Pregnancy toxemia is a life-threatening metabolic disease in ewes carrying multiple fetuses that is largely preventable through evidence-based nutritional management in late gestation.
Pregnancy toxemia welfare involves severe metabolic disease causing neurological signs, recumbency, and death in affected ewes and their unborn lambs. The condition is particularly tragic from a welfare perspective because it is almost entirely preventable through good nutrition management but causes significant suffering when it does occur. The prevention strategy is straightforward: body condition management throughout the production year, pregnancy scanning to identify high-risk multi-fetal ewes, and targeted late-gestation feeding that meets the elevated energy demands of multiple fetuses. Welfare failures from pregnancy toxemia represent nutritional management deficiencies that are within farmer control.