Schmallenberg virus - are you affected?

We have our first set of twin lambs born yesterday, apart from weak fetlocks (which I gather is quite frequent) both lambs are fine.
These two born from our (2nd)prolapsed ewe.
Lamb1.jpg

lamb2.jpg
 
Lambing seems to be moving on a pace, and we have some huge singles, along with the generally proportionally smaller twins.

Two strange things which I've noticed, firstly; now that we're into the mature ewes, it's surprising how many ewes are losing the odd half of a set of twins. Correctly sized lambs, which have been alive at birth, the ewe has cleaned them, and there they are, dead within an hour or so, and secondly, generally the lambs being born, are mostly a bit dopey, and they seem a bit lethargic. By the time that they're a week old, they seem to be fine. We've also had an unusually large proportion of ewes needing assistance, mostly because of badly presented lambs, with legs back.

I'm not sure if the above problems are because of an underlying problem, or are of my making through mismanagement. They're lambing out, and are standing on very little in the way of keep, until the lambs are rung, and then they go on to decent grass. Perhaps I'll give the ewes yet to lamb access to better grass, and see if that helps. (Don't know, just thinking out loud!! :D)

Alec.

Ets. Boogaloo, meant to say, decent lambs, well done. Are they still doing well? a. xx
 
Alec Swan said:
Two strange things which I've noticed, firstly; now that we're into the mature ewes, it's surprising how many ewes are losing the odd half of a set of twins. Correctly sized lambs, which have been alive at birth, the ewe has cleaned them, and there they are, dead within an hour or so, and secondly, generally the lambs being born, are mostly a bit dopey, and they seem a bit lethargic. By the time that they're a week old, they seem to be fine. We've also had an unusually large proportion of ewes needing assistance, mostly because of badly presented lambs, with legs back.
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From what I have read the severity of the virus depends on the foetus' development at that time. If the foetus is well established then the lambs seem to be surviving. If they are bitten whilst the foetus is very small and everything is still being 'created' (for want of a better word!) then the lambs are very deformed. The best article I have read so far has been in the Scottish Farming Leader (NFU's scottish magazine) they have quite graphic pics and a more detailed explaination of what's happening, than then English versions.
FW are just reporting on instances- no real news, or indepth look so far!

(excuse the spelling... i'm hiding this at work!!)
 
Alec - The first one, little Ric was PTS yesterday, spinal abscess formed through an infection via the umbilical cord thing the vet thought. Really very sad, he was a very dear little boy. All the rest are fab, we however have some triplets causing us a problem, we've yet to have a single lamb conveniently to foster one on to. So we'll see how that goes.

Hope everyone else is ok, we now have 11 lambs.
 
I am such a sad sack. I've just read this whole thread and it's been really interesting. And I don't even have sheep! I think I might want some now though :D
 
We've had a terrible start to lambing :(

I bought 20 two tooths last September, 10 of them have lambed and we've lost over 50% so far :( The other 10 are due to lamb later.

OH's 700 commercial ewes are in full swing now and not having the same problems thankfully.

The majority of lambs were born fine, lived for 2/3 days then suddenly went downhill and were dead in 24 hrs. The vets came out, I had a PM done. The lambs had colostrum, scourhalt and an anti b for E coli but no joy and no idea why.

Nearly all the lambs were born very bow legged. The lambs that have lived are doing really well and looking great/straightened up etc but I only have 7 lambs from 10 ewes. The other 10 were put to a different ram so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

Thank God OH's lambing is going better otherwise the financial implications wouldn't bear thinking about - mine are just a small hobby and it doesn't matter that I lose money this year but its very distressing to watch a, what appeared to be perfectly fine lamb, die and not be able to do anything about it.

It has been suggested that this is a mild case of Schmallenberg but actually I doubt that having read up about it.

Anyone ever experienced anything similar?

Off to read the rest of the thread!

ETS: Just read a few most replies and wanted to add that all the ewes come in for lambing about 4 weeks prior. Its an organic farm so they are fed organic hay/silage and nuts.
 
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Ravenwood said:
We've had a terrible start to lambing :(

I bought 20 two tooths last September, 10 of them have lambed and we've lost over 50% so far :( The other 10 are due to lamb later........

The majority of lambs were born fine, lived for 2/3 days then suddenly went downhill and were dead in 24 hrs. The vets came out, I had a PM done. The lambs had colostrum, scourhalt and an anti b for E coli but no joy and no idea why.

Nearly all the lambs were born very bow legged. The lambs that have lived are doing really well and looking great/straightened up etc but I only have 7 lambs from 10 ewes.
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RW, Dear God how awful for you. I can't for the life of me, think what could be so catastrophically wrong for you.

