As breeders we all have our red lines when it comes to selecting replacement stock or placing animals in classes at shows.
I’m not afraid to say mine is pee staining in females. By that I mean urine staining the fleece on the gigot of an animal.
Over the years I’ve heard a plethora of reasons as to why it happens and had many breeders trying to excuse it away as nothing to be concerned with and of no consequence.
For me it is one of the biggest faults a female sheep can have. It is unsightly, devalues the fleece and causes management issues which you just don’t need.
I can, without fail, guarantee that a pee staining animal will, without preventative treatment, suffer fly strike at some time in the shepherding year. That leads to management intervention and means that particular animal is both costing you time and money, but also failing to thrive, for a period during the year.
Pee staining may seem like a minor issue, but when you’re managing a flock of any significant size it becomes a major issue if your ectoparasite control isn’t up to scratch or the maggot season catches you out by being earlier or later than you expect.
Of course, in the 21st century when ectoparasite control has been made simple by the likes of Clik and Crovect, it is easy to shrug and say: ‘I’ll make sure that ewe gets an extra spray there’. However, all that does is mask the issue and, potentially, lead to it being perpetuated in future generations.
So, what causes it? As mentioned above some breeders will trot out a myriad of reasons for it, with the most common being ‘It only happens when the ewe gets too fat to squat properly’. I have a simple answer to that, if she’s that fat that she can’t squat properly then you need to review your flock management. Every ewe should be fit and functional and that means being able pee without staining.
Ultimately, in my experience the problem is caused by abnormalities of the vulva. This generally presents as a twist at the end of vulva, meaning urine is directed sideways rather than straight backwards. The urine then lands on the fleece, leading to staining.
In other instances, there can be a deep groove in its centre causing urine to spray rather than travel in a single stream.
Both of these abnormalities tend to be genetic and thus, ewes which pee stain generally produce offspring which do the same.
The biggest challenge in eliminating the issue is when purchasing rams. Obviously, you cannot tell if a ram’s daughters will pee stain by looking at the ram, meaning it is a question of either seeing the dam of the ram or asking the breeder if the dam is a pee stainer or not.
First and foremost, I would urge every breeder, no matter their flock size or type, to take a careful look at their ewes and ewe lambs and assess how many, if any pee staining females they have.
If you have them what you want to do with them is, naturally, entirely up to you. I would suggest you identify them and then work back through their pedigree and identify those females in their back lines which also pee stain.
You may decide it isn’t an issue you want to prioritise or you may feel it is something you want to breed away from. That is, of course, personal choice. All I would say is take time to consider your options. Without a doubt pee staining is a fault and not one any breeder should be aiming to perpetuate.
Jonathan Long
