Video 21 Joint ill and navel infections in lambs
Young lambs are born without immunity and must get their antibodies in their mother’s first milk. This colostrum becomes the foundation of good animal health in any flock.
With flocks, we must maximize output per ewe
Looking at scanning, lambing and weaning percentages are important. It allows us to look at where potential losses might be occurring. Nearly 50% of losses still occur between scanning and lambing time.
Two diseases that impact this can be navel infections and also joint ill in lambs. While I have covered watery mouth previously watch here https://youtu.be/210CilOyJbY
We also want to minimize hypothermia and other diseases.
Let’s talk navels
The young lamb can get infections in its most vulnerable period which is the first days of life. We are always trying to maximize immunity and minimize down infection pressure.
With lambs, they can pick up bacteria or infections by three main routes. Nasally, orally and through the navel. There is also smaller risk through tagging, castration or tail docking.
We must minimize down the risk by looking at hygiene at this time.
Watch the video above for more details.
The navel is a tube connected into the abdomen and liver of the young lamb. This means navel hygiene becomes an important route for potential infection.
This is why we recommend navel dressing (disinfection) in the early hours of life. Dip or spray the navel with a suitable solution as soon as possible after birth.
Something like 0.5% chlorhexidine works well here, or iodine solution.
We want to remember the navel is a tube so a good soaking in solution is important.
One thing if you are seeing navel infections is that the first place to start, is work on colostrum in the flock.
Think
- Quality through good ewe nutrition
- Quickly get that lamb up and suckling. Pay attention to weak lambs and triplets
- Quantity (lambs need 50 ml/kg of colostrum as soon as possible)
We also must work on the hygiene of the environment. Plenty fresh straw in lambing pens, good drainage and regularly clean and disinfect the pens.
We can treat navel infections using antibiotics. We need to always investigate these cases and prevention is the name of the game.
Nettex 10% Iodine navel spray
Another disease we see causing issues is joint ill
So let’s talk joint ill
We can see this disease on farms in small numbers but also in bigger numbers in some flocks. This is where bacterial infections cause joint swelling and damage to the sensitive tissue of the joints.
We can get between 20-50 % of lambs infected in some bad flock outbreaks.
The most common cause of these infections is Strep agalactiae.
We need to detect these cases early and treat them quickly with antibiotics (+ steroids/Anti-inflammatories). Talk to your vet around the best use of these medicines in treatment plans.
We can also carry out joint samples (joint taps for culture) or post mortems to work out what the bacteria might be. We can have ewes that can carry the bacteria and spread it in their fetal fluids.
This means transfer and spread can be difficult to stop. Extra attention must be paid to hygiene when lambing and always wear gloves. Sterilize all lambing equipment between lambings and things like stomach tubes between lambs.
Another challenge it survives well on straw and we can still get issues with good colostrum management.
Targeted antibiotic treatments do play a role but we must minimize these and like in the video reduce the risk of spread.
With all these diseases go back to the ewe diet and hygiene
Lambs focus on navels and colostrum.
Routine around cleaning is very important. Bedding and ewes need to be clean and dry. Wet weather and moisture can be real challenges around this disease.
Thought for the day
Don’t forget to take a break and take a breath!
Huge thanks to Nettex in helping support me in making this series for more information click the link here http://www.net-tex.co.uk
Happy safe farming