We've upped the sheep feed a bit this week as Bressay is looking and feeling a little skinny and body condition scoring the rest of them resulted in us thinking a bit more weight on them all would not be a bad thing. We have had to treat all our 4-legged livestock for fluke this year as a pre Christmas test came back as positive for the sheep and because they all share grazing, Rachel our vet advised treatment for them all. Bressay is showing no other signs of illness so we don't know if any weight loss is related! Fluke can also cause anaemia, diarrhea, swelling of the mouth and a swollen abdomen - Rachel is here on Tuesday so we may well ask her to check Bressay at that time. The sheep are still three months away from lambing but nonetheless we need to maintain their body condition all the time and certainly we don’t want them underweight in those last crucial six weeks.
Fluke is a parasite that lives in the soil/grass and uses a snail as a host for part of its development, hence being prevalent on wet ground. It’s annoying we have fluke, last year we were clear but last year was a lot drier and of course the land was new to the animals and so it may have taken till now for them to be exposed enough for the fluke to be a problem. Unless we get a very dry summer and autumn, we will probably now have to treat the animals every year as now we know we have it and it won’t be going away!!! Such are the joys of living in wet Devon.