Good information from a man who knows a LOT more about sheep than I do.

Sheep101 Don Drewry · about an hour ago · After raising sheep for 50+ years and giving advise on the for 25+ years. Here is a top 13 list of things to keep in mind, especially if your new to sheep. 1) Have a vet that considers you their client. Sooner or later you will regret not having one and most likely that will not be during business hours. The more "reasons" I read why people can't use a vet the less I believe them. 2) Assume every ram can be dangerous and don't normally work or feed inside of a pen with a ram. 3) We all think our sheep are special but they are really just sheep. This means if you can't get your sheep to stay in an electric fence or get lambs to grow well on a quality milk replacer it really is most likely something you are doing or not doing as sheep really will stay in electric fences and quality milk replacers are better not worse than the alternatives and this is routinely proven on many other farms than yours everyday. 4) If a sheep has access to even a blade of grass you need a worm management plan. 5) Keep on hand at least 2 dewormers from different classes and oxytetracycline and Bo-Se. When you encounter an issue very often one of those will buy you time to get a better treatment. 6) Colostrum Replacement powder really does work as well as frozen Colostrum and is way easier to use. This does not mean Colostrum Supplement is a smart buy. 7) FAMACHA scoring really is a good way to tell if a sheep probably has barberpole worms. The few times this isn't the cause aren't worth the delay in treating. 😎 A rectal temperature can quickly tell you if an infection or pneumonia cause is the problem or not eating or metabolizing enough feed. 9) Total use of antibiotics is usually less if you treat earlier than later. 10) Ewes down in late gestation are usually ketotic or hypocalcemic. Learn how to diagnose and treat. If either happen very often fix your ration. 11) Lamb tubing really is easy and saves many lambs. If you are reluctant to tube a lamb get over it you will keep more alive. 12) I completely disagree with anyone that feels bloat is an inevitable occurrence if you raise sheep. It's not. Pasture bloat occurs you put hungry sheep in a pasture with too many legumes. Grain bloat (acidosis) occurs when sheep eat more grain than they are used to. Your fences or gates will fail some day. You know this. Do not store pails or grain, tubs of grain or bags or feed outside the sheep pen. All belong behind another door or wall or fence. 13) Dewormers, antibiotics, coccidiostats, vitamin, energy drenches are NOT interchangeable. Just because you have one of these on hand doesn't mean it's at all useful for treating something one of the others address.