Egypt Creek Diary: Vaccinations and ear tags

On Sunday evening we rounded up all the kids that had not been eartagged. Most of these kids are right at a month old, so it was time for their first vaccination shots, a dose of Valbazen for tapeworms and a dusting with Sevin dust for mites, lice and ticks. Rylan, my 10-year-old grandson, and I led, coaxed and pushed the group of mommas and babies the quarter-mile down the gravel road from their pasture to a small paddock near the barn. That way they would be handy when Roland and I got ready to work them Monday morning.

While they were in the small paddock, I was able to catch all of the 75% Kiko kids and put a green ear tag in each one. Once they were sorted out, I knew that everything else was 50% Kiko. The 50% girls got a blue tag in the right ear and 50% boys got a scrapie tag in the left ear.

I then ran all the mothers and kids into a catch pen and sorted the adults into one area and the kids into a holding stall. I then ran all the adults through the Sydell working chute for their monthly FAMACHA check.

While I had the nannies corralled, I gave them all of their annual vaccination boosters at one time (I wasn't sure when I would have an opportunity to round them up again!).

The vaccines I use are manufactured by Colorado Serum and I purchase them from Register's Sheep and Goat Supply.

I vaccinated for:

CD&T — Essentials C + T
Pneumonia — Mannheimia Haemolytica-Pasteurella Multocida Bacterin
CL — Base-Bac

I also treated them with Synergized De-Lice for external parasites. The pneumonia and CL vaccines will make the animals limp and sometimes go off feed for a day, but I have never had any severe reactions.

The kids were vaccinated for CD&T and pneumonia. The pneumonia vaccine hurts bad enough, so I wait until later in the year to start the CL regimen of shots. The kids will get their second CD&T and pneumonia booster in 2-4 weeks.