Remember I was wondering before if my sheep had “spectacles”- one sign of a copper deficiency? Well, check out my darkest ewe lamb, who was born last spring with a very black head, deep chocolate body and black “penciling” on her legs.
As she matured over the summer, she faded quite a bit, to where there was only a suggestion of black on her face. The first picture of her is in October, right when I started feeding the copper supplement. The second two pictures are after three months of eating supplemental copper. I think she is quite a bit darker, with less prominent spectacles.
The Collie Farm Blog 
July 13, 2016 at 3:22 pm
Still really interested in this copper thing, and trying to figure out just how to implement it with my flock. Exactly how were you supplementing to this ewe? 1/4 of my sheep were black this year. As a separate issue, some of my sheep are having very soft poop, and I’m working on dealing with that in various ways. One is to give them a homemade electrolyte liquids, made of water, salt, molasses and apple cider vinegar. My black sheep absolutely love it and will struggle with each other to drink it right out of the bucket. I have to drench the white one I want to consume it. Wondering what this might be an indicator if? Any ideas?
July 14, 2016 at 6:41 am
Julia, I just feed a commercial mineral mix that has copper in it (actually two, that I blend to get the right #s I want). You can also buy copper sulfate on its own, if you want to measure and mix it yourself. Or do it ala Pat Coleby style; offer it free-choice in its own bin. I’m sure there are plenty of ways of purchasing it, I think local feed/fertilizer stores can order it. The “Goat World Guy” is known for carrying all the Pat Coleby ingredients, standalone, or mixed:
http://www.goatworld.com/store/index.shtml
Soft poop- could be irritation from worm load, or just the result of rich feed; either lush green grass, a lot of alfalfa, or grain. Some sheep go there more quickly than others. As a quick experiment, if you lock them in the barn and only feed them very modest grass hay, like 1st cutting, usually you’ll see the poop firm up within a week. Then you know it’s just whatever they were eating.
As far as some liking your drench and others not, my bet is, just personal preference differences between sheep. But, it could be that they are craving something in there more; certainly there are differences between breeds and individuals.
It’s funny that you wrote this today. On Facebook, someone asked Dr. Kennedy of Pipestone Vet about copper for range sheep. He always has the same terse answer: “no copper, not anywhere, any time, never, nada!” But I think his view of the sheep world is narrow, he mostly deals with Midwest feedlot-style operations. Those sheep are probably getting copper in their rations just by virtue of it being naturally occurring in grain; tho none is added to the feed, and thus, the label. The grass feeding that folks do in other regions is just not on his radar screen at all; so he may not have ever seen flocks that can be deficient in copper, due to high Mo or other factors in the soil and forage. He also says grass feeding “doesn’t work.” 🙂 I think what he really should mean to say is, “it doesn’t work like grain feeding” and that is true. But that is kind of the point! 🙂
July 14, 2016 at 1:12 pm
Thanks so much for getting back to me on this. I do have the loose copper sulfate , but have never been able to find the dolomite to balance it out. So I really appreciate the link to the Goat Guy. I’ll check that out for sure. And great suggestion about testing wether it’s just being on rich grass. I’ll get done hay right away, to test that. I’ve been toying with just giving them dewormer and moving them to a die rent coral and shed for a while, but I’m reticent about over using the dewormer, as I already did dewormed the two girls I’m most concerned about. After reading Pat Colby’s book, and hearing about a few people’s experiences, I do think that one size fits all kind of outlook, is questionable. And to not feed on grass….well I wouldn’t have sheep!
July 15, 2016 at 6:19 am
Julia, adult sheep should be able to tolerate worm loads pretty well, especially if they are on a fairly high protein diet. It’s true that many ewes have a parturition rise in parasite load due to their immune challenge at that time; but you could stagger de-worming to help out the most affected animals, and do the less affected later (or not at all). Lambs often need more help during periods of high growth, partly because protein allocation is going towards muscle development, which robs immune system use. Plus, their are still building their immune systems, so it can boost them to clean out their worm load once or twice, letting them get ahead of it. The other way you can combat worms is with a higher protein diet. I listened to a researcher recently who had studies showing that high protein is critical to optimal performance of lambs and ewes under heavy load.
After de-worming, you definitely want them to be on “dirty” pasture where there are plenty of worm larvae of the non-resistant kind to pick back up, and re-infect the gut. If you dry lot or put on clean pasture after treating, the only worms left in the gut will be drug resistant worms, and they will have no competition. They’ll thrive in those animals, and when you put them back out on pasture, they’ll seed your pasture with the kinds of worm eggs you don’t want to encourage… So, you want to always intentionally expose those drug-resistant worms to competition from non-drug-resistant worms. It’s called “refugia”- making sure there is refuge for the “good” worms, so they slow the genetic progress of the “bad” worms. This keeps your de-wormers working longer for you…
Re: dolomite, it should be findable in the fertilizer section of most garden stores, near where lime is shelved (it’s just a variation of lime; lime is mostly calcium carbonate, dolomite is calcium magnesium carbonate). In my area, both Lowes and Home Depot carry it; and I’m sure most garden or feed stores can order it, it is pretty ubiquitous.
July 15, 2016 at 7:38 pm
Thank you Michelle. This information is so helpful. I only have a couple ewes that I’m really concerned about, so I’m taking to heart the advice about not just blanketing them all. And I believe all the lambs look good. And I had always heard the complete reverse about putting them on “clean” pasture, but your advice makes a lot of sense, and changes just where and how I will graze them somewhat. Anyhow, lots of really good information for me to apply. I’m feeling rather relieved.
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July 15, 2016 at 11:21 pm
If you ever have insomnia and want to read in depth all the “new” thinking about parasite management, it’s all here…
http://www.wormx.info/
August 16, 2016 at 8:18 pm
Thanks Michelle. It was a good read, and helpful. I found the lime/calcium-magnesium at home depot yesterday, so I think I’m ready to put out my free choice minerals. Just doing a double check that the copper sulfate is the blue granular stuff, and it just goes out like that, right? It doesn’t burn their tongues or mouths?
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August 17, 2016 at 1:30 am
Julia- so Pat Coleby says, you can feed the copper sulfate direct, either mixed-in, or in its own bin. I’ve read of others doing it. It’s funny, if you buy pure copper sulfate in the plumbing section at the hardware store, it has huge warnings. I think it has a very high/basic pH, and it’s used to burn through roots and stuff in sewer pipes. So it def seems counter-intuitive to ingest it. But I suppose they just nibble on tiny bits, and once it’s in the rumen, it’s diluted in several gallons of fluid and cellulose.
August 17, 2016 at 2:35 am
Ok, thanks for the confirmation. I think I’m going to give it a try. I’ll let you know how it goes.
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