Anemic Sheep

[kimkathan]

I'm posting this for a friend...

He's had a flock of sheep (around 30 head)all together on his farm. Due to circumstances, he had to split some up and pasture them out. They left the farm in Great condition, and wormed 10 days earlier with Ivomec and Valbazen. Three sheep and their lambs are pastured on field that has never had sheep on it before. 3 weeks ago, 1 ewe had a very quick onset of anemia and was dead the next day. Last week, the other 2 became anemic, but are holding their own. The lambs are fine. The vets are stumped. There is night shade in the field, but they don't appear to have touched it. The only thing that anyone seems to have thought of is that there is a slight increase of copper in the vegitation, but they don't seem to be too stressed to have had a major dump of copper out of their liver. He's pulling them off of that pasture today, and is moving them. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, even if this resolves its self

[Bill Fosher]

A few questions come to mind. I'm presuming they're located near you?

 

1.) What's their mineral status? Cobalt deficiency can produce anemia through a reduction in B-12 that blocks the metabolism of iron and the production of red blood cells (I think. Don't quote me.) Most of New England is cobalt deficient.

 

2.) How long have the been without worming? Certianly the 10 days in between when they were wormed and when they left the farm they could have picked up some new infestation before going to the clean ground. The hot, wet summer is perfect for the explosive reproduction of parasites. (Thrifty lambs and sick ewes certainly points away from parasites, though -- you'd expect it to be the other way around.)

 

3.) Is it possible that they have pasturella pneumonia, and the apparent anemia is due to internal bleeding into the lungs and chest cavity? Again, you'd expect to see this in the lambs as well as the ewes, but maybe the lambs are getting lucky.