Ewe with snotty nose

[Little Bo Boop]

I asked this question on the sheep forum, but no one cared to answer... Maybe someone here knows? I have a Karakul yearling ewe that has a snotty nose and seems to have a bit of a respiratory problem, as she's pretty noisy when she breathes, and she always seems to be blowing a bit. Her temp is normal, eats good, gets around fine, not lethargic or anything...It was suggested that it could be allergy related, but she's been this way for a month now. The other 3 sheep that I got with her are fine. Any idea what it could be? Should I hit her with some antibiotic...or what exactly should I be doing for her?

 

Thanks,

 

Betty

[stockdogranch]

Have you given her any meds at all?

A

[Little Bo Boop]

No meds, as I wasn't sure what to give her.

[stockdogranch]

For respiratory problems, I like a shot of Nuflor (florfenicol). Unlike other antibiotics, you just need to give one shot, usually.

A

[Little Bo Boop]

Thanks. can I get that at the feedstore, or do I need to get it from the vet. Any thoughts on what it might be?

[stockdogranch]

Your large animal vet should have it--it's pricey, but well worth it. Sounds like general respiratory crud to me. If it's any bacterial respiratory infection, Nuflor will fix it.

A

[Mona Howard]

Could your ewe have nasal bots?

[bcnewe2]

I've used nuflor for upper resp. issues. I used to buy it from my old vet in a large syringe. The bottle was way to much for me to spend and then it'd go bad before I used much of it.

 

Could be allgeries since she isn't getting any worse or better. Are her eyes runny or cloudy?

[Little Bo Boop]

Yes, I read about the nasal bots yesterday...how can you tell if they have them?

 

As far as allergies, thats what the lady I got her from thought it was. She said that a lot of her sheep would have runny noses, the vet had come out and said they were all fine...she's not getting any worse, and its obviously not contagious...

 

I guess I'll try hitting her with the nuflor and see if that does the trick.

 

Thanks all!

[bcnewe2]

I don't know how you tell because we've never had an issue but there are lots of wormers out there that should take care of them. Ivermec is one that comes to mind. Although I pretty much gave that stuff up as it doesn't do crap for us.

 

The symptoms that I heard about them are the sheep will keep their head hanging down to the ground the run around quickly cause they are bothering them. Like a bite of some kind would. They jerk up and run a bit then the heads go down again. Plus a sneezing type reaction.

 

Wonder if there's a benadryl type drug you could give to see if it helped, then you'd know if that's what it is. Never herad of one for sheep though.

[Bill Fosher]

If I had sheep with "allergies," I'd treat it with truckouttahere. One dose does the trick every time.

 

All kidding aside, if you bought sheep from a flock where there are lots of snotty noses, my guess would be that you bought ovine progressive pneumonia. It's a chronoic wasting disease that is incurable, untreatable, and universally fatal. It is, in fact, contagious, particularly from the ewe to her lambs via colostrum, but horizontal transmission to other adults is very possible.

 

There's a blood test that you can use to confirm or reject my hypothesis.

[Little Bo Boop]

Thanks Bill, I think Julie had mentioned that possibility as well. The womans flock did not have snotty noses, (when I was there) she said they would occasioanlly have slight runny noses clear discharge, (and she did have the vet out, and he cleared them as fine) my hair sheep get the same thing from time to time. If the ewe had OPP, wouldn't she have other symptoms, be in poor condition etc...I mean she is fine except for the snotty nose. also the other two ewes, plus the bottle lamb are all perfectly fine. Also, the lady I got the sheep from is, from what I understand fairly well regarded in the Karakul breed, she's had sheep (Dorpers as well) for quite some time, wouldn't you think she'd know if she had something like that in her flock?

 

;-) I know, after all that, "get the blood test" Right? ;-)

[Bill Fosher]

;-) I know, after all that, "get the blood test" Right? ;-)

 

Yep. Unless the vet did blood work to clear the flock, you can't assume that they're OPP negative. OPP manifests in many different ways, and symptoms can come and go. Wasting is usually an end-stage symptom. For most producers, the first sign that you'll notice is either a lack of milk at lambing time despite an apparently full udder or very poor weaning weights. Actually, in many flocks ewes are shipped before clinical signs manifest because their lambs fail to thrive. Here are a list of things that make me suspicious of OPP in a flock:

 

1.) There are sheep in it -- this is such a ubiquitous disease that most producers are amazed when they first test at the percentage of the flock that is positive.

2.) A large number of bottle lambs. Anything more than one or two per hundred lambs is a sign that something is wrong.

3.) Snotty noses that come and go.

4.) Ewes with arthritis.

5.) A large percentage of ewes culled before age seven.

6.) Ewes that require grain to recover condition after lambs are weaned.

 

There are reasons other than OPP that could explain any of these flags, but if you start to see three or four of them and a producer who doesn't see them as problems, you could be looking at a pretty high level of OPP infection. In fact, it's the rare flock that doesn't have some OPP in it.