SICK SHEEP

Originally from: Sue Burton
                        
Hi Folks,

Just wondering if anyone can offer any help or advice. We recently took in a Wensleydale ewe 5yrs old and with no health problems, but severely overweight, from Derby. Three weeks after we found her (last Saturday) in great pain.She was bloated.The vet drenched her with liquid paraffin and gave her probiotics & bicarb and injected pain killers. He also diagnosed acute laminitis.She is now just on a hay diet.

She seemed to pick up a bit. Four days later she was uncomfortable and pressing her head against the wall to relieve the pain. The Vet advised drenching he with ketosaid every four hours and that helped her. But a week after it all started she is still showing signs of pain when she lies down. Her urine tested negative for ketones. Bloods taken yesterday showed nothing conclusively. He liver and organs are all fine. The white blood cell count was low indicative of a sheep with a severe infection – but she is showing no signs of infection at all. Her gut all sounds good.

We are really at our wits end as to what to do for the poor girl, In between attacks she is fine. SHe lies down a lot due to the laminitis but she eats her hay happily, chews the cud and interacts well with her sister and us. Has anyone encountered anything similar? Is there anything particularly that Wensleydales are prone to? If anyone has any ideas I would be most grateful to hear from you.

Many thanks

Sue Burton
                        

Originally from: mark purdey
                        
Hi,

the only encounter with Laminitis in my farming career was when we loaned out some milking cows ( in between moving farm ourselves ) to a farm that used excessive inputs of nitrogen fertiliser in relation to our own system. Most of
 the cows developed chronic laminitis ( like horses on too rich pasture ) but all recovered when returned to our new farm ( after about two months of pasturing on a more balanced nutritional plane.

I would guess that the nitrogen crystals get incorporated into the hard tissues of the hoof and soften them in some way, abit like excess iron getting into the joints and seeding the growth of arthritic nodules.

So the ewe might have (or is) been thriving on a diet that is too high in nitrogen or oxalic acid ( caused by feeding of luxurient root crops , etc ) which is causing the laminitis plus bloating. There are antidotes for this kind of chronic poisoning but have forgotten, Can look up if you feel this might be
 at all relevant to your problem.

Best,

Mark
                        

Originally from: coleen
                        
Hi Sue

I read somewhere a while back that sheep can suffer from this (due to grain overload)..ever heard of this yourself.

will try and find the article concerned.

Coleen

Originally from: Sue Burton
                        
Hi Mark,

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to contact me regarding our sickly sheep.

I have never had a sheep with laminitis but have a fair wealth of experience of horses with it.This sheep is and has been severely overweight for some years now. It seems strange that she should go down with laminitis so soon after arriving here. I have wondered for a while whether the laminitis is to do with the different nutrients etc in the grass between what she was eating in Derby to the different nutrients in our Essex grass.

Any additional help you could offer in this respect Mark would be very much appreciated.

Many thanks

Sue
                        

Originally from: coleen
                        
HI Sue

Not the article I was searching for, but it was something along these lines.

Coleen

Grain Overload. This is strictly a management disease where lambs are allowed to engorge a large amount of grain or when we change rations quickly. Sheep, along with other ruminants, need to be kept on a regular diet. If they are suddenly allowed uncontrolled access to grain the grain rapidly ferments in the rumen. This drops the pH of the rumen and causes, dehydration, lowering of blood pH and acid burns to the rumen wall. If severe this can result in a quick death. If the sheep survives the rapid change in pH the next problems that can develop are laminitis (founder) and polioencephalomalacia. Weeks after the incident the lamb can still be affected by liver abscess and poor growth rate due to severe damage of the rumen. If caught in the early stages grain overload can be drenched with sodium bicarbonate in cold water. The sodium bicarbonate will buffer the pH change and cold water will slow the fermentation process. Activated charcoal is also used to bind the starch and prevent further fermentation. Banamine and dexamethasone are useful to treat inflammation, pain and shock. If the lamb lives more than 24 hours it should be fed grass hay and probiotics to stimulate the rumen, treated with B complex vitamins to prevent polioencephalomalcia and treated with long-acting penicillin or tetracycline to prevent liver abscess for 2 weeks. Prevention is much easier than treatment. Changing rations gradually, secure gate latches and sheep proof feed storage can easily prevent grain overload.

