[Jacob-list] Heat

[Hettick, Heather]

 I have rarely lost a sheep to heat alone, but definitely in combination with other things.

We lost our guard llama to heat related pneumonia a few years ago.  Later that summer, I lost an Icelandic ram lamb I had just bought to the same.  The vet got me some nasal vaccine for the entire flock as it was going around locally that year and we only lost one more sheep, a Jacob ewe lamb to the heat/pneumonia that year.  She actually lasted longer than the other two and we treated her with antibiotics and pain meds for probably two weeks, but she still died.

After that we bought a barn fan, which helps, and the sheep and our new llama take advantage of it regularly.  I still have to watch my Icelandics when the worm loads get high as the anemia and heat together seems to be pretty deadly.  Last year I lost an older Icelandic I was treating for grass tetany and major weight loss from feeding large twins during a hot spell and I probably still lose one  or two a year to the heat/anemia combination, some years have been worse and I"ve worked on finding better quality minerals and supplementing with selenium/e and supplementing with extra food in the morning when it's cooler so their energy levels are kept up during the heat of the day and keeping the water fresh and cool.

The Jacobs definitely handle heat better than my Icelandics as well as parasites.  I've seen scary FAMACHA scores on Jacobs and Jacob/Icelandic cross lambs and it doesn't seem to affect them fatally the way it sometimes does the purebred Icelandics.  They seem to recover much quicker after worming or just aren't as bothered by the anemia.  I did fecal egg counts on all my adult sheep this spring before and after lambing, about a month apart through March/April and May.  Although the Icelandics had a wide variety of results from scary high to almost 0 even after lambing, the 4 Jacob ewes I still have come out around the middle in fecal eggs per gram as did my Jacob/Tunis cross ewes.

Heather Hettick
Moonstruck Farm
www.moonstruckfarm.wordpress.com
www.moonstruckfarm.etsy.com