One of my good ewes had a full uterine prolapse. I am getting conflicting information on whether it is apt to happen again. Any experience out there?

-- Brenda Kenfield (bjk@gmavt.net), April 27, 2002

Answers

It is likely to happen again, and it is very likely hereditary. My suggestion is to not keep the ewe, and not keep any of her offspring. Unfortunately, I know this from personal experience with one of my better ewes also.

-- wintersongfarm@yahoo.com (wintersongfarm@yahoo.com), April 27, 2002.

We accidentally kept a ewe back that had a full uterine prolapse last year. This year went well but we won't miss her going on the truck. Rule says they are far more apt to repeat, we were simply lucky. I personally don't cull offspring, the whole idea that it's hereditary needs to be kept in perspective. Under your current managment that line is slightly more likely to have prolapses. I dock my ewe lambs tails a lot longer and prolapes have all but disappeared. Doesn't prove a thing but in a flock of 200 I hadn't noticed it being hereditary over the last 9 years. This year we had little snow so I got my whole flock out for daily runs to thier grain on fresh snow, the added muscle tone might have helped the cull that got missed so maybe we need to look at condtion a little more closely too.

-- Ross (amulet@istar.ca), April 27, 2002.

The items which Ross mentioned, are among several mentioned in this article www.cvm.umn.edu/smallruminant/PDF/Vaginal%20Prolapse.pdf, you might find the information in this article useful.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), April 27, 2002.

I had a ewe prolapse a few years ago I used a prolapse device to keep her together till she lambed, I sent her to town, kept her ewe lambs and they also prolapsed. I asked a local vet about this and she told me that modern Hamp are prone to prolapse. I had bought a pure bred modern Hamp buck at the stockyard he was from the universities breeding stock so I thought I was really getting something. I got something alright. I sent him off to town and all of the ewe lambs I had out of him. I went back to the old cross breeds and have had no problems since. Just my experiance, hope this helps some.

-- Mark (mcford@theofficenet.com), April 27, 2002.

Yes, it will most likely happen again and even sooner and more severe. And you stand a huge risk of losing the ewe if she totally prolapses her uterus again. I can tell you this from sad experience. We had a favorite ewe that only partially prolapsed and was a bit overweight, so I thought with some exercise and more attention she would be okay the next breeding. Big mistake. We lost her with a complete utrine prolapse and a full bowel prolapse.It was a poor decision on my part and cost her a lot of suffering and her death. DON"T BREED HER AGAIN!!!!

-- Kate in New York (Kate@sheepyvalley.com), April 27, 2002.

Thank you for the replys. I questioned it because the vet in the sheep! mag. column says that it may not happen again. The ewe was outside and lambed unexpecdedly. I didn't find her for awhile. I can't replace her- I don't know what cross she is, but I got the last 6. Now I'm down to 4. Or 3 if I ship her. She's 2 weeks from weaning and all is well. Shell go to summer pasture and I'll decide. I have to think about 2 others with lousy udders, also.

-- Brenda Kenfield (bjk@gmavt.net), April 28, 2002.

Look down at the post on making dogfood from aged ewes. I hope by shipping, you don't send her or the two with udder problems to an auction, where as likely as they could go for meat, they could also go to some unsuspecting person for breeding. Not fair to the buyer or the sheep. We routinely put our culls in the freezer. More details in the aforementioned post. Kate

-- Kate in New York (Kate@sheepyvalley.com), April 28, 2002.

There is a real good slaughterhouse nearby. They take culls from most of the breeders around. If something needs to be killed right away they do it, otherwise the animal goes into the pen with others. Works good. the animals (live ones) are taken good care of.

-- Brenda Kenfield (bjk@gmavt.net), April 29, 2002.