[Jacob-list] tail - need advice

[Cathy Robinson]

Linda--

I have seen the same thing here, and we usually band on the 2nd or 3rd 
day also.    There is one lamb that will be three weeks old tomorrow and 
he has not dropped his tail yet either.  They are taking close to three 
weeks, but I am not sure why that is.

Last year, it was taking even longer so I ordered new rings since the 
ones I had been using were a couple years old and had been stored in the 
shed with other supplies.  I thought perhaps the temperature extremes 
throughout the year had compromised the composition of the rings. Seems 
like a few of those last year went almost 4 weeks and I was getting 
concerned although they all did eventually drop off.

When the rings were brand new, it seems like they were working better 
than now (more like a two week timeframe then), although for the last 
year this "new" package has been kept in the house.  

I don't have any real answers but see similar scenario here.

Cathy
Perfect Spot Farm

Linda wrote:

>I've been banding tails on my sheep for over ten years and have never had this 
>problem - a tail that didn't fall off.
>
>I band the lambs at one or two days old.  At that age, they never even twitch and 
>the tail falls off within two weeks.
>
>This lamb is now three weeks old and her tail is still firmly attached, but smaller 
>than the tail above the band.  It is definitely still alive below the band (and 
>quite ugly!)
>
>  
>