VTS257: Lg Animal Diseases & Nursing

1. Sheep
Ovine

2. Terminology
• Ewe- female of reproductive age
• Ram- intact male of reproductive age
• Lamb
- noun: young sheep of either sex
- Verb: to give birth
• Wether- neutered adult male
• Mutton- meat derived from adult, aged sheep

3. Star Program
• Management system of sheep that uses breeds of
sheep that will breed out of season
• System attempts to create three lambings from
each eye in two years
• Creates 5 miniflock lambing sessions to produce
marketable lambs throughout the year, rather
than spring alone
• Additionally: estrus synchronization sometimes
combined with hormonal stimulation of estrus to
breed out of season

4. Sheep Breeds
• Wool or ewe breeds
1. Merino
- White wool to eyes, horns on rams only
2. Rambouillet
- White wool to eyes, horns on rams only
3. Corriedale
- White wool to eyes, polled
4. Columbia
- White wool to eyes, polled

5. • Meat or ram breeds
1. Suffolk
- Black face with no wool on face, polled
2. Hampshire
- Black face with wool to eyes, polled
3. Shropshire
- Black wool to eyes, polled
4. Dorset
- White wool to eyes, polled, breeds out of season

6. • Multipurpose
1. Southdown
2. Romney
3. Polypay
4. Finnish landrace- white, many babies, more
twins than usual
Tails- routinely docked, it is illegal in some states
not to dock tails of sheep, considered inhumane

7. Sheep Production
• Pasture throughout entire production cycle
• Environmental factors impact profitability
• Drought, fire, freezing, temperatures, snow, and
predators
• Behavior:
- Wide angle vision, can see behind w/o turning
head
- Respect solid fencing, not as easily spooked
- Move toward light and flock

8. Goat-Caprine terminology
• Doe- female of reproductive age
• Buck- intact male of reproductive age
• Kid
- noun- young goats of either sec
- Verb- to give birth
• Wether- neutered male of any age
• Polyestrus fall/winter

9. Goat Breeds
• Saanen- white to cream colored
• Toggenburg- brown with white stripes on face,
light colored legs
• Nubian- black or brown with or without white
marks, floppy ears
• Alpine- white to black with spotting
• Lamanchis- no pinna
• Pigmy, fainting goats

10. Diseases of Goats
• Johne’s disease
- Not characterized by diarrhea like the disease
in cattle
- Seen as chronic wasting disease
- More infective to young but can affect adults

11. • Enterotoxemia
• Cause: Clostridium perfringens type D with
sudden feed changes
• Symptoms: frequently fatal, diarrhea and
severe enterocolitis, very common in Dairy
goats under stress
• tx: fluids, bicarbonate, type C and D antitoxin
and antibiotics and given the vaccination

12. • Foot rot
• Cause: Fusobacterium necrophorum an
Dichelobacter nodosus
• Symptoms: inflammation of interdigital skin
followed by undermining of sole at heels
• tx: inspect all animals, trim all feet, run thru a
foot bath of copper sulfate or zinc sulfate an
separate into affected and unaffected,( Zn is less
irritating)
• Cull non healers ( goats also get this)

13. Pregnancy Toxemia of goats and sheep
• Metabolic disease of carbohydrate metabolism
• Associated with multiple pregnancies
• During late gestation, caloric requirements
exceeds calories consumed
• Dam mobilizes body’s energy reserves ( fats) and
ketones are produced
• Symptoms: lethargic, recumbent, loss of appetite,
fruity breath
• Tx: oral glucose, corticosteroids

14. White Muscle Disease
• Dietary deficiency of Vit E or Se
• Symptoms: stiff legged lambs, weakness, post
mortem pale muscle, white streaks through
heart muscle
• Prevention: supplement ewes with Vit E/Se,
inject lambs at day 1 and 10 VitE/Se

15. Routine Management of Sheep
• Tail docking
• Castration
• Vaccination
• Deworming
• Shearing/crutching out prior to lambing
• Foot trim/foot bath

16. Routine Management of Goats
• Vaccination
• Deworming
• Mastitis monitoring
• Dehorning
• Foot trimming/bath

17. • Tetanus
• Cause: Clostridium tetani invades wounds and
produces potent neurotoxing ( also after tail
docking, castration, and dehorning)
• Symptoms: progressive muscle tetany, stiff erect
ears, rigid extension of limbs, prolapse of third
eyelid, hyper responsive to noise, die of
respiratory failure
• Tx: remove bacteria by clean/debride wound,
high doses of penicillin and tetanus antitoxin,
supportive care

18. • White Muscle Disease
• Cause- occurs in young born to dams on Se
deficient diet
• Symptoms: muscular weakness, stiffness,
sudden death if heart is involved, necropsy
shows pale, white or streaked muscle
• Tx: early cases inject Vit E and Se, prevent by
making sure diet is correct

