I’ll be the first to admit…Keeping pet sheep isn’t easy. There are much less sensitive and robust animals to keep. The cliche that sheep know 101 ways to die certainly has some truth behind it. The thing I’ve learnt (the hard way) is being observant, time your time when checking your sheep every day, and knowing your sheep is your strongest weapon to combat illness. Anyone with pet sheep will tell you, even with what you’d think of small problems can cause a rapid decline in a sheep health. Equally, caught early enough and with a little luck on your side, you got a good chance of fixing the problem before it becomes life threatening.
In yesterday’s case, I noticed that Queen B’s ear was at a weird angle. It was like it was drooping, and even her face seemed slightly to one side. She didn’t have any other obvious thing wrong, still eating and walking normally, and I was puzzled. A quick call to my wonderful vets (Pendragon Vets, Kirkby Stephen) and we strongly suspected she had the early signs of listeria. If you google Listeria, it’s a disease of nightmares and the prognosis is, in most cases, a horrible death. To my relief, I caught this early with a "double" dose of penicillin, and within 3 hours Queen B responded quickly to the antibiotics. Did I want to disrupt her gut bacteria with antibiotics whilst pregnant- no, but this is a life-saving dose, so we’ll deal with redressing her rumen biome balance at the weekend. I checked her constantly, ensured she was still eating not seperated from the other girls.
The classic early signs of Listeria can be; compulsive circling, despressoin, going off their food, head tiliting, staggering, and convulsing. Without quick treatment the prognosis is not good and the chance of it being fatal is high.
How is Listeria caused? This is the million-pound question in lots of ways. We'll never know, but google will tell you: a sudden change in weather, change in feeding regime, confinement, overcrowding, poor sanitation, stress, advanced pregnancy, feeding silage, access to contaminated hay or vegetation, and feeding sheep on the ground - mud is a key factor too.
Queen B is with 4 other BFF's, she knows and relaxes in the barn, she's not over crowded with lots of room and a clean barn. So, what can i do now? Act on the side of caution. No one else has symptoms. Continue to ensure clean bedding, check the hay, clean hay troughs and keep her stress to a minimum. Also, i’m now not going into the pen with boots muddy from the field - instead, now a pair of wellies just for the barn.
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