3 month lamb with flystrike

lamb has flystrike in ass

how to cure?

No vet for two weeks. gone holiday.

worried.  looks painful maggots around and up ass

I wish I could help.  Fly strike is terrible!

bump.

Is there any sort of organic treatment for flystrike? Would diatomacious earth help? All I'm seeing is chemical treatments... http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/agriculture/livestock/sheep/sheep-health-and-welfare/flystrike

Very kind.
Cannot buy chemical because shop closed until tues or wed

I wash bum and remove many maggot.  I use soap that is mild and essential oil that is not to many drops - euculiptis? (catch fire in spain tree)

I remove many maggot from piss hole.  mostly in there.  Lamb (girl) can pee again.  First pee I see in a day.  That why I look because she don't pee much.

Already giving med for runny poo - suddon onset.  same day as sheering so sheerer clean bump wool.

I think many maggot left and I feel discusted that maggot inside of hole.  

Lamb sad.  head down.  Don't want eating or walking.  But can walk and drink a lot of water.

Is there hope?!!!??!?!?!?!

or is it better to stop suffering?  

heart breaking inside me.  don't want suffering.  But want lamb to live and be healthy.

https://www.sheepcanada.com/tag/volume-26-number-2/

After a fast trip to the vet for advice and supplies, we washed the maggots off with cold water, and treated her with injectible ivermectin, long-acting penicillin, and something for pain. We sprayed the area with scarlet (wound) spray and covered it with an old T-shirt. We sprayed the rest of her with fly spray and kept her inside.

The shearer arrived the next day and we sheared her in a standing position. We then washed and patted dry the affected area, applied more scarlet spray and gave her another injection for pain. We covered her hindquarters with a clean T-shirt to keep the area as clean and dry as possible. She was feeling a little better by now, and starting to eat again. Her milk supply had decreased, however, and we were supplementing her lamb.

We washed and treated her twice a day for the first few days, and continued the pain treatment for the first three days. By the third day Wendy was feeling even better and eating more aggressively.

On the fourth day, at the suggestion of Dr. Tim Slemp, we started applying honey to the damaged area. The honey was much less painful on her raw skin than the scarlet spray had been, and her recovery seemed to really speed up from this point on.

A few days later, new pink skin is emerging.
Treatment of the affected area with raw honey promoted rapid healing.
Six weeks after treatment began, Wendy is almost completely healed.

A few days later, Wendy’s milk was coming back and her lamb began to nurse again, and a couple of days later we were able to stop the bottle feeding altogether.

We continued the washing and other treatments for two weeks. Four weeks after the treatments began, there was soft fleece coming in all over her back and hindquarters.

http://rabbittalk.com/topic7529.html

I would use a large syringe and fill it with betadine and warm water, and squirt it up in there to flush out any more of the little buggers that may have been missed. If you have diatomaceous earth, powder his rump area with it and around his glands- even if the flies lay more eggs, it should dry the eggs up and prevent another hatch. There are fly repellant ointments, but I would be hesitant to use them because he may lick it off- you would have to check the ingredients thoroughly. MaggieJ uses catnip as a fly repellant, so if you have any, get some leaves and roll them in your hands to crush them, and then rub the leaves on his nether regions. It may help and it can't hurt.

I would hang some sticky traps near his cage too.

Good luck! Let us know how he does.

Looking at the pictures of flystrike, it is absolutely horrible!

Maybe shove a bunch of diatomacious earth up her hiney? Maybe that will hold it off until Tuesday?

Maybe tea tree oil along with the eucalyptus? https://www.sciencealert.com/australias-sheep-are-naturally-itching-for-tea-trees-good-oil

“In scientific trials we've demonstrated that lice were eradicated from sheep dipped in diluted tea tree oil, using concentrations of between one and two per cent.

“Our sheep trials confirmed our work in the laboratory, which suggested that a one per cent tea tree oil formulation could kill both lice and their eggs.”

Tea tree oil also killed blowfly maggots and eggs and prevented flies laying new eggs on treated wool for up to six weeks.

The antiseptic effects and wound-healing properties of tea tree oil may also help flystrike resolution.

Thank you.

I try ivermec next.  It says it will work fast.

Don't like using this but maybe we are at kill or cure stage.  

after that will hunt for my tea tree bottle.

I've been looking for organic treatments for this.  Lots of organic prevention like balanced minerals.  Mine have more risk of getting sick if they don't have the extra SE lick.  The black ones are especially susceptible as they often need extra copper.  

It's good to read that raw honey can help. Some raw honeys are more medicinal than others, there's an alpine leatherwood we can get here, and tea tree honey as well. Manuka honey is well known, and more widely available, but I'm not sure how easy it is to find it raw, this is very medicinal also. I wonder if there are local honeys in other parts of the world that have similar extra-medicinal properties.

