Ewe lamb pulling LGD fur?

Hello! I have a Katahdin lamb ewe that I’ve noticed recently is interested in pulling/eating my LGDs fur. She’ll also eat it if she finds a fluff of it on the ground. Im wondering if she is looking for a specific mineral? I’m located in maine and she is on pasture, she was a bottle baby. Someone in the flock is also spitting cud which I suspect is her as well but I haven’t witnessed it yet. Thanks for any input!

Usually something missing in the free choice minerals.  Every soil is different,  so chat with the place you buy the salt lick and minerals to find out what's missing in the local soil and see what you can try.   Note, put the new minerals in a different bin to the old minerals so they can free choice without overdosing.

It can also be a reaction to stress, change, extreme weather, or a predator in area.  Remove the stressor and it usually goes away.

Another thing to check is the dogs diet and parasites.  It might be the fir is coming out too easily? I don't know much about dogs, perhaps someone else can chime in?

r ranson wrote:Usually something missing in the free choice minerals.  Every soil is different,  so chat with the place you buy the salt lick and minerals to find out what's missing in the local soil and see what you can try.   Note, put the new minerals in a different bin to the old minerals so they can free choice without overdosing.

It can also be a reaction to stress, change, extreme weather, or a predator in area.  Remove the stressor and it usually goes away.

Another thing to check is the dogs diet and parasites.  It might be the fir is coming out too easily? I don't know much about dogs, perhaps someone else can chime in?

Thank you! any recommendations on free choice mineral suppliers? Mineral buffet versus an all in one block?

The dogs are naturally shedding their winter undercoat right now due to summer heat so that isn’t a concern for me. They have weekly brushing from me too but they have so much fur lol  I’ve also had goats in the past “groom” the winter undercoat from my dogs as the season changed but they weren’t actually interested in eating the fur which is why this seems a bit different.

I’ll look more into supplements!

Your local feed store will know the best minerals for your area and symptoms.  

If they aren't getting enough from the block, try loose mix.

Or you can go with Pat Colbey's Natural Sheep Care book and put out individual minerals (not mixed) for sheep to choose which ones they need.

r ranson wrote:Your local feed store will know the best minerals for your area and symptoms.  

If they aren't getting enough from the block, try loose mix.

Or you can go with Pat Colbey's Natural Sheep Care book and put out individual minerals (not mixed) for sheep to choose which ones they need.

I’m definitely more interested in the individual mineral route and have seen ads for “mineral buffets” but I haven’t actually seen them in practice. I will look up the book! Thanks

B Olsen wrote:Hello! I have a Katahdin lamb ewe that I’ve noticed recently is interested in pulling/eating my LGDs fur. She’ll also eat it if she finds a fluff of it on the ground. Im wondering if she is looking for a specific mineral? I’m located in maine and she is on pasture, she was a bottle baby. Someone in the flock is also spitting cud which I suspect is her as well but I haven’t witnessed it yet. Thanks for any input!

To anyone interested we did lose her last night. I'm still not sure what the cause was-- there are so many different things that can lead to scour. We ended up quarantining her, giving her fresh hay, water, mineral block and salt block. What was weird to me is that she never lost her appetite and she kept drinking water. Before bed I tried a small amount of a baking soda drench because she was green around the mouth and I figured maybe it was an imbalance in her rumen. Honestly, what was on her face could also have been from her back end but I couldn't tell for sure. She went downhill very fast.

She definitely was the on the lower end of status in the flock so I'm just wondering if for a while she wasn't able to access the best resources in the pasture? Since she was a bottle baby, she was very friendly with us and vocal whenever we were around and that never changed. Maybe she did get more vocal at the end but I just didn't see it. She was also a bottle baby because her mom had rejected her, she never got colostrum and we raised her on a mix of formula and goats milk from one of our does. Perhaps the mom had rejected her because she knew she was weak?

Such a hard reality. Just sad and frustrated. We will be rotating our flock on to new pasture and doing a drench for parasites just to be sure-- any recommendations for a mixed flock of goats and sheep on the best product? Thanks.

B Olsen wrote:any recommendations for a mixed flock of goats and sheep on the best product? Thanks.

It's best to avoid anti-parasitics unless specifically indicated for specific animals, as the parasites are starting to develop resistance to the drugs currently in use. At the very least, I'd take a combined fecal sample for your flock and send it to the vet for a fecal analysis, which would tell you if there's parasites, which ones, and therefore what to treat with. Better would be to examine the animals individually and send in samples for those you suspect of having heavy parasite load, and then make treatment decisions for individual animals based on the results of those tests.