How To Achieve a Healthy Small Ruminant Herd

Maintaining a healthy small ruminant herd is achievable by breaking down their care needs into smaller, manageable fundamentals.

Establishing a comprehensive care plan
This starts with routine vaccinations, including the core vaccination for Clostridium types C & D and tetanus (also called CD&T vaccine).

Routine herd health checks 
These help identify early illness or signs of injury. The 5-point check is a useful indicator of health for individuals in the herd or flock: FAMACHA score, body condition score, hair/wool quality, fecal character, and presence/absence of bottle jaw.

Parasite control 
Parasite control is integral to healthy small ruminants. Regular fecal egg counts for individual animals with high FAMACHA scores and/or low body condition scores can help monitor the overall parasite burden in your herd/flock and allow for targeted deworming.

Proper nutrition
Nutrition is essential for growth, reproduction, and overall herd health. A balanced diet with high-quality forage, mineral supplementation, and constant access to fresh, clean water will go a long way. Grain and other concentrates are not usually necessary except in breeding/nursing animals and can even lead to diseases like urinary obstruction in males.

Prevention of disease is critical to herd health
Quarantining new additions to the herd or flock, controlling wildlife/pests, isolating sick animals, and seeking veterinary care as soon as you notice illness will help keep your animals happy and healthy.

Caroline K. Griffin, D.V.M.,M.P.H, Ph,D., DACVS (LA) is in Large Animal Internal Medicine at Hospital for Large Animals and an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.