I've used just normal raw honey from the kitchen to heal wounds on goats and people and it works very well.

lamb very bad this morning.  Maggots doubled overnight.  Cannot stand.  Can only move eyes and lips to show pain.  No self left inside the lamb, only pain.  So we stoped the pain the only way we know how.  We cry a lot.  


I want to learn following

Most important: better way to treat fly problem.

Also high important: find way for prevention.

First time in 10 years of sheep to have this happen.  I want it become last time ever!  But be ready in case it happen again.

thrid thing to learn - time to check rest of sheep for problem.  was contagious?
was it long tail?  this lamb escape docking.  Maybe long tail plus runny poo?

Hugs.

It is an incredibly difficult thing to end a life - even in this situation.  Maybe especially in this situation.

It breaks the heart.  There isn't really anyone outside my household I can express how damaged I feel inside after having to do this.  To be alone, with no vet or anyone to turn to for help.  To do the very best we can and know that it isn't always enough.  People who haven't lived this life don't understand the crushing weight of this responsibility.  But you aren't alone.  It's not something we talk about much out of fear of judgement from people who have never had to make this decision.  I feel the world would be a more understanding place if we could bring this into the light and talk about the realities of birth and death.  

Crying is good.  Crying is normal.  

Glad you're learning for next time.

I'm also keen to learn more about what you asked.

Oh Ray, I am so very sorry. Things like this are part of the reason I'm waiting to get sheep, because the heartbreak is so hard, and my life is still so stressful with two small children and I don't think I could handle it. It takes a strong, caring person to raise and love sheep, and you are that person.

You've done all you could, and you've learned a lot. I'm wondering if you could have the medication on hand in case there's ever another sudden flystrike? Do the meds last for years?

And, like Raven said, as heartbreaking as these deaths are, they are part of life. So many, many people today don't have connection to the circle of life, until a loved one dies, and they have no idea or way to cope, because they haven't had to cope with the "smaller" deaths of livestocks and pets and distant relatives. So many people live, not only away from farms, but also from family, so they never go to a great-aunts funeral or mourn a dead chicken or precious lamb. Life has pain, life has death. The important thing, I think, is to make sure that life has value. Make good use of your little lamb, be it in fertilizing a tree, or in a skein of yarn or in meal.

Know you did the best you could, and you have learned from it. What more can you ask of yourself?

Oh, no. I'm so sorry, Ray. I've been watching, but had no information to offer, so stayed quiet. But, I have to offer my sympathies. Putting an animal down is always difficult. I hope you find the answers to your questions. ~gentle hugs~

ray Bunbury wrote:I want to learn following

Most important: better way to treat fly problem.

Also high important: find way for prevention.

First time in 10 years of sheep to have this happen.  I want it become last time ever!  But be ready in case it happen again.

thrid thing to learn - time to check rest of sheep for problem.  was contagious?
was it long tail?  this lamb escape docking.  Maybe long tail plus runny poo?

I am so sorry about what happened to your lamb.

Would you please share what the answers are to your three questions?
How to treat fly strike - what medications and alternative remedies to have on-hand?
How to prevent fly strike?
What was the cause? Long tail? Diarrhea?

Thank you.

Plain old antiseptic not watered down and poured directly onto the maggots gets them out if there pretty quickly.
It's stings but it's keeps the animal alive and does double duty for cleaning the wound.

If they have long will wool the chances of getting flystrike(maggots) is higher in hot or humid weather .
If they have shitty bums(dags) it's also a factor.

We shore all our sheep at Christmas this year and have barely had a problem this year.

from the internet (haven't tested it but found research confirming tea tree oil's effectiveness, and seems plausible):

https://www.facebook.com/wildwoolshepherdess/posts/home-made-natural-recipe-for-flystrike-in-sheep-one-of-the-worst-things-you-enco/2663679806992771/

Neem Oil: roughly  1/3 of the container (naissance 5L refill]. [5/3 L==1.7L=7cups][captain jack's 70% seems the closest approximation available in the USA]
Eucalyptus oil (a few drops)
Tea Tree Oil (a few drops)
Apple cider vinegar (a few glugs)
Washing up liquid (a few squirts to emulsify)

Then there's also the "if it needs an intervention it's nature's away of culling" line of thought.  I found that on the Reverence for Bees podcast thread, and they were talking sheep there.  I just couldn't bring myself to let the dumb drake die though.  We were going to cull him weeks ago and just didn't get to it.  And I don't think we can eat an infected animal.  I hope he pulls through.

Instead of letting nature cull, we remove the affected from the breeding pool.  

They can still serve a purpose on the homestead when they recover.

Hydrogen peroxide works well to remove maggots.