[Jacob-list] keds and ticks

[Mary Ellen Hansson]

Hi,
 
A year ago, the shearer found keds on several of my sheep for the first
time.  Those things look gross to me---just subjective and personal
opinion here.  I contacted all people I had dealt with to or from with
sheep the previous year letting them know of my mis-fortune but also as
a reason for them to double check their flocks.  I heard from all but
one ---- who were universal in thanking me for the "heads up" as well as
commiseration for my particular embarrassing incident.  Thankfully, none
of those people seemed to be able to find any keds at their place.  
 
This year, I was all set to be grossed out once again, as I figured
there was no way I could have located all those little bugs and gotten
rid of them..but we found NONE.  I was thrilled.
 
I think of keds just about as kindly as I do of foot rot.  Don't want it
around here.  Been lucky with foot rot so far and want to keep it that
way.
 
As to ticks..  The only ticks I have been able to locate have been on
ears and face of the sheep.  You might say, "with a wooly sheep, you are
likely to miss lots of ticks in the wooly".  This would be an excellent
argument.  Two summers ago we had a horrible time with ticks on the
dogs.  Ticks seemed to come out of nowhere and land in droves daily.  It
was during that time that I found a few ticks on the sheep faces and
ears.  At that point, I had an overwhelming majority of "friendly"
sheep.  It wasn't hard to catch them, and they absolutely loved to be
pawed over, so I went front to back over them searching (in vain) for
ticks.  I don't know if ticks are not happy with lanolin or what..
 
Mary Ellen Hansson
ISeeSpots Farm www.iseespots.com
Jacob Sheep, Fiber, Spinning equipment,
Books, Patterns, Knitting/Crochet/Tatting
 
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