Some people do not like the small ruminant class but, they are fun to work on. You do not have to have an elaborate set of handling facilities. Most can be handled by hand or with large flocks, a 12” ally way will work just fine.
There are two rules of thumb you have to follow when treating small ruminants:
They are loaded with worms until proven otherwise.
If male, they are plugged until proven otherwise. This means urinary calculi is plugging the urethra and they cannot urinate.
The way we manage the first rule and parasites is to use FAMANCHA. We have had resistance to every de-wormer on the market in small ruminants. The most resistance has been to the avermectin class, this includes Ivermectin, Eprinex and Dectomax. We have also seen resistance to Safeguard and Cydectin. Levamisole has also seen resistance. With all of this resistance, we use FAMANCHA and run flock a fecal at least once or twice per year. FAMANCHA will keep us apprised of the barber pole worm load, but the fecal let us know about the rest of the parasites that our small ruminants can have. I have diagnosed lungs worms and tapeworms in our area.
FAMANCHA is where we look at eyelids very often and judge the color. We should see a bright pink coloration. As this pink fades to white, our worm load gets worse. So, instead of running around with a syringe of de-wormer all of the time, we are running around checking eyes.
Classes of de-wormers that we have are: bendzimidazoles (Safeguard, Valbazen, and Synanthic); Avermectins (Ivomec, Eprinex and Dectomax); Levamisole; and Cydectin which could be put into the Avermectin class. Now, if we are resistant to one of the de-wormers in a class, we are resistant to all of them in that class. Since each de-wormer in that class kills the same way, it is easy for the worm to become resistant to all in that class.
Now, for rule number two, we need to prevent the urinary calculi and this prevents the ram or buck from plugging up. We normally have a high or basic pH in the urine of ruminants. This promotes the growth of bacteria and the development of calculi in the urinary tract. To counteract this we add 10 grams of ammonium chloride to the diet of every male in the flock. This acts like cranberry juice to ruminants and acidifies the urine. When we drop the pH of the urine, bacteria do not want to grow and calculi won’t form. This ammonium chloride can be added to feed and some in the mineral. We just need to make sure that they are eating enough everyday.
Dr. Tim E. O’Neill, DVM, owns Country Veterinary Service in Farmington, Ark.
