Services for Sheep & Goats

Pilgrims Veterinary Practice is a traditional country vets, and as such we work a lot with local farm animals including sheep and goats. Our advanced mobile diagnostic equipment allows our vets to visit your flock in Dorset or the New Forest, and diagnose complex conditions at your premises.

  • Goat & Sheep Vaccinations
  • Herd & Flock Health Plans

Goat & Sheep Vaccinations

Protect your livestock with routine goat & sheep vaccinations.

Preventative health care is a vital component of any productive farm, and vaccinations for sheep & goats is a large part of this.

Clostridial diseases are a relatively common cause of death in sheep and goats. As such, we recommend that all sheep and goats are vaccinated against these diseases. Additionally, pneumonia caused by pasteurella is fairly common, and we will often recommend a combined vaccination protocol that combines protection from Pasteurella and Clostridial diseases.

What is Pasteurella disease?

Pasteurellosis is a devastating condition caused by B trehalosi, which can affect sheep & goats of all ages. This disease is one of the most common causes of mortality in sheep & goats, regardless of age, and is most often associated with stress. Symptoms include fever, listlessness, poor appetite and sudden death in young animals. It’s thought that the bacterial organism moves to the lungs from the tonsils and passes into the blood, which can cause severe pneumonia in sheep and goats.

What are Clostridial diseases?

Clostridia is a group of bacterial organisms commonly found in soil, where they can survive for a lengthy period of time. Occurring naturally in the gut of healthy animals, most of these bacterial organisms will pass in manure and contaminate the soil. Clinical infection is often triggered by a stressful event, which may include a change in weather, diet or a parasitic infection.

Clostridial diseases include:

  • Lamb dysentery
  • Pulpy kidney
  • Blackleg
  • Black disease
  • Tetanus
  • Botulism
  • Braxy
  • Malignant Oedema

Depending on each flock’s individual risks and environmental factors, our experienced vets in the New Forest can offer advice on other sheep & goat vaccinations if necessary, as well as a formalised herd & flock health plan to ensure the ongoing welfare of your animals.

Herd & Flock Health Plans

Get health plan advice and flock visits from our experienced vets.

Our aim is to work with local farmers in order to increase farm productivity and improve animal welfare.

Whether you have a large flock, or just a smallholding with a few animals, we pride ourselves in being able to offer practical, sensible and cost-effective advice to help improve the productivity of your unit.

Regular flock visits for your sheep or goats enable us to provide the best advice on preventing disease and addressing any current or potential problems that may arise. This may be in the form of a formalised health plan, or as advice on vaccination and parasite control.

Flock visits also allow us to sell prescription medications at competitive prices under the increasingly tightened veterinary prescription guidelines, which state they can only be given to an animal “under our care”

Mobile diagnostic facilities

At Pilgrims Vets in the New Forest, we have mobile diagnostic facilities, meaning we can do blood tests if needed during routine herd & flock visits at your premises, as well as an in-house lab for fast results.

Our Sheep services include:

  • Flock Health planning including vaccination and parasite planning
  • Individual and flock lameness planning
  • Flock abortion investigations
  • Ewe nutritional analysis pre lambing
  • Ram vasectomy
  • In-house faecal worm egg count testing

Small holders

At Pilgrims we pride ourselves on the service we can provide to our small holders whether it be individual animal lameness or assistance with administering your annual worming/vaccination treatments.

If you have any questions about how we may be able to help your flock please contact one of our vets.

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