Very bad news! Hopefully it has ended and not spreading wider. Something brought from the Show? Bad bit of flora? I seem to recall your daughter has a basic flock and some pedigree herd building up? Hopefully the latter are not affected......recognising that any death is a loss!
One of those that looked a bit ropey died over night. 3 have been from the commercial flock and were in one field, the other a pedigree which was in a separate field a half mile away. Another autopsy being done on the commercial ewe. It might be that the pedigree death was unrelated. Acorns are a killer of sheep, but none about at the moment. Rhododendrons another, but none in the area. The one field is quite wet, so liver fluke could be the culprit, though that is usually an August / September thing, so a little early. We'll find out later today, but it doesn't explain the pedigree. An expensive few days for our daughter. £1k+ of dead animals and a few hundred for vets bills. The cost of the knackerman taking them away is minor by comparison. I'm hoping they do find liver fluke. At least we can then treat the sheep and the ground (more cost). A couple of the other ewes that look hale and hearty have what is called 'bottle jaw', which can be a sign of fluke, amongst other things.
Bloody hell, and there's me feeling sorry for myself because I have a horrid chesty/phlegmy cough!! Good luck Remote, really hope you get to the bottom of things swiftly, for the sheeps sake as well as yours and your daughter's - sounds like it could get horribly expensive if it goes undiagnosed too long.
The second autopsy showed a high worm burden, so Mrs Remote has got the appropriate remedy. Just need to get them all in and treat them. Not a big job normally, but with daughter out of the country it's just the two of us. Then there's my mam who can't be left on her own at present. Add to that, I'm not great driving the daughter's collie.
Is that where the phrase Collie Wobbles comes from??? Please don't coat me - it's way too hot out there for an extra layer!! Good news though with luck, good job!!
All done. Feels like I've gone 10 rounds with Tyson Fury after wrestling 60+ ewes. Most of these ewes weigh 80-90kg and are lower to the ground than me. Who needs to go to the gym? Mam would only need half the dose of the ewes. Just need to keep an eye on things and keep our fingers crossed. Now sat down with a glass of red as a reward. Might need a 2nd shortly.
My neighbour and I were admiring some very pretty plants/ flowers in another neighbour's garden a few days ago. He said it was Ragwort and was poisoness. Reading up on this it seems it is bad news for cattle if it gets in their feed. Does it have the same effect on sheep? Could it be there are some of these plants growing on your land somewhere?
Not just cattle. Horses, sheep, even humans. It is nasty stuff. It has alkaloids in it which build up in an animals organs. We don't have any (maybe the odd plant until we see it and remove it - while wearing gloves - then burn it, not even put it on the muck heap) in any of the fields we use. We have a ragwort fork which lifts plants by the roots as they can regenerate from root fragments. It's been something we've been hot on ever since our daughter started riding 20+ years ago.
Not been watching huge amounts, and no real interest in specific events, but some great wins for the brits at the Olympics. Yee looking down and out in the triathlon but found a great sprint finish from nowhere to take the lead with a couple 100 yards to go and hold on for gold. And in the women's quad sculls, after trailing for the whole race, the British took the lead for the first time on the last stroke to win by a foot. A foot in 2km.
I've always found the Olympics medal table a bit odd. This year is no exception. Argentina, Ecuador, Serbia and Slovenia each have one gold, no other medals. They are ahead of Brazil who have 6 medals, 3 silvers, 3 bronze. I'd like to see 3 points for a gold, 2 for a silver and 1 for a bronze with the table reflecting the number of points. Surely a truer reflection of a nation's performance.
It's as simple as sort on golds, where there are equal numbers, sort on silver, then sort on bronze. So 1 gold only beats 0 golds, 27 silver and 35 bronze.
