Hello! I have a small (but growing) flock of Icelandic sheep in Concord MA. I have been working on fine tuning their mineral program and spoke with a shepherd in the midwest who uses slow release trace mineral bolus as they often do in Europe. She has seen marked improvement in overall health, including resistance to parasites. I am still researching and deciding. Would love to connect with someone locally who does boluses. Thanks for chiming if you have any experience or helpful insight!
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I have used slow release boluses for years with my small ruminants. I had Icelandic sheep up until this past fall (phased them out to expand my goat herd) and this was always part of my mineral program. I buy the Mayo Healthcare 5 in 1 bolus. I use the 4 gram copper for all rumants over 6 months and the 2 gram copper for the young ones. My goal is to bolus the newborns at a few weeks old in the spring. If I am harvesting them that fall that is all they would get. Anyone I am keeping over longer I will bolus every 6 months. If I left this schedule I would notice my FAMACH scores getting worse. Never did batches side by side so don’t really know how good it is overall.
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Thanks Nick–this is helpful to hear to hear your experience. Can I ask how you learned to administer the boluses? I am new to keeping livestock (aside from chickens) and I am very intimidated by the long metal bolus gun and the very large boluses!
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Great question. Unfortunately I don’t have a good answer as I learned too long ago and dont remember. It looks large and intimidating but is fairly straightforward. Just aim for the left side of the throat. The key is to just get it far enough into their mouth, just past the back of the tongue before depositing it. The sheep usually take it fairly easily, the goats can be a bit more difficult and we dunk the tip of the bolus gun with the bolus in mineral oil before administering it. We find it stays down better.
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