Metabolic diseases including pregnancy toxemia and hypocalcemia cause significant acute welfare harm in sheep and are largely preventable through appropriate nutrition.
Metabolic disease in sheep imposes acute, severe welfare harm that can progress rapidly to death without intervention. Pregnancy toxemia causes a characteristic depressed demeanor, grinding of teeth, head pressing, and eventual loss of consciousness — a progressive neurological deterioration that is distressing and painful for affected animals. Hypocalcemia causes sudden muscle weakness and collapse. Both conditions are preventable through appropriate nutritional management during late pregnancy, making them examples of welfare harm that reflects management failure. Early recognition requires shepherd knowledge of normal sheep behavior and the subtle early signs of metabolic disease — regular body condition scoring and nutritional monitoring reduces incidence by identifying at-risk animals before disease develops.