The Adventure Continues

The day after my last posting – Doctoring Daisy – Sarah sent a note to our Facebook page.  Here’s the gist of it:

I hope I’m not overstepping, but I saw today’s blog about Daisy – I was just wondering, have you checked her for lice? I notice she has one bald spot on her side, but doesn’t appear to have wool break other than that. This is sometimes due to lice… which will also cause sheep to rub up against things to itch themselves (that’s usually what causes the bald spot). The lice are really hard to see on white sheep, they are just SO small, so I suggest googling it first to get acquainted with what you’re looking for.

Doh! What to do? Well, first – seek more guidance and advice. The Vermont Sheep and Goat Association (VSGA – which we joined even before moving to the farm last spring) provides members access to an email list serve that is supported by the University of Vermont. I quickly put together this request and sent it to the list serve:

Hello:  We have a 5 year old ewe which is showing missing fleece on her sides down towards her belly.  A friend saw a photo of her on our blog, and sent a note suggesting it could be lice.  We’re brand new to this, so we have no idea.

Any suggestions about how to confirm and, if found, treat are greatly appreciated.  She is one of 7 ewes/lambs and we certainly want to nip this in the bud if we can.

Thanks!

We have accessed the list serve a couple times already. Peg posed a question about how well sheep do in the cold and wind of Vermont winters. Typically, we see responses within a day or two. This time was no exception. We quickly got some great responses, suggestions and treatment advice from Jane, Sheri, Andy, Louise and several others. Some are folks we’ve met, some not.

The general consensus was to use a pour on insecticide with the key ingredient Permethrin. A quick call to White’s Dairy Supply confirmed they had it in stock. I zipped down and purchased a gallon – $22. Since I was there anyway, I also picked up a 50 pound bag of sheep feed. While I was paying, I looked at the guy and said, “I come down here every two weeks or so, I should know your name.” Dave (White, I assume). Also behind the counter are Matt and Debbie.

I first met Dave before we got the flock back in August, when we needed some grain, feed and water buckets in preparation for their arrival. I told him then, “We’re getting sheep in a couple days.” His deadpan response: “Why?” It was very funny (to me, at least).

Peg was ready to treat the flock yesterday afternoon. I wanted to wait until this morning. The compromise – let’s try to find the lice on Daisy, and delay treatment – which we agreed would be on all the sheep. Eleanor has been scratching her sides against walls, panels, feeders for weeks. We just thought “dry skin”. We really need to learn that changes in behavior are signs that we should heed.

We scraped a knife along the bald spot on Daisy’s side and collected whatever fell out on a piece of dark green nylon. Maybe we saw some little critters. Hard to say – they are supposedly smaller than the head of a pin.

This morning, we headed to the barnyard with our usual stuff – grain, water – but also took along the Permethrin, our largest syringe (20 cc – but no needle), and a shovel. I had also put together a chart estimating each sheep’s weight and dosage amount. The dosage is 15 cc per 100 pounds of animal weight. Peg asked about the shovel. I replied the boys’ barn door probably won’t shut all the way because of frozen stuff in front of it (I was right).

Before heading up, I looked at the fine print on the Permethrin container. It’s an oil-based product and VERY toxic – don’t get it on our skin. I pulled out some Nitrile disposable gloves I keep in a kitchen drawer and gave Peg a pair. (I use these gloves when I’m mincing jalapeño peppers. If I don’t my eyes will water A LOT the next time I put in my contact lenses.) Since I had only one pair left, she would be handling the medicine, and I would be handling the animals.

Using the grain, we got all the girls except Daisy in the barn. For the first two we treated – Eleanor and Hilary – I sort of grabbed them around the shoulders and held them tight while Peg separated their fleece along their backbones and dribbled medicine out of the syringe onto their skin in probably 6 or 8 spots down their backs. Martha and Dolly are too big for that approach so we agreed I would get them down on their sides on the barn floor. Peg is talking soothingly all the time and I found if I stroked their faces with my glove that seemed to keep them calm. Next came Jackie. We did Louise last because we had to take off the coat she’s been wearing for the last couple weeks. Peg thought Louise’s fleece might be felting under the coat, so we didn’t put it back on her.

Six girls down, one to go. Since I had been successful getting all the girls in the barn by myself for Daisy’s penicillin shots, I asked Peg to wait on the other side of the barn. That worked. All the girls came in, I closed the door and put my arms around Daisy. Then Peg opened the door to let the rest out. Having two people in/around the barn was too much for Daisy, I guess. I gave her the penicillin shot, and then just leaned on her along the wall while Peg administered the Permethrin. Hmmm. That was pretty easy.

So when we got to the boys side, we used the Daisy method to administer the Permethrin. Starting with Calvin, I pinned the sheep to the wall and Peg did the rest. Next came Danny and Schulyer. Levi – our most timid sheep – was last. He put up more of a struggle against the wall than the other three boys combined.

All in all, we were out in the barn with them for about an hour. Because of the lifecycle of the lice, we will need to re-administer the medicine in two weeks, and then again two weeks later. It’s critically important to solve the lice problem before lambing, which should be in early April.

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Todd