Originally from: coleen
                        
HI Sue

How long after she arrived at yours did she go down with it. Could she have picked it up from some other animal. There is evidence that goats can and have passed it onto sheep.

Coleen

Originally from: Sue Burton
                        
Hi Coleen,

Good to hear from you. Thanks for taking the time and trouble to let me have your thoughts.

I can be 100% sure that the sheep did not get to any food as they are in an area well away from the feed area and they would have had to break through fencing which they had not done. We even had the same feed that the sheep were fed in Derby so that they continued the same feeding regime with us. My thoughts were that it would perhaps be with the nutrients in the ground or grass being very different. The article you sent though was very useful as it explains a lot of what possible problems can result.

Thanks for taking the time and trouble to look it out for us, Coleen.

Hope all is well with you and yours. Will let you know how little sheep progresses.

All the best

Sue
                        

Originally from: coleen
                        
Hi Sue

No I meant had she previously had contact with goats prior to coming to you!

Col

Originally from: Sue Burton
                        
Hi Coleen,

She arrived on 25th August.Certainly there is no other sheep or goat showing any symptoms along these lines. We have never had any health problems with our sheep or goats except for the occasional bout of orfs disease. They have always been a very healthy flock.

Cheers
Sue
                        

Originally from: coleen
                        
Any chance the sheep could have a tick born disease (that could answer the white blood cell count) Some of these can manifest as laminitis like systems, in later stages.

Coleen

Originally from: Sue Burton
                        
Will look into that possibility – thanks Coleen.

Sue

Originally from: Sue Burton
                        
Hi Coleen,

So sorry Coleen. SHe has been kept with two other sheep and two other goats prior to coming to us and all six came here and they are certainly showing now
 signs.

Just spoke with Vet and we are taking her in for x-rays and a scan tomorrow so heres hoping!

Thanks Coleen.

Sue
                        

Originally from: frances fish
                        
Hi Sue, We keep wensleydales and have never seen a fat one. This would take a tremendous amount of doing and a shovel for the food . Clearly something other than obesity going on here. Could she be diabetic ?Normal diseases we can get, sheep can get.She would be more prone to infection because of it. Head against wall and obvious pain suggests colic perhaps ? Also had to deal with laminitis in our flock. Usually, like you,bought in animals, usually after we had given a few days of coarse mix but thats not your problem. Has your grass been fertilized this year ? Do you know if your pasture is deficient or unusually high in anything say, iron ? You do not say if she is scouring, although this is such a common problem with this breed it could not be significant.The vet profession are usually, in our experience, useless at any diagnosis that doesn't involve a quick fix with an antibiotic often in conjunction with a steroid followed, inevitably, by a big bill ! I hope you are one of the lucky ones and do get a diagnosis. You are clearly spending a deal of money trying to do the best for this poor ewe. How many times have I said to my poor long-suffering spouse, "If only we knew more,if only we could find out more, if only the vets knew more". But, sad fact is, sheep, on the whole are not worth much and any research tends to be in cattle or done in New Zealand.So, we alll battle on, doing our best, working in the dark, unless, by sheer chance we strike lucky and the condition is curable.I do, with Coleen, feel for you.Hope all goes well and sheep survives.I always work on the theory, Never say die until they stop breathing, then you have to admit the battle is lost. Frances

Originally from: coleen
                        
HI Sue
Hope all goes well for her.

Col

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)
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Originally from: Bill
                        
I'll go along with Mark Purdey in that the problem is most likely nutritional. The sheep came from Derby (limestone soils) so maybe there is a possibility of phosphorous-calcium imbalance.

Phosphorous-calcium imbalance causes a serious muscular condition called hypocalcemic tetany (colic type pain), excessive calcification of bones and tissues (laminitis), constipation, nausea, hyperactive stomach, and bloating.

There is also risk of kidney problems (stones for example), and cardiovascular disease due to calcium deposits in the blood vessels. Other possibilities are vomiting, itching, skin rash, nausea, arrhythia, bone pain, myalgia, and increased urination.

Kind regards,
Bill.
                        

