I concur with Carol. I live in the humid southeast and I only wormed once, many years ago. In fact, all the sheep that were wormed have either been sold or died of old age, so none of the sheep on my place now have ever been wormed. My vet and my State Vet both encouraged me to do this. From that point on, I never wormed again. I did lose a few in the early years but none in several years. Survival of the fittest.
Chris Buchanan -----Original Message----- From: blackbelly-boun...@lists.blackbellysheep.info [mailto:blackbelly-boun...@lists.blackbellysheep.info] On Behalf Of Carol Elkins Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2013 11:31 AM To: blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info; Ellen Brouillette Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] Deworming sheep (was previously Blackbelly Digest, Vol 9, Issue 48) Hi Ellen, Great question, and you will probably receive several different viewpoints. In almost 16 years of raising Barbados Blackbelly, I have never dewormed or vaccinated my sheep. Although I haven't had any sheep losses from worm overload, I was prepared to lose some in order to cull any that were not genetically worm resistant. I am of the school that believes that keeping sheep alive chemically just enables them to breed more lambs that are genetically not resistant to worms. That doesn't help the overall breed. I live in a climate that has cold winters which helps keep the worm load down, but several BB breeders live in humid, warmer areas and have not found it necessary to deworm. Also, by rotating my sheep through smaller paddocks during summer grazing, I help break the worm cycle. I allow them to graze a paddock for one week and I don't put them back in that paddock for a month. If you do decide to deworm, I urge you to only deworm the sheep that show signs of being debilitated by worms. Deworming sheep that don't require it just increases the worm tolerance to dewormers and minimizes the effectiveness of dewormers when you really need them. BTW, when you respond to an email, don't forget to change the subject line. Replace the Digest subject line by copying and pasting the subject line of the email you are replying to. If you are starting a new subject, create a new subject line. That helps the messages archive correctly and enables people to search for them. Carol At 07:57 PM 10/8/2013, you wrote: >One of the resons I got into ABB sheep is that I understood they have >a natural ability to resist parisites and dasieses, In the arcives I >read how some are worming there sheep, Can we get by whithout worming >and vaccinating? Carol Elkins Critterhaven--Registered Barbados Blackbelly Hair Sheep (no shear, no dock, no fuss) Pueblo, Colorado http://www.critterhaven.biz _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
