Heard from MSU this morning and the primary diagnosis is Ketosis. They took tissue samples and will have info from them in 2-3 days. Went to my vet and told him the situation and picked up a gallon of Propylene Glycol and a vial of Vitamin B. You can confirm the diagnosis with strips that show the level of ketones in the urine. Now if anyone has a good way to get a sheep to pee in a cup let me know cause we tried several things, finally just sticking the test strip in there. Will be dosing the latest three, yes I found three more sick today, 2 ozs 3 times a day and 3cc of Vitamin B every day. Also two of the sick ewes had diarhea (poops) and I gave 1/2 cup of plain yogurt to encourage bacteria in the stomach lost.

Strange part of this all is that my friend had two sheep down today with the same thing. She has had sheep for years, has not had a sick animal in a long time, if they had a dumpy looking sheep years ago her dad would dose with molasses. Now we are wondering if the cold hard December has effected their metabolism, mine are probably to fat, and Mary Jo's two that got sick are on the thin side. Diagnosing animal illness seems to be the process of elimination - hopefully you have enough time to go through the process, in this case the earlier you get propylene into them the better chance of avoiding death.

I have learned far to much about abortion, prolapse and ketosis. The one thing I did not find in print about ketosis is that it will cause the ewe's body to go into early delivery. (I thought it was aborting)

Prolapsed ewe is doing well, but getting penicillian twice a day.

My attitude is better today, at least I have answers and can DO SOMETHING!!! Hate not knowing.

-- Betsy K (betsyk@pathwaynet.com), February 06, 2001

Answers

Betsy, I'm glad to hear that you're making some progress on the problem. About getting her to pee,you could get there first thing in the morning before she gets up. They almost always pee right after they stand up in the morning. The other thing you could do is to get a buck goat or ram in there (on a lead so he won't chase them), and my goats wll usually pee just to show him that they aren't in heat.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), February 06, 2001.

Becky:

Talk to your vet as to ketosis being related to carbohydrate deficiency during the latter stages of pregnancy. Unless I am mistaking, Mollases is a good carbohydrate source, as is chopped up raw potatoes. Access to a very good legume hay is also mentioned.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 07, 2001.

Pinch her nose, she will pee. At the first sign of an ewe off of feed when pregnant or even after delivery (had one case a few weeks ago and then another ewe lamb delivered stillborns then preg. desease) I always dose with 2 ounces of prol. glycol, twice aday, I give 5cc of B shots or 2cc of straight B12 also, while pregnant all ewes have molasses in water (most of the time). I feed feed with molasses in it, I mix the feed which is lamb creep feed with corn. If you lose some lambs like I did, I don't just think it was nature, I give all ewes a shot of LA 200. The yougurt is excellent but I also have on hand horse phobios, when you give Penn or other anibiotic you should give a phobio to keep their rumens working. Good Luck with the rest, I have one that is prolapse now also, due in two days, I have taken her off of hay and locked her up, she prolapse last year also, probably should be culled but I am not the culling type of person!

-- Debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), February 11, 2001.

We feed a four way grain mix that has molasses mixed in, also we get "energy blocks". They look like the 50 pound salt blockes, but hi carbs, minerals, vitamines and held together with molasses. I just set them in the barn with the salt blocks and let the ewes eat as they like, then take them up after lambing season. Also, during a cold winter (and ours here in CA don't get anything like the rest of the country) I put molasses in warm drinking water if the ewes look a bit stressed and also after a difficult delivery. So far we've never had a ketosis problem.

You may be correct with your thinking about the hard winter you're having. I'm sure that can't be easy on the ewes. Good luck. Let us know how it all turns out.

-- jennifer (schwabauer@aol.com), February 11, 2001.

another part of your problem could be stomach worms. The worm load rises astronomically at the time of delivery - this will lead to diarrhea and inadequate absorption of nutrients. Here in the Southeast we have this problem almost every spring - we try to worm l month before lambs are due- good luck! after 20 years with sheep and goats I know how frustrating these kinds of problems can be.

-- Jean Castle (jeancastle@hotmail.com), February 13, 2001.