[Jacob-list] Polioencephalomalacia

[ARTHUR PARTRIDGE]

--Previous Message from Jaci--

>On Monday (day 9) evening he did not want to eat. About 3 hours later I

found him standing stiff with his head bent way back and >staring at the
sky. It was one of the strangest things I'd ever seen. I spoke to my vet
and he diagnosed it over the phone as PEM >(polioencephalomalacia). He gave
me three injections of B1 to be

>given once every 24 hours. Within 4 hours of giving him the first

injection he looked almost normal and by the time he got the second one

>you'd never know there was anything wrong.

===============
You are very fortunate to catch it in time.  Good job!!  I have had this
happen twice in 11 years of raising sheep.  The first time I didn't know
what it was and had the sheep put down.  When I learned the cause I have
always kept a fresh bottle of B-Complex vitamins on hand.  One old wether
was wobbly on his feet, one of the early signs of  PEM.  One injection of
the B-Complex stopped the problem.  Basically, the rumen becomes upset and
the wrong type of bacteria start utilizing the vitamin called thiamine. 
The sheep thus becomes deficient in thiamine.

Another cause of "star-gazing" can be from severe head injury; such as
head-butting.  There is a good possibility that my ewe (first PEM case) had
this problem because she was fighting with an older ewe, when the two
groups of ewes were reunited after the breeding season. 

Good job on the research.  There is some discussion about the food causes
of this problem.  Molasses apparently isn't a cause by itself.  They feed
moll asses to sheep in Australia during droughts and there is no PEM. 
However, there is something about feeding molasses that can lead to PEM,
but it is a rare event and I can't remember what it is.  I feed bagged
pellets that have some molasses and I was told that wasn't going to cause
PEM.  Everyone should have injectable B-Complex vitamins and/or Thiamine
(vitamin B1) in their sheep first aid kits.

Cathy
Moscow, Idaho