Originally from: Bill
                        
The convulsions associated with tetany originate from electrical abnormalities in the forebrain, which possibly explains why the animal is pressing its head against wall/tree/gatepost.

Bill.
                        

Originally from: Sue Burton
                        
Hello Everyone,

Thank you all so much for your time and trouble in writing down your thoughts regarding our sick sheep – EMMA. I fully appreciate your efforts.

TODAYS UPDATE

X-rays could not get through her fat and therefore showed nothing
Scan showed nothing
A blood smear showed new white cells indicative of infection but is that infection along the lines of pymetra or is that a foreign body which is causing infection?
She is definitely showing signs of abdominal pain. The laminitis is much improved but she seems to be weak on her back end ( yet she wasnt a week ago) She reacts to having her spine pinched or pressed hard but nothing has happened to her to suggest pelvic or spinal damage.
Her bouts of pain are intermittent and can be so intense that she pushes her head against the wall. These periods of pain though last 30 seconds to a minute and happen probably once or twice an hour. Sometimes the pain is such that she will push against the floor to lever her body off the floor to release the pressure.
Our Vet like us, is running out of ideas. On the presumption that there may be an infection of some sort he has changed her antibiotic to baytril and she is now on finadyne painkiller which is more effective in abdominal pain. He wants to try this for a few days and give it a chance to see if it does help her at all. Otherwise he is thinking of doing an exploratory laparotomy on Thursday.
The rest of the time Emma is content. She is eating her hay well, chewing the cud, is responsive to human company, her droppings are normal and she is weeing ok. Everything seems fine except these episodes of severe abdominal pain and the low white blood cell count. She tested negative for ketosis(?). Nothing showed up in her droppings.

Another sleepless night this end I fear!

Thanks everyone

Sue
                        

Originally from: Sue Burton
                        
Many thanks to Bill, Sue & Frances for your thoughts regarding EMMA our sick sheep. I do value your time and effort and help with this.

To answer some of your points where I can:-

I was slightly wrong geographically as to where the sheep originated from- They are from Buxton at a height of 500 metres and in a gritstone area.

Certainly though Bill, the list of symptoms you suggest are the nearest I have seen to what she is experiencing. Colic type pain, laminitis, hyperactive stomach and bloating.

 Both the Wensleydales are fat Frances. EMMA more so than her sister. When she was lying down at the Vets today she is probably about a metre across – so really huge.They were both purchased at 5 months old and were fat then but particularly EMMA. She is not just fat round her stomach but over her shoulders also. Funny you should mention diabetes as the Vet did briefly mention that possibility this morning.

We dont have much grass – it is very short and therefore very sweet. I must admit I do not know what our soil is deficient or high in nutrients wise. We have had the fields for 11 years and like all the land in this area ( Essex) it was very intensively farmed and sprayed prior to us taking it on. We have never had a problem with our other sheep – we have 40 and a mixture of sexes.breeds and backgrounds. It has never been fertilised in the years we have had it.In her home in Buxton the only fertiliser spread was cow manure. It was a natural hay meadow with wildflowers and various grass types.Thanks for your words of support Frances.

Sue, last Saturday EMMA was bloated but the vet used painkiller,bicarb and liquid paraffin – it wasnt a high hard bloat – but fluid.You could see the fluid rippling in her body.Sadly due to her weight we were not able to see anything on x-ray but the scan did not appear to show anything abnormal up.

EMMA was fat when brought at 5 months old and has always been a 'pig' of a sheep. Always pushing others out of the way to get their food.

Once again thank you all. I will pass all your emails onto our Vet tomorrow and discuss the ideas with him and report back tomorrow evening.

Many thanks again

Sue
                        

Originally from: Bill
                        
Interesting reply, Sue. I was thinking that maybe you used phosphate fertilizers which had triggered the reaction. (On the basis the animal had established a tolerance to high calcium while in Derby and the move ( change in phosphate balance) had somehow triggered the reaction.

Tetany is a very complex condition, low calcium diet can result in hypercalcemia because the body overcompensates by leaching calcium from the bones. Conversely high calcium diet can result in hypocalcemia.

It is not uncommon for hypercalcemic mothers to produce hypocalcemic offspring.

Perhaps the animal will re-establish a balance given her new diet. I very much hope so.

All the best,
Bill.