Went to the auction today

[pookshollow]

Not to buy anything! Just to sell some old layers and a few rabbits.

Anyhoo, there were a few sheep in the pens there. One had a very malformed upper jaw - looked like someone had grabbed its muzzle and twisted it about an inch to one side. How on earth could an animal get to be full-sized with a deformity like that? Funny thing was, the teeth on the lower jaw looked quite normal.

Also, there was a bunch, maybe 15-20, in another pen, with great clumps of wool missing - in patches along the back. Would that be lice? or some other parasite? or a metabolic thing?

I always figure the auction is a good place to learn - what not to look for in an animal!

[houndlover]

The jaw I would guess to be parrot mouth, the missing wool in big clumps - poorly fed ewes? Wool that pulls easy is a sign of ketosis.

[pookshollow]

I think of parrot mouth as a severe overbite - this would be more like "wryface" in goats perhaps?

The ewes with missing wool did look thin, to my eyes - hard to tell with the fleece still on, but I could see backbones showing through the bare patches.

[kirsten]

Fever for the wool loss.
It is almost always a fever since fevers accompany most illnesses.