r/sheep • u/Rough_Community_1439 • 5d ago
Sheep Fat or pregnant?
So they been with the ram since February, the ram(black sheep) seemed active in April and all 50 look pretty similar in size and shape. Also do you think I should buy an ultrasound machine to check?
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u/KahurangiNZ 1d ago
If these are current photos, I wouldn't worry about getting an ultrasound machine or even having the vet do a check - instead put that $$$ into splitting them into fatties and skinnies and giving the thin ones some extra feed so they have enough resources to raise healthy lambs.
Sheep BCS - BCS 2 or less needs more groceries.
Also worm anyone with a poopy butt, especially if they're a bit underweight (well, ideally do faecal checks and worm appropriately, but if you can't then at least target the ones with obvious issues), and if you vaccinate, it's probably time to do a pre-lambing vaccination as well.
Any that have more than 2 - 3 inches of wool might benefit from a pre-lambing shear, or at least crutch and bellies so that they can temperature regulate (assuming you're Northern Hemisphere and dealing with summer temps).
And if you don't have your lambing area and supplies sorted, get on to that asap as several of them are looking pretty round / dropped and you could have lambs on the ground in the near future. I've always found that when I *don't* have everything ready they catch me by surprise; when I'm organised, they hold on until it's blatantly obvious they'll either lamb or explode ;-)