[Jacob-list] Worming

[Kathryn Shirley]

Rotational worming.  That is a subject of much debate.  Some suggest using the same wormer until you see resistance (sheep get wormy despite being wormed).  Some say rotate wormers between different FAMILIES of wormers (not different wormers as the same families tend to kill worms through the same actions).  Some say use one wormer for one or two years and then change, others say change every time you worm.

Some shepherds worm twice a year and do fine, others have to worm every month or they have worm losses.  Depends on the climate,  with warmer climates that do not regularly have hard freezes (where temps are below freezing for three days in a row) having heavier worm loads due to the fact that Mother Nature does not discourage worms.  Some other shepherds opt for no worming at all and who lives, lives.  Others use rotational grazing to minimize worm loads and try to weed out the ones who are not resistant to worms.  Some use only organic worming methods.

I live in hot and humid NC where worm burdens are high year 'round.  I used to worm January, March, May, then every three weeks all the way through August (haemonchus/ barber pole worm is lethal
during the summer months), then worm once per month September through December.

Last year I used rotational grazing. I have four two acre pastures that I'm grazing 30 sheep on.   The girls were rotated to a new pasture every 7-10 days and I  mowed the pasture they just left to cut down on weeds and expose the worm eggs to the sunlight.  I also used a variation of FAMACHA:  once a week I'd peel back eyelids and see how red or pale the eye membrane was.  Pale eyed ewes were wormed.  Others were not.  If anyone developed diarhea or bottle jaw, they were also wormed.  I also ran fecals occasionally to verify that egg counts in the feces were indeed low (or high).  

I noticed several things:  the effects of haemonchus worms were the worst about 5 days after a rain that occurred after an extended dry period.  Theory:  haemonchus eggs lay dormant until conditions were ripe which seemed to be after a rain.  I also noticed that sheep who displayed symptoms of anemia associated with haemonchus tended to run in families.  As I culled those families out, I found myself worming less and less often. 

This year, I was working two jobs and just was not able to keep up with mowing, rotating the girls and fecals.  I have had a heck of a time with having to worm much more often than last year and I've had to feed more grain than I did last year and the weeds are starting to take over the pastures.

Next year I plan to go back to rotate and mow with regular eye checks.  

I have used Prohibit (levamisole) for two years, before that I used Ivermecterin (both drench and horse paste, drench is cheaper and more accurate dosing), Safegard (fenbendazole) and Morantel Tatrate pellets mixed into their rations.  This year I've been using Valbazen and Prohibit.  I will also be using concentrated garlic juice (real concentrated), the exact brand name is escaping me right now but a SARE project showed its efficacy as a wormer.  I plan to rotate the use of the garlic and the Valbazen (using garlic only during early pregnancy).

Kate Shirley
Humbug Farm
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