Were those two blokes First Nation Americans? 
Fox amongst lambs - help please a beginner
- Thread starter Essexsussex
- Start date
Tony Morgan
Well-Known Member
No, scalped!
John Gryphon
Well-Known Member
$10 scalp bounty.
Overlay
Well-Known Member
What I have / use the ludicrous torch all red, white green lights etc on and a very decent IR as well when needed for Nv just turn it to IR mode with a hawke scope and a pard 007 to clip on I have shot foxes out to 240 with the 204 using white, green and the red for a shorter The ludicrous is also very good on focus and illumination control, so set up a range with the minimum of illumination and your very good to go
Good luck, find some fox crossing points on the lambing areas and wait it out and learn the routes
Sit and learn the place on different moon changes and wind
I Always say go in at your vantage and leave the same avoiding lighting up the field, see if you can get your mits on a thermal spotter that will be a game changer
And what vss says is spot on get as much info as possible cleaner up scavenger or predator losses, and what you can do reduce or steer mr fox into the hot spot
Good luck, find some fox crossing points on the lambing areas and wait it out and learn the routes
Sit and learn the place on different moon changes and wind
I Always say go in at your vantage and leave the same avoiding lighting up the field, see if you can get your mits on a thermal spotter that will be a game changer
And what vss says is spot on get as much info as possible cleaner up scavenger or predator losses, and what you can do reduce or steer mr fox into the hot spot
MAH
Well-Known Member
Good morning @Essexsussex
Ditto @VSS
I have a few sheep. Hebrideans
Fortunately, I had a good mentor, so learnt quickly.
Even so, I lost a few lamps to TB. (Soil contact with fresh umbilical cord).
TBs incubation period is 2-12 weeks.
Before dieing, they have seizures, which progressively get longer and more frequently.
TB will incapacitate a otherwise fit strong, 3m old lamb.
Easy meal for a fox.
M
hunter243
Well-Known Member
Is there a reason that they had to be scalped rather than just taking the tails?
Are you sure about the TB?
That's pretty unusual in sheep, even in flocks that share grazing with infected cattle.
On the rare occasions that sheep do contract TB it's generally not identified until after slaughter, during the carcass inspection process.
There are other, more likely, things that may have infected your lambs via the umbilical cord and caused symptoms such as you've described.
Interested to know if the diagnosis of TB was officially confirmed, or whether it was just the opinion of your mentor?
Last edited:
John Gryphon
Well-Known Member
Its traditional, I remember as a kid taking scalps in for seven shillings and sixpence and it started way before that.
MAH
Well-Known Member
Were your sheep not vaccinated?
Tetanus is one of the diseases covered by the clostridial vaccines such as Heptavac P.
Vaccinating your ewes, and giving them an annual booster, confers passive immunity to their lambs, which should cover them until such time that the lambs are old enough to be vaccinated themselves.
Clostridial vaccination is a standard routine procedure in all flocks. Your mentor should have advised you of this.
hunter243
Well-Known Member
Thanks John. I was curious
hunter243
Well-Known Member
Great Hanoi Rat Massacre - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
John Gryphon
Well-Known Member
I read that,its a good tail. (lol)Great Hanoi Rat Massacre - Wikipedia
Phew!
As VSS says, annual vaccination for the ewes 4-6 weeks prior to lambing. Just make sure the lambs get a full course at 12-16 weeks and then get incorporated into the adult plan, without having a vaccine gap thus:
Lamb vaccines 12- 16 weeks
Booster 12 months later - for their protection
Booster 4-6 weeks pre lambing - for the lambs protection - this then becomes the annual vaccine for the ewes even if it means a 6 month interval between adult doses.
That's a vaccine at 12 and 16 weeks of age for the lambs, just to clarify.
It's 2 jabs of 2ml each, separated by an interval of 4-6 weeks. (I do mine at 8 and 14 weeks of age, as it fits in with my other husbandry tasks).
And then, as @Buchan says, an annual booster of 2ml thereafter, 4-6 weeks pre lambing. This means that for ewe lambs being retained it'll be slightly less than a year between their initial course and their first booster, but that's OK.
Some people only give one jab to lambs, and then only the ewe lambs being retained get the second jab. Supposedly saving money by not double jabbing lambs that'll be going to slaughter. And then they wonder why they lose store lambs to pasteurella in the autumn
Similar threads
