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| Mnthurston | Posted 07/25/12 06:25PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | I have a ewe that I spent a lot of money on. Every year she comes into heat and gets marked by our ram. She never gets remarked 17 days later. I feed her exactly the same as all the other ewes because they're the same size. And all the other sheep give birth that winter except her. Is there any explanation for this?
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| Mnthurston | Posted 07/25/12 06:33PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | Or if a ewe is sterile would she not come into heat?
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| ksjoat | Posted 07/25/12 06:34PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | Yes they can be a non breeder. There are just some females that don't breed.
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| Mnthurston | Posted 07/25/12 07:24PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | Is there any way to get more information on this? Google hasn't been very helpful.
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| DownWithHair | Posted 07/25/12 10:53PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
|  | To go with this, are there any tests that can be done to determine sterility?
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| suffolkclover | Posted 07/26/12 02:31PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
|  | Had a ewe that was pretty fat as a ewe lamb that never lambed out. If they don't lamb as 2 year olds then it's usually a safe bet. I've heard being to fat at a young age can effect it.
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| hmm | Posted 07/26/12 02:45PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | if she was sterile- then she would not come in heat.
Do a search for 'freemartin' cattle-- this is a very common exchange of dna in different sexed twins. Happens in roughly 92% of all female cattle born twin to a male. They will not have female reproductive parts, but will appear visually to be female.
There really called "Chymera", and I thought that was something made up on the law' order/ NCIS TV shows...
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| DownWithHair | Posted 07/26/12 09:21PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | Freemartins can have the plumbing, it can be partial, unconnected, or deformed. In my case the lamb was far from fat due to an illness right after I got her. She wasn't too Fat as a yearling, show condition...touch over conditioned at end but not bad. She has heat cycles.
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| lowacrefarm | Posted 07/26/12 09:34PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
|  | we had a cow that wouldnt breed because it was too fat...could that be the case?? i've read they also wont breed if they arent fat enough.. just my thoughts.
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| SHADOWRAN | Posted 07/26/12 11:22PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
|  | when we had the dairy and freemartins would be in the freezer, they were great some graded prime.
What I have been told and seen if a ewe was never bred until shes 2 she will not breed, not for sure if this applies.
jim
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| lowacrefarm | Posted 07/27/12 12:55AM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | ive heard that as well jim...we have had one bred as a coming 2 year old but never anything not bred over 2...i dont want to be the one to test it out lol
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| DownWithHair | Posted 07/27/12 08:11AM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | Bummer. She turned 2 this year, but her first breeding was just last year...I guess I'll give her another shot.
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| RyThurston | Posted 07/27/12 09:33AM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
|  | is your last name thurston?!
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| EmsoffLambs | Posted 07/27/12 11:21AM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | So many possibilities, it's hard to even guess. How old is the ewe? Has she ever lambed? How many years has she failed to lamb? The fact that she's never remarking makes me think that she's getting bred but losing the pregnancy somewhere down the line for some reason. If they abort during the first trimester, they will not shed the embryo/fetus but rather will reabsorb it. If this occurs, it will take a month or longer for her to begin cycling again. There are numerous causes of early abortion, including disease, excessively high temperatures, stress, a problem with the developing embryo, toxic plants, and the list goes on. I wouldn't expect this to happen more than one year in a row unless other ewes are experiencing problems too.
Another possibility is that the ewe isn't actually cycling and she's just getting "jump marks" from the ram. Basically lighter marks from him attempting to mount her as she runs off. Pretty common with younger rams and right when you turn the ram in for the season.
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| EmsoffLambs | Posted 07/27/12 11:24AM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | Oh, just thought I'd mention too that freemartins do not occur in sheep. Only cattle as far as I know. If ewes born co-twin to a ram were sterile, about half the ewes in flock would be sterile. LOL! No a ewe could have some some other congenital defect to her reproductive organs, but it certainly wouldn't be cause by having a twin brother.
