Asthma???

[Betania]

Ok, so I have two ewes who sound like they have asthma. They aren't too bad, but after they run back to the barn for supper, they are kind of wheezy, and every now and then they cough a little bit. Most of the rest of the time they are fine, just with the occasional wheeze or cough. Do sheep get asthma? Or could this be pneumonia or something like that? I guess I just want to know if this is something I should be worried about, or if I should just let it go.

[EmsoffLambs]

I have never heard of sheep getting asthma. They can get pneumonia, but they will be obviously sick if that's the case (off feed, lethargic, dull, fever, etc.). Coughing can be cause by lungworms and/or nasal bots. I would worm them with Ivermetic, which is safe even if they are pregnant. This is the only wormer that will kill both lungworms and nasal bots. Also watch for dust in the pen and/or feed, as this can cause coughing as well.

[tsylvester]

We have had what our vet called "lungers", they were not sick but just had a weaker respiratory system.  Some seem to live normal lives and others seem to be at a greater risk to get pneumonia.  I've not heard of a "cure", normal things like nuflor and RSV vac. given nasally seem to be of no effect.

[Betania]

Ok. I will worm them with the Ivermectin, and hope they'll be fine. Other than that, they both seem fine. Actually, one limps for no reason I can see, and the other has mastitis or something, but I don't think those are related. But they both eat anything I give them, and are still as active and pushy as ever. The feed isn't dusty, and they are on pasture. It doesn't look dusty at all, and it's been raining the last few days, and it hasn't changed anything. Thanks!

[Bigiron59]

The added symptoms you describe ,along with wheezing ,describe OPP perfectly. Google that. No treatment except death or culling. Can blood test to check for the antibody .

[Betania]

Ok. I hadn't heard of that before, but it does fit. Except I was noticing that it usually shows up in ewes over two years. One of these ewes is almost two, but the other is still a lamb. The yearling is the mother of the lamb, though. I had already been thinking about taking the older ewe in to the vet to see what was wrong with her udder, so I guess I will do that, and see if they can so the blood test as well. Thanks for the heads up.

[Honey Tree]

My understanding is that OPP is transferred from mother to lamb via the milk.  So if you want to retain a lamb from an infected ewe, you have to be there when she lambs and take the lamb before it has a chance to nurse.

[EmsoffLambs]

Younger sheep can get "barn cough" which is just a persistent cough with no other symptoms. Antibiotic treatment may bring temporary relief, but it will usually return. They eventually outgrow it.

[Don Drewry]

If it's OPP you have to decide if it's worth doing anything.  A LOT of sheep will test positive for OPP.  Some of these sheep show symptoms by appearing to have constant low grade pneumonia.  They may milk poorly and be on the thin side.  The disease is spread by lambs eating milk from mom AND nose to nose contact.  Sheep kept in a barn during the winter are much more likely to spread the disease from adult to adult.  At the same time, if you test the sheep in your flock, a lot of flocks find the sheep that test positive are their most productive sheep. 

Eradication of OPP is usually a several year process. Complications include that there is a difference in accuracy of labs in reading the test results.  There are two types of tests you can run.  One tends to have some false positives the other has false negatives.  If I remember right, ewes lactating tend to have inaccurate test results. Thus, to eradiate your flock of OPP, you have to test all sheep in your flock multiple times.  Once, your entire flock is negative for two consecutive years you are considered a OPP negative flock.  When sheep test positive in this process you have to decide to either cull the positive sheep or create two separate flocks that have no contact.  As stated above you can keep lambs out of the ewes in the positive flock but you can't ever let them eat from a positive ewe.  In addition, goats carry a version of this disease and if you use goat colostrum in your flock you can infect your flock that way.  You also have to test all new animals coming to your flock at least twice to confirm they are negative before they mix with existing sheep.

In short, having an OPP negative flock is a lot of work, and lot of cost and not very practical if  you show or share rams with other breeders.  BUT, some flocks are economically devastated by this disease if there ewes are symptomatic. 

[Bigiron59]

So the short answer is , as long as the ewes stay in condition and rasie lambs without assistance, you keep them. When the ewes need any specail care that most do not need, get thin , and don't regain condition easily, or fail to rasie thrifty lambs, you cull them.
Here several "good ewes" or "favorite" ewes or " best " ewes are culled every   year. They fail doing what most of the other ewes do. So they leave

[Betania]

Ok. These ewes certainly don't have problems being thin. They need less grain than any of the other ewes to stay very well conditioned. They have grown perfectly fine. I even had people at fair who were very surprised to hear that the yearling had lambed already. They thought she was way too big. The judge told me she was a little bit over conditioned, and I have't fed her any grain since I weaned her lamb in May. Except for a few random handfuls she managed to steal or beg for. :-)
Emsoff, I had thought about barn cough, but it is more wheezing than coughing. They cough a little bit, but not much.

[EmsoffLambs]

If they were mine, I'd worm them with Ivomec and then hit them with a dose of LA200 and then not worry about them anymore whether they get better or not. Some just seem to cough for a little while and it goes away eventually on its own.

[Betania]

Alright. I already did the Ivomec, but I will give them some LA200 too. I was just making sure it was nothing I needed to worry about. Thanks everyone!!

[EmsoffLambs]

As long as they aren't off feed or have a fever, and are active and alert your biggest concern will be prolapse. An occasional cough won't be a problem, but if it's constant, that can cause problems. However, worming and antibiotic treatment is about all you can do anyway, so you are doing what you can.