08/06/2026
Flystrike! The shepherd's nightmare.
We had a number of rainy days close together, cloudy skies with little sun. The sheeps' fleeces had little time to dry. And it's fly season.
So much for all the hype about the southern screw worm. Northern shepherds deal with this problem as well, though it's different flies, and they got to Quince. They laid their eggs in her wet wool which hatched into maggots and began to eat her. It's gross so I spared you a video.
She was in the ewe flock at Summer Camp so we had to come home for the trailer and go back to get her. We brought Suzette to companion her while we keep her home for a while to keep an eye on her.
First thing is to assess the extent of the infestation. We determined it was pretty concentrated to her topline. I like to shear wide of it, into dry wool, so we can see them if they start to migrate. Then I move in. Once we find the maggots, I use a treatment protocol given to me by a vet. I spray them with Pine-Sol cleaner and Permectrin, which kills them in time and keeps subsequent flies away. I keep shearing so there's no place for them to wiggle away and hide. We also make sure none of them fall into unshorn fleece to potentially start again. It's slow, deliberate work. After we've cleared the maggots, I apply a salve to the bare skin to keep it from drying out and cracking. The product I'm using is one I use on myself, Soothing Salve, from our friends Deb Waldinger and Jim Thompson of Calcite and Comfrey.
We were grateful we caught it early, grateful it happened on a day we were together. We did miss farmers market. But we are not missing a sheep.
