is born. We do the ewes, feed mineral and feed with selenium, and still do the lambs or we still get white muscle. Apparently there is something going on here which ties up soil calcium, which is key to releasing and processing Vitamin E and Selenium.

 

We just switched to a supplement with extra E, Selenium, and calcium, and we'll see what that does.

[Maralynn]

Thanks! I was kind of thinking it might be OK, but reading the warning on the bottle I was'nt quite sure. We usually give it to the lambs after they are born, and have only had a couple problems with white muscle in almost 12 years. But this year looks like it might be different.

 

Wow, it sounds like you really have your hands full keeping it in check. Is it something you have always had trouble with?

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Yup, we lost lambs every year from the first year we had a complete breeding cycle here (our second lambing), until we started doing all those things. I got to where I could smell WMD before the lambs even became symptomatic (the poop smells like tomcat urine).

 

I talked to my friend who formulates the new supplement they use, and she said they had the same problem and the calcium turned out to be the key. So I'm crossing my fingers. BoSE is expensive!!

[trailrider]

Just wondered if you use mineral with selenium. My mineral supplies selenium on a gradual basis, and prevents serious deficiency for all year. Then only the lambs receive BoSe.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

I use mineral with selenium, provide a protein block with selenium, and feed with selenium - all specially formulated for sheep. Every time we get a level the selenium is STILL at the minimum for survival - or in the deficient range.

 

I just switched to a mineral that supplies a WHOLE BUNCH of selenium especially formulated for this area. They think I should be able to skip the BoSE next time around, but advised me to keep using it this season. I'll get a level in a few months just to make sure.

 

I was also talking to a soil expert about this recently, and they said that it might be a good plan to start bringing in lime at much greater than the recommended rate, over the next couple of years. A lack of calcium and low selenium are related, apparently. We need to decide whether we are going to make that kind of long term investment in this place before we spend the money, however. The effects of that plan won't be evident for a couple years or more.

[Bill Fosher]

I have some friends in Canada who have a serious selenium deficiency on their ground. As in the US, feed companies are limited by law as to how much selenium they can provide in any product without a veterinary prescription, so they turned to their vet to help them work out a plan.

 

They chose a number of sheep to monitor through a growing season, tagged them, and took blood samples. As expected, selenium levels were dangerously low. The vet put up the selenium in their mineral, and they tested again. This went on for two years before they got blood levels right, and by then the level of selenium in the mineral was at more than 2x the legal limit.

 

I believe that the best way (most economical, most practical, and probably healthiest) to provide selenium to ewes and lambs is via the mineral, but in some parts of the world the levels of selenium provided by off-the-shelf sheep minerals and feeds will still leave sheep badly deficient.

 

Moreover, there's a big differnce in uptake between so-called "organic" selenium (meaning selenium that's present naturally in feed) and "mineral" selenium, meaning mined or refined products. If we could all buy our feed from North Dakota, we probably wouldn't need to think about Bo-Se shots.

 

To further confound us, there are interactions between selenium and lots of other minerals --particularly iron. Many off-the-shelf sheep minerals use Ferrous Oxide (rust) as a visual guide to let them know when the ingredients are mixed. Depending on how much is in the blend, you can actually inhibit the uptake of minerals -- both in the blend and in the feed -- with this kind of product. Generally speaking, it's a good idea to stay away from mineral mixtures that have a deep brown color for that reason.

 

I could go on and on -- but here's the bottom line. There's no single right answer about selenium, because soil levels vary from region to region, and within regions they vary from farm to farm. Other management practices can interfere with or contribute to uptake of available selenium. It's critical enough to the productivity of a sheep flock that I believe it's worth spending some money with a vet and nutritionist to sort it out if your sheep are anything other than a hobby.