1. Shearlings, naturally virile and useful mothers.

2. Adequate colostrum, and Anti-Bs, AND Scourhalt.

3. A competent vet.

All our lambs which have gone past the 24hr period, are fine. The legs with rickets would raise an eyebrow, perhaps, but then when ewes suffer a deficiency, they generally put their all into the lambs, and take the hit themselves.

I'm so sorry to hear of your disappointments, but would be really interested to hear if you manage to get to the bottom of it.

As a matter of interest, what's your OH's opinion?

Alec.
 
Ravenwood ~ so sorry to hear that, I have no suggestions as to what it may be. :(

We have started now and so far have 2 good sized singles, 1 set of twins and 1 set of triplets. Our lambs seem to be very wick this year and are up and going in no time. All have got on and lambed themselves.

Everyone around here seems to be starting lambing earlier than expected this year, some as much as a week early! Has anyone else found this?
 
Alec - OH puts it down to the ram (there is rather a long story attached to this but it would bore you to tears - LOL!). Personally I don't agree but then again I have no idea what it is either and nor do the vets.

One of the other ten lambed last night (this was one put to a different ram - Suffolk) and - it was born quite lethargic, didn't want to suckle, didn't want to take colostrum from the bottle either but by this morning was up and suckling - fingers crossed for this little single!

Snowdrop - OH had quite a few early this year too but actually we are now in the planned week and they are popping them out like shelling peas ;)
 
Two thirds of the way through on the farm where I livery - and spend most of my time...:rolleyes: :D

Lambing in... A high number of yearlings that need to be pulled but arguably - lambing in might have a relevance with restricted movement/fitness... Lamb losses have been really low this year with only one ewe/lamb combination, one stillborn lamb while the twin was fine and one with an unfused spine... A friend of mine has had a higher incidence of orphans than normal, with another having a few quads after not seeing any for a few years... So it does seem a bit all over the place this year... I do love lambing which is probably a good thing as they're all crossing their legs for ages then six or seven are starting at the same time... Calving due to start this week with two early arrivals that are fine...

We're South Wales and everyone I know has been crossing fingers but there doesn't seem to be anything indicative of the virus with anyone I know in this area... Yet... A lady on my craft forum who I believe is in the south of England has had higher than expected kid losses... :( It is a pretty worrying time...
 
We're now onto 14 left to lamb.

We've had one loss, little ram lam who had a spinal abscess.

Other than that we've been fine, however, out of the 14 ewes lambed, 12 have had triplets or twins! With only two singles (one of them being the biggest lamb ever I think!)

RW so sorry to hear that, I found it deeply upsetting to lose one let alone the amount you've dealt with. Ours too are a hobby, but that doesn't do much to lessen the heartache. I can't imagine the fear in commercial farmers hearts, it's shocking.

JT - I love my sheep now, although I did try to toe-poke one a few days ago because she attacked the dog...I missed. OH hasn't stopped laughing... :D :(
 
Our first ewe to lamb had triplets and one died but looked alright so think it was a 'normal' death rather than from the virus. We've had three sets of twins all ok but the first (and so far only) Jacob to lamb we had to take to the vets as lamb was completely stuck. The vet struggled too but eventually removed a dead, very large, single lamb. Not horribly wrong but not quite right either - misshapen jaw, hooves and front legs odd - so sent it off for testing.

We weren't due to start lambing til this week so slightly early.
 
jodie3,

how are things now, three days later? We were doing reasonably well, then with two days and a night of constant rain, 1.25" we've had some loses.

5 ewes with newborn lambs were brought in, and they do seem rather strange. My vet says that for SBv I've described them perfectly, in their behaviour, but that all those which he's seen have had physical deformities, none of which mine have had. They are a bit dopey though. I've had lambs die at 3 or 4 days, without any apparent distress. With Watery Mouth, they are quite obviously in great pain, but those that I've lost have just been very limp and listless. Those lambs to which I've given colostrum, seem unable or unwilling to suck the teat, so I've tubed them. It just seems that they can't be bothered.

I feel that the virus under discussion can manifest itself in ways other than physical deformities.

I've had two ewes prolapse, put spoons in, they've started lambing, I've been unable to get to the lambs, shot the ewes and caesared them, got huge and live twins out of them, only to have them live for between 2 minutes and 2 hours.

Those ewes with live and healthy lambs are at about 162%, which for Texels isn't too bad. The losses though are getting me down a bit, and it seems that there's nothing which I can do for those who have no intention of living.

Alec.
 
