Sheep Metabolic Disease and Prevention

Metabolic diseases including pregnancy toxaemia, hypocalcaemia, and hypomagnesaemia cause significant suffering in sheep during late pregnancy and early lactation. Prevention through careful nutritional management is achievable.

Key Facts

Pregnancy toxaemia (twin lamb disease) affects ewes with multiple foetuses in late pregnancy when energy demands exceed intake
Clinical signs include depression, blindness, staggering, recumbency, and death without treatment
Prevention requires adequate body condition score at mating and targeted energy supplementation in the last 6 weeks of pregnancy
Hypocalcaemia affects ewes in early lactation, causing weakness, recumbency, and death - responsive to calcium supplementation
Hypomagnesaemia (staggers) occurs in ewes on lush spring grass with inadequate magnesium, causing sudden death
Pregnancy scanning allows identification of ewes carrying multiple foetuses for targeted nutritional management
Body condition scoring is the key monitoring tool - ewes should be maintained at BCS 3-3.5 at all stages
Trace element deficiencies including selenium and copper can compound metabolic vulnerability in affected animals

Welfare Considerations

Metabolic diseases cause rapid onset, severe suffering in affected ewes. Pregnancy toxaemia causes progressive neurological deterioration including blindness and seizures before death - a particularly distressing condition. Hypocalcaemia causes paralysis with the animal fully conscious but unable to rise. These diseases are largely preventable through adequate nutrition, but require active monitoring and management rather than passive husbandry. The economic losses from metabolic disease are substantial, but the welfare case for prevention is independent of economic considerations - these diseases cause predictable, preventable suffering that reflects nutritional management failures. Pregnancy scanning and body condition monitoring are achievable practices that can dramatically reduce metabolic disease incidence.

What You Can Do

Use pregnancy scanning to identify multiple-bearing ewes for targeted late-pregnancy nutrition
Monitor body condition score regularly throughout the year, adjusting feeding to maintain BCS 3-3.5
Provide appropriate supplementation in late pregnancy for twin and triplet-bearing ewes
Ensure magnesium access during vulnerable periods (particularly housing to pasture transition and lush spring grass)
Seek veterinary advice on trace element management appropriate to your farm and management system
Support welfare standards that require metabolic disease monitoring and prevention plans