How to treat sheep from ticks: drugs and folk remedies for treatment

The long, thick wool of sheep is not only a protection for the body, but also a habitat for ticks of various kinds. Parasites can multiply on animals in considerable numbers, on adults and lambs, sometimes causing irreparable harm. To cure animals or prevent the appearance of parasites, the breeder needs to know how to treat sheep from ticks, what drugs and folk remedies.

How parasitism occurs

Ticks appear in sheep with the beginning of the warm season. Parasites wait for victims on the grass in the pasture. Animals can also become infected by contact with individuals that already have parasites.This is how lambs and young are infected. Tick saliva contains painkillers that make the bite insensitive and invisible to animals. Several types of mites can live on sheep's wool at once.

Most often, ticks can be found on those animals that live in inappropriate conditions: in dirty, untidy rooms. Individuals get sick whose hair is not cared for, animals are not fed correctly, and diseases that weaken immunity and he alth are not treated.

Tick and lice symptoms

You can determine that sheep are infected with ticks by signs such as severe itching (animals begin to rub against objects, bite themselves in irritated places). Over time, the wool falls off, falls out. Bare areas may form, the skin on them will be reddened, rough, scratched. As a result of scabies, adult animals and lambs gradually lose their appetite, become emaciated, and individual individuals may die.

Ticks reproduce quickly and can cover an animal's body in relatively little time.

Chronic tick damage can also occur in lambs, young sheep also lose weight, do not grow, their wool crumbles. Since ticks are adversely affected by heat, in the summer they hide in the folds of the skin of sheep and rams, and the disease becomes chronic.

Tick Control Methods

After the cause is established, you must immediately begin to destroy ticks. This can be done by processing with synthetic veterinary drugs or folk remedies.

Contact methods

The principle of their action is that the drug is applied to the skin and comes into direct contact with parasites. Means for contact application are used only externally. The choice depends on the season.So, in the summer it is easier to buy animals in solutions of the drug. Before this, you need to cut the hair. Treatment is carried out with preparations based on diazinon. Dissolve the powder in water and bathe the sheep there for 0.5-1 min. Another treatment is done after 2 weeks. When diluting, you must follow the dosage and the rules for preparing the solution.

In winter, they are treated with sprays and powders. Preparations are applied to places where animals cannot reach, on a clean and dry skin surface. 2-3 times treatment is carried out with an interval of 1.5-2 weeks.

Injections

If the usual treatment for ixodid and other ticks does not work, drugs are used that are injected into the animal's body. Apply such means as "Ivermek", "Iverlong" (based on ivermectin).Usually, a single treatment with Ivermek (0.2 ml per 10 kg of sheep weight) is enough to make the ticks disappear. You can treat with such drugs both in summer and in winter.

After using the drugs, you need to withstand the period indicated in the instructions before using sheep's milk and meat.

Folk methods

Safe folk methods are often used by farmers as medicine for adult animals and lambs. If a tick is found, it cannot be torn off the skin, you should drop oil on it, and after a while it will fall off by itself. Animals are also treated with aromatic oils of geranium and lavender. Drops are instilled over the area of the sheep's body, especially behind the ears and in the groin. You can spread with a mixture of vegetable oil and tar, machine oil. They are applied in stripes all over the animal's body.

How to rid sheep of lice

In addition to ticks, sheep can be plagued by lice, which are also difficult to remove.To destroy them, preparations in the form of powders, aerosols and injections have been developed and are being used. It is required to carry out at least 2 treatments, since the drugs act on adults and larvae, while the eggs remain alive. After a while, a new generation of parasites emerge from them.

Lice can appear in sheep at any time of the year, so you need to inspect animals all the time. The harm they bring will not lead to death, but will also reduce the productivity of the sheep. Parasites appear in those individuals that live in insufficiently cleaned rooms, which is why the coat is not in the best condition. Infection occurs with crowded content, grazing animals are less likely to become infected.

Signs of sheep lice - itching, biting, anxiety, which show infected animals. If you look closely at the skin during examination, you will notice that there are combed and reddened places. Lice and nits can be seen on the wool.

Powders

"Deltamethrin" in powder is used for external treatment. Scatter evenly over the area of the sheep's body, slightly rubbing into the skin. The exceptions are mucous membranes. To process the entire body, you need to take 1 g for every 5 kg of weight. The second treatment with the drug is done after 12-14 days.

Aerosols

Means in the form of aerosols are convenient to use if there are few animals on the farm and you can pay attention to each. The drug, for example, "Extrasol M", "Bars", "Acrodex", is applied to the skin where the sheep cannot lick it off. For 5-7 sec. need to process 10 cubic meters. see animal body. In total, you need to carry out 2-3 sprayings with an interval of 10-12 days. Aerosols can also be used to treat rooms where sick individuals, their feeders, care items, and inventory are kept. In addition to the listed drugs, Insectol, Diazinon, Dichlorvos are used.

Folk recipes

You can try to remove lice by treating the skin with ash or pyrethrum, a solution of vinegar or kerosene, fresh wormwood, tar. However, they are, in most cases, ineffective or effective only if there are few lice.

What danger are parasites

Ticks not only draw nutrients from the body of sheep, thereby weakening them, but also carry infectious diseases. Animals infected with ticks and lice give less milk, their coat quality deteriorates sharply. With a strong invasion, anemia may develop, often concomitant diseases, such as infections or helminthiases.

The skin at the sites of bites can become inflamed, thickened and infected, the hair falls out, reddened and combed skin is visible under it.

Parasite can also be dangerous for humans, so everyone who works with sheep needs to be especially careful in this regard.

Prevention measures

In order not to treat sheep for ticks, care must be taken to reduce the likelihood of infestation with parasites. First, you need to carefully examine the surface of the skin and coat from time to time in order to detect the presence of parasites in time. This is especially true in the spring, during the activation of ticks. If they are found on any individual, you must immediately separate it from the rest, transfer it to a separate room. You can return back only after a complete cure.

Secondly, treat not only the infected animal, but also the entire livestock prophylactically. Clear the stall from bedding and manure, burn the wool sheared from sick sheep. Treat the sheepfold with creolin, chlorophos, lysol, repeat after 2 weeks to minimize re-infestation with the next generation of lice.When buying new individuals, inspect their coat, put them in quarantine for a while.

Ticks and lice can infect any domestic sheep. This can happen in pasture or after contact with sick animals. Treatment for parasites - treatment with antiacaricidal veterinary drugs. Not only infected individuals must be processed, but also all the rest on the farm. Untreated animals reduce productivity, may suffer from infectious diseases or even die.

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