Sheep measles reminder
Every season, we field enquiries from sheep farmers who have had lines of lambs downgraded due to the presence of ‘sheep measles' (Taenia ovis) cysts in the carcasses.
This parasite is spread in the faeces of dogs who have consumed raw sheep meat.
There are comprehensive guidelines available around the treatment of sheep meat to prevent this problem - see the ‘sheep measles' article in the ‘sheep' section of our website.
However, given that it can be difficult to prevent dogs getting any access to ‘meat' that might be about, the most foolproof method is monthly dosing of all farm dogs with praziquantel tablets. Dogs on the Totally Vets dog worming programme ‘A' are thus covered. It takes 48 hours for a dog to become ‘safe' once treated.
It is worth noting that the source of infection is often neighbouring dogs, visiting dogs or roaming dogs. To this end, Totally Vets will be working hard in the coming months to raise awareness of this issue amongst our lifestyle, equine and urban dog-owning clients.
