Post Mortems

Yes, sheep have a tendency to suddenly drop dead for no apparent reason, and if you were to post mortem each one we would be occupied for a lifetime. However there are occasions when post mortems can be extremely useful. For example, an outbreak of suspected enzootic pueumonia, lambs not growing to their full potential, ewes with loss of condition, thin anaemic animals with possible fluke. In situations such as these sacrificing one of the poor-doers can be of huge value to getting to the bottom of the problem quickly.

We advise post mortems to be performed at the Veterinary Laboratory Agency (Truro). If an animal is not fit to travel it should be humanely euthanased and the carcass taken to the VLA. If a carcass cannot be submitted to the VLA we are happy to perform post mortems on the farm.