Sheep & Goats

We have designed numerous worm, fluke & ectoparasite control plans for our farms in accordance with “SCOPS” (Sustainable Control Of Parasites in Sheep) principles.  We also provide in-house Faecal Egg Count testing with same-day results to aid responsible decision making and can test your flock for wormer resistance.

As a practice we are committed to helping reduce the national incidence of lameness in sheep.  Recent years have seen considerable progress made in developing effective lameness control strategies and we are keen to pass these skills and information on to our clients.  For practical sessions on identifying foot lesions and implementing the best control and prevention strategies on your flock please contact us as the surgery. 

We can cost-effectively screen your flock for infectious diseases using simple blood tests:

• Barren Ewes can be screened for   Toxoplasma & Enzootic Abortion.
• Thin Cull Ewes can be screened for the presence of wasting diseases like  Johnes, Maedi-Visna & CLA.
• Pedigree flocks may be interested in Scrapie genotype testing and becoming accredited for Maedi-Visna, CAE and Enzootic Abortion.

We can optimise vaccination programs to suit your flock's disease risks.

Unexplained losses will occur from time to time and require prompt investigation to prevent further losses.  Post-mortems can be a very quick and effective way of diagnosing the problem.  We regularly perform sheep & lamb post-mortems at our surgery in Blandford and can process samples in-house or via external laboratories for rapid results and advice.

We hold regular client meetings on sheep topics and run small-group practical sessions on lambing and lameness control.

We offer a range of cost-effective blood profiles to check the nutritional and trace element status of your flock.  These are best performed a couple months before lambing to allow time for any necessary bolusing or supplementation to the winter ration.   It can also be useful to test growing lambs on mid-summer grazing for deficiencies in key trace elements like cobalt. 

If your flock's abortion rate is above 2-3% there may be an infectious cause requiring identification and control.  We provide comprehensive diagnositc facilities including post-mortem sampling of aborted lambs/placentas  and blood sampling of aborted/barren ewes to identify infectious causes of abortion and infertility.  We then use these results to work out the best treatment and prevention strategy for your flock.

Pre-tupping ram fertility checks are an important step in ensuring optimum lambing percentages.  A lot of information can be gained from testicular palpation & measurement, penile examination, along with a thorough examination of teeth, feet and body condition. We can also collect semen samples for quailty assessment under a microscope.  Please contact the surgery for more information.