flystrike

Flystrike is a summer problem as the flies like warmth and moisture. The blow fly comes along, selects a nice bit of sheep - typically a mucky bum (scour) or a side where the sheep has laid in muck, or a wound or sometimes for no apparant reason at all - and lays eggs in the wool of the sheep. The maggots hatch and work their way down to the skin and start eating. Yes gross. Not only sore and itchy for the sheep, but the maggots release toxins into the bloodstream, and the sheep will die, if left untreated, in days.

when

I was told, and had read, that the problem occurs between June and September. Our first experience of flystrike was in April, so I guess the moral there is, if its warm enough to walk about in t-shirts, it's warm enough for the flies to multiply.

what to look for

One evening, I noticed that one of our ewes had a dark area on her side - not very unusual, as they do lie down on the mud etc, but I noted it. The next day, I noticed that the same sheep was not coming over to see what we were doing in her usual nosey way. It was a hot day but still... later we found that she was staying in the shade of the field shelter rather than eating with the others, we chased her out and saw her twitching oddly and kicking her flank with her back hoof. So - we have dark area, odd behaviour, prefering shade, keeping herself apart from the others, seeming a bit miserable, twitching and scratching. - sounds like fly strike.

So we set up the hurdles, penned her in and took a look. The dark area turned out to be very damp. We kept looking through her wool, until we found it - a seething mass of maggots.

what to do

Apart from going 'urgh!', the next thing to do is clip around the area with your shears, stopping the maggots from going off into clean wool, and then pulling the maggots off. Cutting away the soiled wool deters other flies from attacking the same area. Look for other areas of attack. We found more the next day. Some pour-ons can be used to treat a strike. Get advice! - we asked a neighbour who keeps sheep and she told us it was not that bad as it had not started to stink yet! -If like us, this was before shearing time, arrange shearing to be earlier. We managed to get a shearer to come a couple of days later. On shearing a third area of attack was found, so its a good thing that we got them shorn. If you have a bad case - get the vet in.

prevention

Use a pour on, which deters the flies, and deals with a number of other pests and can be repeated every 6-8 weeks. Still look for trouble - better to treat early then find out too late.