Sorry to those who are following this blog. On Thursday blogger informed me that it was in read-only format so I was unable to set up a post and yesterday I was taking part in the 30 hour famine at my school. This went all of last night and I found myself far away from any computers.Now its finally the weekend again! I hope everyone has big smiles and is hoping that this wind will die down just a tad so we can really feel those 20 degree temperatures.
What do I have planned for this B-E-A-utiful weekend you may ask? This afternoon I will be doing one of the hardest but most worth it jobs on the farm. This is vaccinating. Now I can almost hear all the organic fans cringe at the thought of the word but let me just explain our reasons for vaccinating our sheep. We vaccinate with 8-way, and as the name may imply this is to prevent 8 different diseases that can inflict sheep. One of the most important diseases this is fighting is blackleg. All my cattlemen and women out there should know what I'm talking about and the follow shepherds are probably cringing with them. Not only is this disease fatal but it is highly contagious. The bacteria Clostridium chauvoei is responsible for this farm horror. It usually starts in the hooves of ruminants then quickly moves into the muscle and eventually the bloodstream. Since the sheep are walking around with this on their hooves until they bigin to limp, they pass it onto the soil with in turn relays it back to another sheep. (aka. really big mess). Another disease that 8-way fights off is tetnus. I'm sure you've heard of this one before. Its the same thing that you hear you mother yelling about when you step on a nail... or get even close to one. Just like people, sheep need tetnus boosters too. 8-way also prevents bacillary hemoglobinuria, black disease, lamb dysentery, hemorrhagic enterotoxemia, pulpy kidney and malignant edema. Which I'm sure just seems like a lot of big medical words. I could go on and on about the different disease and if you would like to know more post a comment and i would love to tell you about all of the disease that we fight with on the farm and that 8 way can help protect sheep from.
It is today that we get to give our ewes a booster shot of this drug. Just like people need to get booster shots against disease sheep need it as well. Plus these ewes will begin to lamb in the next few weeks so it is best to vaccinate them now so that the immunity to disease can be passed onto their lambs through the amniotic fluid and the colostrum (Hearty milk full of antibodies that the ewe produces in the first 24 hours after her lambs have been born). It may be a difficult process to walk all the ewes down to the shoots then one-by-one hand vaccinate them, making a full days work but to see healthy lambs and happy ewes is always worth it. I have seen only a couple sheep in my lifetime succumb to an illness that could have been prevented by the use of vaccines and it has changed my whole outlook. I refuse to stand by and see another animal have a painful death when I, their farmer, could have prevented it. Again if you would like mroe information please send me a message or a post and I would love to answer any questions you may have on this touchy subject to the best of my abilities and my experiences.
Does your farm use vaccines? Why or why not? As a town kid do you feel unsafe knowing that farms use these drugs?
