Originally from: Sue Furness
                        
Hi Sue,
Mine is a completely different theory. You say she was bloated. Did the vet use a canula or large hypodermic needle to let the gas out of her, and if so was much released? Is the sheep passing normal faeces? I keep Soays and this reminds me of the way several of them have died, though never as young as five years old. I?m told the condition is due to an ?inverted gut?; at any rate, the gut blocks, and the food that enters the stomach has no way of getting out. The animal just appears to get fatter and fatter, until eventually the pressure on its internal organs causes death. In the final stages, it looks exactly like bloat. I even confused it with pregnancy one year, as the increase in girth was timed exactly as I was expecting the ewe?s lambs to be developing. Then she appeared bloated one day, but insertion of a needle into her side released only a small amount of gas. She was clearly uncomfortable lying down. I fed her with black treacle dissolved in water, which kept her going several more days, but eventually she died. It was only when I did a post-mortem that I discovered her stomach was enormous and she had no lamb inside her at all. Could this possibly be what is wrong with your ewe? The X-ray should show a very enlarged stomach if it is. I hope it isn?t, but I thought I should offer it as another possibility to consider.

Sue Furness (South Wales)