Small Ruminants: Diseases of Growing Lambs Flashcards
What are common clinical presentations of growing lambs?
- Poor growth, diarrohoea
- Sudden death/clostridial disease
- Trace element deficiencies
- Lameness
- Neurological diseases
- Skin diseases
What are the differentials for diarrhoea in lambs?
- Nematodirus battus
- Parasitic gastroenteritis
- Coccidiosis
- Acidosis
- Clostridium perfringens type B (lamb dysentry)
- Clostridium perfingns type D (pulpy kidney)
- E.coli
- Salmonella
What type of pathogen causes cryptosporidiosis?
C. parvum, protozoa, zoonotic
Severe outbreaks at the end of lambing
3-7 days old
What type of pathogen causes cryptosporidiosis?
C. parvum, protozoa, zoonotic
Severe outbreaks at the end of lambing
3-7 days old
How is cryptosporiodisis diagnosed and treated?
Diagnosis- stain faecal smear, PM histology difinitive, E.coli
Treatment- Supportive, oral fluids, 4-6 times daily, drug treatments from calves cascade
How can cryptosporidia be prevented and controlled?
- Reduce challenge- use different fields/housing
- In outbreak move to clean pasture
- Improve hygiene throughout the farm indoor
- Improve resiliance- nutrition
What pathogens cause coccidiosis?
Protozoa, Eimeria crandallis, ovinoidallis
Normally ‘non disease-causing strains in sheep’
What are the risk factors for coccidiosis?
- High stocking
- Inadequate colostrum
- Mixing ages
- Stress
- Concurrent nematodirus
What are the clinical signs of coccidiosis, how is it diagnosed and treated?
CS: 4-8 week old lambs, diarrhoea, blood, fever, weight loss, death
Diagnosis- faecal sample, coccidial count
Treatment- supportive, oral fluids
Drugs- vecoxan, baycox to lambs
How can coccidiosis in lambs be prevented and controlled?
- Reduce risk factors
- Hygiene- pens and feed troughs
- Stocking rates
- Colostrum
- Nutrition
- Batch rearing
What causes acidosis?
- Consumption of rapidly fermentable carrbohydrates
- Managment of concentrates in growing lambs
- Stubble grain crops (wheat and barley)
- Fall in rumen pH
- Lactic acid production
- Rumenitis
- Metabolic acidosis
- Lead liver abscessation
What are the clinical signs of acidosis?
CS- sudden death, dull, depressed, reluctant to move, teeth grinding
How is acidosis in lambs diagnosed and treated?
Diagnosis- history and clinical signs, rumenocentesis ph <5.5
Rumen liqor with no live organisms, PM
Treatment- IV fluids, 7-10% dehydrated (isotonic saline plus bicarb)
Oral fluids by stomach tube
Multivitamins, penicillin for 10 days, Hay
Review feeding
Bloat in sheep is uncommon what is the most likely cause in sheep?
Where does the sheep show distension?
What are the differentials?
How is it treated?
Grain, oesophageal obstruction, legumes
Left sided distension
DDXs- hypocalcaemia, abdominal catastrophes
Treatment- stomach tube, dimeticone (orally), rumen trochar
What are the clinical signs of lamb nephrosis syndrome?
What is the cause?
- 2-12 weeks of age
- Older lambs >4wo, lose condition and have diarrhoea
- Cause- unknown, often concurrent cryptosporidosis