boluses!

[Eileen Stein]

Anyone have any tips on giving boluses to sheep? (I have a pill pusher.) If not, does anyone want a jar of 100 Levasole boluses, one of which has been spat out five times?

 

I'm going back to drenching whether I ever get this jar used up or not.

[Bill Fosher]

Grind them up in a food processor, dilute with the appropriate amount of water, and use them as a drench.

[Eileen Stein]

Great idea! Brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?

[Howdyjabo]

coat them with mineral oil- and be more aggressive and gag them with that pill pusher. Then slam their mouth shut(can't use their tounge) elevate the head and wait for them to swallow. Easiest way to do it is by straddling their back- if they are short enough or you are tall enough.

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Anyone have any tips on giving boluses to sheep?

Don't?

 

 

I loathe boluses. Had to give aspirin during a black leg outbreak last year. Twice a day to about a dozen ewes and one 300 pound ram. Just wonderful. What KAren says is true though, with the additional note that if you hold their noses so they cn't breathe, they will reflexively put their tongues down and swallow.

 

Drenches scare me in spite of eight years of practice withut killing anything. I prefer injections but presently have resistance such that only a drench product works.

[Bill Fosher]

Drenching rules.

 

The use of injectible wormers is probably one of the major contributing causes for wormer resistance because of the fact that it takes time (a few hours to a few days) for the wormer to reach effective levels in the bloodstream. All that time, the worms that aren't killed are becoming less and less susceptible to the drug. Then it also tails off for a few days, giving any new hatchlings a chance to survive a subtheraputic dose.

 

The same drug, given orally, enters the bloodstream very rapidly and essentially all at once -- no bell curve of blood drug level.

 

That's the main reason why there are no injectible wormers labeled for sheep and goats. And, in my opinion, why there shouldn't be for cattle or swine.

[Pipedream Farm]

Bill,

 

if you review the Merck Vet Manual on the various wormers you'll find that some reach peak plasma levels in <1hr when given SC while others take significantly more time. Some have slow uptake when given orally due to affects by the runen. Some don't even need to be in the blood stream to be effective against worms in the GI tract. All this depend upon the solubility, uptake, and mode of action of each drug.

 

BTW some boluses are formulated with delayed release to prolong effectiveness and grinding them may affect how much drug is released at one time possibly leading to an overdose.

 

Mark

[Bill Fosher]

Hi Mark,

 

I'm sure you're right. I was thinking specifically of ivermectin, which I know is absorbed fairly slowly, even when given IM, but quite rapidly when given orally. And, as you point out, it is also effective against many parasites even if it doesn't get into the bloodstream. In fact, H. Contortus is the only major sheep parasite that connects directly to the bloodstream, so I'm not sure how injectible drugs would work at all against Ostertagia, for instance.

 

Levamasole oblets are simply a hardened version of the powder, which is intended to be diluted with water and administered as a drench.

 

 

The only other deworming bolus I'm aware of is a time-released gizmo from Merial that has ivermectin as its active ingredient. It's labeled for cattle, but I know that some have been used in sheep (found them on PM in some rumens). They are a mechanical drug delivery system that includes a plastic capsule and a spring that compresses a dose of the drug through a small orifice, releasing it over time into the rumen.

[Eileen Stein]

Back before there was an ivermectin drench labeled for sheep, I (like many others, I'm sure) used the injectable ivermectin but soon switched from injecting it to giving it by mouth. I find the drenching pretty easy, except for the occasional drooling sheep. Never even had one cough.

 

Actually, I vaguely recall giving oblets for something or other in the past with my pill pusher, without great difficulty. That's why I decided to try the boluses. I WAS ruthlessly aggressive with the pill pusher, and I had no trouble getting the pill into the mouth, over the tongue, and getting the mouth closed. I held it closed for up to 30 seconds, sometimes stroking the throat, but as soon as I released the sheep, out came the pill from her mouth like Pez from a Pez dispenser. I'm sure it would have been very humorous to a detached onlooker.

 

I guess I'll give it a try with mineral oil coating and holding their noses. I'd like to be able to administer them effectively. But I have a feeling I'm going to end up with the food processor.

[Pipedream Farm]

Levamisole slow-release boluses are available in some countries. Merck Vet. Manual

I haven't looked to see if they are available here.

 

Mark

[NancyO]

Eilein,

 

when I've given the oblets before, I've given them at the side of the mouth, over the tongue with the pusher placed along the inside of the teeth and the pusher inserted fairly far. I think the success had more to do with the angle of the head, which was kept horizontal, which I usually supported on my hip or on the side of the chute, never held the mouth shut or the nose. I had to get into the chute with the sheep to hold thier heads in the position i wanted, but other than my large ram that actually chomped the plastic pusher almost in half (thank goodness he was the last one to be done) everyone kept thier pills down. No coughing or gagging when I did them, and I did them myself.

 

I prefer drench though, don't have to keep loading the pusher, especially if you are doing it yourself.

Nancy O

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Now that's one reason I love drenching. Backpack drenchers rock. I'm just a big chicken about drowning one. I guess they'd know if that nasty stuff went down the wrong way, though - I have to use Cydectin, unfortunately, the stuff that feels and smells like purple transmission fluid. At least you know who's been done without even checking for a mark!

[Bill Fosher]

You're using the Cydectin orally, right?

[Rebecca, Irena Farm]

Of course! Though topically on myself. I know it's not terrific but literally nothing else works on haemonchus here and yes, that's my main killer.

 

One thing that should help some is I'm selling off this week, dry lotting the dozen remaining (hay is super cheap thank goodness) and resting all our pastures. It would be really awesome to time bringing in the new sheep right at the first frost (late Oct) but don't know whether that will work for our seller.

 

We'll be using the new sheep to revitalize our pastures by containing them with a round bale until it's gone then continuing to rotate with new round bales (we're buying this hay now right out of the fields, super el cheapo). We accidentally discovered this method last year.

 

The hay we get seeds very nicely. We have three small areas in the front where we had been rotating dry lots through the winter and now the 42 sheep that are out there can't eat it fast enough. The guy we get this hay from must lime like the dickens too because the calcium content in the soil's going up. Or it could be the new mineral we're using. Or both.