What is flushing in sheep?
Flushing is called a ration method that causes multiple births in ewes. Just apply the flushing ration of sheep so that from now on your sheep of any breed can have twins or multiples.
Steps before flushing
Due to the existence of various diseases of sheep that may be infected with parasitic diseases and enterotoxemia, it is better to give anti-parasitic drugs to animals orally or by injection. Be sure to first examine the animals by the veterinarian before doing the flushing ration, and according to the opinion and prescription of the veterinarian, inject the vaccines for foot and mouth disease, agalaxia, brucellosis, smallpox and anthrax to the animals.
Be sure to feed the sheep with low-value fodder for ten days and vaccinate the sheep with enterotoxemia vaccine as much as possible. Because enterotoxemia is caused by excessive consumption of milk and grains, that’s why this disease is even called sheep overeating disease.
Twin sheep
Reducing the percentage of pregnancy in sheep suffering from enterotoxemia
In fact, enterotoxemia or ketosis is the most common disease caused by nutritional disorders caused by excessive consumption of milk and grains. In a way, sheep suffering from enterotoxemia give birth to weak lambs, because enterotoxemia is known as the overeating disease of sheep, it causes an increase in body fat, and this is a factor in reducing the fertility rate of sheep and giving birth to weak and disabled lambs.
Preparation of sheep for ovulation
In fact, sheep ovulate like us humans, so it is better to provide the necessary conditions with proper nutrition. It has been proven that fat ewes do not ovulate, so give ewes low quality forage for the first ten days of the sheep flushing period. In the first ten days of flushing, avoid giving estrogenic plants such as red clover, alfalfa and cultured leek, because all these plants reduce the disturbance in the fertility of the ewes.
Stages of multiple birth in sheep
In the first stage of flushing, the sheep should be grazed for 10 days in poor pastures without significant amounts of grass, and if you keep the sheep in nurseries, use low-value fodder to feed them during the 10 days. and vaccinate sheep as much as possible with enterotoxemia livestock vaccine.
In the second stage of flushing, we should feed the sheep with fresh hay and grain materials such as barley or triticale and even a combination of these two materials in a stepwise manner for 15 days. On the 13th day of the 15-day sheep feeding program, the third phase of flushing will begin. In fact, the third stage of flushing begins in the middle of the second stage.
On the 13th day of the second stage, we must place the rams in the vicinity of the ewes for 3 days so that they only see each other but cannot have contact with each other.
After the end of the 15th day, in the second stage, i.e. on the 16th day, stop feeding the cattle hay and leave the rams among the ewes. But at this time, continue feeding the animals with grain materials for another 10 days. After the end of these ten days, you should feed the cattle and sheep.
Hamid Deliriyan
Derived from lamb and goat
This post is written by Rohollah_sahebi