Alec, i don't envy you! We only had to put a spoon in 1 pre lambing and she lambed through it ok. We've generally been lucky, about 200% for the Texels with most having good lambings, 2 c. secs resulting with 2 sets of live twins, lost 1 ewe through ruptured uterus. Commercials, all 8 of them, were fine but mainly singles. Finished now except for our 5 fatstock ewes who are due end of the month.
 
That's really sad Alec, especially with your two prolapses. It is really bad when something that looks outwardly fine, ends up dying. Our lamb with the abscess was a gorgeous big lamb. I don't know enough to helpfully comment, but just wanted to send some hugs and some easter choccy in the hopes it perks you up a little :)


ETA 6 left to lamb (two potentially not in lamb)
We have around 4 singles, the rest (13or so) all had twins or in one case, triplets.
So from 28 ewes we've had 33 so far! (I hope this is right lol its been a long morning!)
One ewe died
One lamb died
One PTS
 
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Update from me :)

We've had two lambs from the second half of the flock this week. Both lambs born strong and healthy - no bowed legs etc. They've been ringed, tagged and turned out :D

These two are from the other ram that we used (Suffolk) so maybe OH was right - maybe it was the first ram (Texel) that caused the terrible losses from the first lot? And considering OH's commercial lambs haven't had the same fate it could all add up.

Will keep you updated as how the rest go. Its such a relief to have some healthy lambs at last!
 
Well we are a week in to lambing now and all is going well so far. Horrible blizzards and storm on Tuesday night so all the flock were brought down into our fold yard. We ended up with 2ft drifts in our top fields so we were glad we did. A pair of twins born just as it started got a bit starved in the cold but warmed up once we had them in the barn. We have had no power at all for 4 days so thank god we haven't needed the heat lamp for any of them, the lines were brought down in the storm. So far we are at 160%, which for a hill flock is pretty good going. Fingers crossed things continue in the same way.
 
Are we affected by the virus? It seems that we are.

I've had a lengthy talk with my vet, and whilst the original thinking was that deformity and a listless approach to life, went hand in hand, it seems that the thinking may now be changing, in that SB_v may affect different lambs, but in different ways. The guy who clips my sheep is a highly skilled and competent man. We have both had apparently healthy lambs die at 4 or 5 days of age, lambs which should have been fine.

Another strange point, I've had a talk with another chum of mine, and we both use teasers, the idea being that it tightens up the lambing group. Generally it works, but this year it hasn't, and we both seem to be in the same boat. After six weeks in, we both have a way to go before the end. Mind you, that could be poor management!! :o:D

This is the strangest lambing that I've ever known, that's for certain.

Alec.
 
Alec, sorry to hear about your difficult time this year. :(

Just wondered how everyone was doing? We have four left to lamb now so we can sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have had a very slow lambing time and the weather has really made it hard work, but as we stand at the moment we have 51 lambs born and 51 still living! We've had two sets of triplets, only the 5th and 6th sets we have had in 15 years of lambing. One ewe will cope with hers with them getting a bit of a top up from a bottle. The other I think will end up with twins and I'll have a pet lamb!

It would be amazing if we get to the end of lambing with no losses, fingers (very tightly) crossed.
 
Hope everyone is doing well.

we only have one suspect lamb, well he's not truly suspect he's just a bit thick. He doesn't quite move fluidly, however OH tells me there is usually one special lamb in his flock every year. We may end up keeping him as a teaser mind, because he'll bring our pen down apparently, moving round like a drongo!
Still - he can outrun me!!
This morning he was out with his mum and twin, in an isolation paddock. My heart SANK to see him lying far away from her as she grazed. He didn't move as I pulled his mum in, baaing all the way.
He didn't move as I approached him.
"Percy?" I said, hoping he'd move.
Well if I did. He SHOT up and legged it! Even running like golem/yoda's lovechild, he was miles faster than me.

I spent 30mins chasing him round, no mean feat when 5 months pregnant.

only then it occurred to get mum back out to lead him in. Which she did.

Ignored the urge to beat him up :D learning the ways of sheep is hard!
 
Thinking of Schmallenberg virus, and now that your lambs will be growing, I was wondering if any of you have noticed deformities, which you may have missed at the time of birth.

I have several lambs which were born with huge feet, pasterns and joints, and they seem to be now deformed. Lambs will sometimes have a small thorn enter between the cleaves of the feet, and work its way up to a knee, or a hock, but these lambs seem to be affected in both left and right knee joints, or both hocks. I'll have a word with my vet, but I was wondering if others were noticing any changes during growth.

Alec.
 
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