19. • Caseous lymphadenitis
• Cause: Cornybacterium pseudotuberculosis
• Symptoms: highly contagious, lymph node
abcesses, carcass condemnation, spread to
other animals by pus, can be endemic in herd
• Tx: aggressive culling, surgical removal of
abcess, flushing wound and long term
antibiotics in valuable animals

20. • Pseudopregnancy
- Can occur in doe w/wo exposure to buck
- Accumulation of fluid in uterus, one or more
corpus luteums on ovary
- Tx: injection of prostaglandins F2alpha to lyse
corpus luteum

21. • Mastitis
- Blue bag mastitis ( gangrenous mastitis)
- Cause: Staphylococcus aureus #1, or
Pasteurella Hemolytica
- May progress rapidly and cause death
- Tx: antimicrobial therapy, NSAIDS, fluid
therapy, teat amputation but is usually not
rewarding

22. • Urolithiasis
- Goats that are obstructed tend to vocalize due
to pain
- Usually at the urethral process or the sigmoid
flexure
- Usually occurs in males
- Tx: remove obstruction using cystotomy is the
treatment of choice

23. • Caprine arthritis-encephalitis
• Cause: RNA virus
• Symptoms: polyarthritis, CNS disease, and
pneumonia is possible
• Trans: through milk of infected dams
• Tx: eliminate it from herd through testing of
dams

24. • Pregnancy toxemia – ketosis of goats late in
gestation
• Symptoms: neurologic signs, anorexia, motor
weakness leading to death, usually in does in
their 2nd or 3rd pregnancy ( ketones in urine)
• Tx: propylene glycol ( 100 ml PO, BID) IV dextrose
or glucose every 5-7 hours, insulin, B vitamins
• Prevention is the key to eradication, through
body scoring and correct feeding in gestation

25. • Pinkeye
• Cause: Mycoplasma conjunctivae
• Symptoms: blepharospasm, conjunctivitis,
photophobia, corneal edema
• Tx: self limiting but tetracycline topically is
recommended to reduce spread of disease
and speed healing

26. • Orf/soremouth, contagious ecthyma
• Cause: common viral disease
• Symptoms: crusty, proliferative lesions around
mouth, nose of young and teat/udder of
mother
• Tx: self limiting in 4-6 weeks
• ZOONOTIC- can affect humand so take care
when handling animals

27. Goat Behavior
• Flock in extended family groups with strong
hiercharchy
• Males and females establish dominance by head
butting ( make sure to dehorn)
• Threatened goats sneeze at you
• Orally investigate environment, excellent climbers, gate
openers
• Browse lines
• Seasonally polyestrus, primarily in fall, strong odor to
bucks
• Wide angle vision, move to light, respect solid fence

28. Sheep and Goat diseases
Viral
• Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis ( big knee)
• Prepatent: up to several years
• Asymptomatic carrier state exists, virus is latent in bone
marrow
• Stress precipitates viremia> leads to ability to infect others
• Adult symptoms- mild to severe lameness, joint
enlargement
• Kids- neurologic disease, incoordination, hindlimb
weakness
• Tx: none
• Prevention: serologic testing and culling of infected animals

29. • Bluetongue
• Prepatent period- 2-4 days
• Trans: biting insects, mechanical vectors
• Symptoms: fever, edema of lips, muzzle,
eyelids, tongue swollen and purple,
incoordination/lameness, respiratory distress,
death by suffocation
• Prevention: vaccination and insect control,
killing frost halts outbreaks

30. Sheep and Goat
bacterial diseases
• Clostridial diseases
• Cl. Perfringens Type D- pulpy kidney
• Cl. Perfringens Type C-
enterotoxemia/hemorrhagic enteritis
• Cl. Tetani- tetanus
• Tx; none
• Prevention: vaccination

31. • Caseous lymphadenitis (pseudotuberculosis)
• Agent: Cornebacterium pseudotuberculosis
• Symptoms: abscessation of lymph nodes
• Trans; exudates from lymph nodes is
infectious, asymptomatic carrier state exists
• Dx: symptoms, culture, serology and culling of
infected animals

32. • Campylobacter ( vibrio0
• Agent: Campylobacter fetus
• Trans: oral contact with aborted
fetus, membranes and reproductive tract
fluids
• Symptoms: abortions, stillbirths, birth of weak
and fading lambs
• Prevention: vaccination

33. • Enzootic abortion of ewes ( EAE)
• Agent: Chlamydia psittaci- rickettsia
• Symptoms: abortion, conjunctivitis, arthritis,
epididymitis
• Trans: arthropod vector, all rickettsial diseases
require arthropod vector for transmission
• Tx: none
• Prevention: vaccination