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| killbuck | Posted 07/27/12 02:13PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
|  | Emsoff- Freemartins can occur in sheep. Rarely do but is possible.
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| EmsoffLambs | Posted 07/27/12 02:16PM Changed 07/27/12 02:17PM |
| | I've heard of hermaphrodites in sheep, but never freemartins. Are they the same thing or different? I thought that freemartins lack fully developed female organs while hermaphrodites have both male and female organs.
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| killbuck | Posted 07/27/12 02:47PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | Google Freemartin sheep. Many articles to peel through.
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| af32198 | Posted 07/28/12 06:04PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | Just as in any any species, some animals are sterile. Nothing can be done in most cases. Just a fluke of nature. If she didn't breed first year give her another chance. didn't breed second year it's market time.
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| Sheepherder007 | Posted 07/28/12 06:35PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
|  | One thing that has caused problems for us in the past is feeding out on a ration containing a coccidiostat past 4 to 5 months of age. Once we developed a ionophore free ration to grow ewe lambs out on, we stopped having the non breeders we were encountering every year.
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| hmm | Posted 07/30/12 08:50AM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | different. Freemartins don't have any reproductive organs on the inside.
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| af32198 | Posted 07/30/12 04:22PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | I give up. hmm is the final authority on any subject for me. Might go see his sheep at the state fair to see if i can learn anything.
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| TXsheepRaiser | Posted 07/30/12 04:35PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | War of the words..
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| califmom | Posted 07/30/12 08:13PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | Merck Vet Manual online a good source for freemartin description.
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| DownWithHair | Posted 07/30/12 10:37PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | I will back my original comment on Freemartins, by my cattle experience and the fact I received the lecture from my vet when we had a heifer checked bc we knew she was a twin. He said even though everything felt complete inside she could still be sterile due to Freemartin-ism.
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| af32198 | Posted 07/30/12 10:42PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | Free-martin in cattle is a 90% probability if the other twin is a male. Sheep are a whole different deal. Rare occurrence. Talking apples and oranges when comparing the two species.
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| DonD1 | Posted 07/31/12 08:06AM Changed 07/31/12 11:37AM |
|  | The free-martin on female half of twins in cattle is definitely not 100%. I remember a Holstein heifer my grandfather was growing out with the beef cows that he picked up cheap because she was "sterile" as she was a twin to a bull. I also remember trying to milk her out after she had calved and deciding that fresh raw milk wasn't worth all that work. Some of the articles on the subject are a pretty good read.
To the original question I would guess that a ewe that doesn't re-mark but doesn't lamb is having a problem mid to late term with carrying the lamb. If she's done it twice I'd say you either have an expensive pet or a ewe to be sent to slaughter. Depending on who you bought her from, a ewe that can't drop a live lamb would fail most guaranteed breeder standards.
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| hmm | Posted 07/31/12 09:30AM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | af-- don't waste your time heading to state fair-- he's not been to state fair since 2008 when they had reserve ram, and neither have their sheep.
showing just doesn't fancy that outfit.
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| af32198 | Posted 07/31/12 11:17AM Changed 07/31/12 09:09PM |
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| southdownmom98 | Posted 07/31/12 06:44PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | If she got too fat too young, it's also a possibility that her liver grew larger than it was supposed to. The liver eats the excess prostaglandins that the female produces during her fertile cycle (when she breeds & the embyo implants). When it "eats" too many of them, then the body re-absorbs the fetus.....most likely during the first 2 months of gestation.
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| TXsheepRaiser | Posted 07/31/12 08:17PM Changed 08/25/12 11:09PM |
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| Mnthurston | Posted 08/25/12 04:37PM Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM |
| | Actually my last name is thurston. Kinda funny. Not a real common name, huh? The sheep is 3 yrs and we tried breeding her twice. Both times she didn't conceive. It's getting close to breeding time so I guess I'll just wait and see.
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