He died! It did not present symptoms of selenium deficiency. We are very
high in selenium in this area. The wate wells have been shut in due to
selenium. This was one of the prettiest and largest lambs for his age I
have ever had. I feed pellets for the nursing ewes as we are now in a
drought and have had no wheat pasture for the last 30 days. Now we are in
one of the worst winters, if the weatherman is right about what is coming.
I have lost only one lamb this season and I think it was butted. This lamb
appears to have eaten enough of the pellets to create enterotoxemia or
tetanus. Most of the symptoms are tetanus.
I did not get them vaccinated this year as I now need help to work with my
animals. I cannot walk on my right ankle due to some nerve problems. My
back also will not allow me to stand longer than 30 minutes. It appears all
of these problems are due to the stress of caring for my invalid father who
died in August 2010.
I lost 30 acres of oats (that would have made 4 bales to the acre) this
year to a hailstorm. The 160 acres I rented only produced 65 bales of oat
hay due to a genetic problem with the seed. It was sprayed and fertilized
and after cutting the oats, the Johnson grass gew up and made 350 bales of
good hay, but no one wants to buy Johnson grass hay. Last year I sold 250
bales to a local horse arena/training facility. But after cutting their
pasture and baling their 20 acres and losing $1000 on repair parts due to
junk in the field, they decided to buy hay from a neighbor.
My regular 30 acres of wheat/ryegrass pasture gave out last month since we
have not had any measureable precipitation since August 2010. The oat hay I
baled and they are now eating has a lot of grain as the oat plants headed
out at only 9 inches of height. So, there is not a lot of straw mostly
leaves and grain. It is so tender that the 1 week old lambs are eating it.
It is great they are learning to eat so early, but it also presents problems
with tetanus. This has been one hell of a year. I now see why the
original settler of this farm started teaching school job 2 years after the
run of 89. This is one of the worst farms areas in OKlahoma. The farmland
has been worn out, it is red clay that requires more fertilizer than you can
imagine to produce. It was rented out for 20 years to a farmer who was not
very interested in peserving the land.
The land is one of the highest points in Canadian county, there is nothing
to block the constant wind. It should be a good area for a wind generator,
but the wind energy companies were ran out by the developers. Due to the
development and the need for more schools, etc, the taxes went from $500/yr
to $3500/yr in the last 8 years....
I hope no one thinks I am complaining, just saying how much of a challenge
it is to farm in Central OKlahoma. My paternal Grandfather traveled
through this land as a traveling Wesleyan minister. He said this land
should have never been broken out of the native grass. I would have to
agree, when we applied 1 ton of chicken litter to the acre on the pasture,
we had native Bluestem grass that grew to 6 ft in height. It made excellent
hay.. livestock will thrive on the pasture..
I retired to this land to farm and raise my sheep, but to make a living from
this land, I have to develop it. Which means I have to move somewhere and
start over.
Thanks to you all for your help.
Cecil in OKla
----- Original Message -----
From: "The Wintermutes" <winterm...@earthlink.net>
To: <blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info>
Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2011 2:46 PM
Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] Help TETANUS????
Hi Cecil,
How old is your lamb?
If he is beyond 30 days old he might have eaten too much of the pellets.
I
have never had a problem with oat hay and oats.
I have had a lamb that grew so fast he became deficient in
selenium/vitamin
E. He was the biggest prettiest lamb out of 100+ lambs. He could not
walk
and was bloated from laying down on his side. We gave him a BO-SE
injection
and he was back to normal in 24 hours. We did a repeat shot of BO-SE to
be
safe 30 days later. This lamb turned out to be one incredible sire. I
know
you have had a bad experience with BO-SE before but it does not sound like
you have much to lose to try it this time.
You are already giving anti-biotics, surfactants, and electrolytes. The
only other suggestion I have is to keep the lamb upright. You might want
to
make a sling and hang him next to a wall so his feet are beneath him
proper.
Or just fold his legs (if they will bend) under him and put him up against
a
wall. Just do not let him lie on his side.
I am assuming the lamb is not plugged up. Make sure there is no blockage
requiring an enema.
Hope he makes it Cecil. I know you have skills but not all of them live.
Good luck,
Mark Wintermute
It appears to be tetanus /enterotoxemia.
any opinions would be welcome
Cecil in OKla
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