Sheep have the opportunity to live long lives. The average sheep lives 10-12 years, but some sheep have lived past the age of 20 with appropriate care! Like all animals, sheep may need a little extra care to help them thrive in their old age, especially larger breed sheep and those with chronic health challenges like CEA or OPP.
As a sheep ages, they may face more health challenges, so it’s especially important to be vigilant in monitoring their health through regular health checkups, fecal exams, and weigh-ins to effectively treat issues early on. Even common ailments can be harder to control in older sheep and require early and effective treatment to maintain their quality of life.
Older sheep can typically lose, break, or wear down some or many of their teeth through the course of their lives, especially if their food comes primarily from grazing on natural terrain. Damage to or loss of a molar can then cause issues in other molars- for example, without a matching upper molar to keep it ground down, a lower molar can become painfully sharp and may need to be routinely filed down by a veterinarian. As a result, they may have a harder time chewing comfortably and getting the proper mix of nutrients from standard food. Tall or tough pasture grass and hay might be especially difficult for an older sheep with dental issues to eat. If you see someone dropping wads of cud, this is a telltale sign of dental issues. They try their best to chew the grass or hay, but because of their dental issues, they just can’t break it down enough to digest. It’s especially important to monitor an older sheep’s weight as they age to ensure that they are getting enough to eat (and are able to eat the food available to them). If necessary, you can make your own special food by soaking grass hay pellets and beet pulp or offering chopped hay (for females, you can offer alfalfa if they truly need the extra calcium and protein, but this can lead to urinary calculi in males). By giving them foods that do not require the extensive chewing that hay and grass require, you can ensure residents with dental issues are still getting all of the nutrients they need. You can also have a veterinarian evaluate and file or remove any teeth that have gotten uncomfortably sharp or painful.
Older sheep with arthritis may find eating out of a hay feeder more challenging, either due to the position they need to hold their neck while eating or because it is uncomfortable to stand for long periods of time. It can be helpful to find ways to feed elderly sheep lower to the ground- either in bowls, or strategically placed piles of hay on the ground. Keep in mind that hay fed on the ground will likely become soiled and will need to be replaced. In areas with parasite issues, feeding hay on the ground may not be advisable.
If it seems like older sheep aren’t thriving, it could be a vitamin or mineral imbalance due to less effective chewing and digestion or an underlying health condition. Make sure they continue to have easy access to minerals given where they graze and spend time indoors! If necessary, you can administer a sheep-safe vitamin booster, under the guidance of your veterinarian, to help clear up any nagging deficiencies. Elderly sheep can also benefit from vitamins A, B12, D, and E, Selenium, Calcium, Flax, Kelp, Sugar Beet, Molasses, Black Oil Sunflower Seeds, and multivitamin formulas depending on an elderly sheep’s needs. You should also regularly make sure that they aren’t developing Anemia, which can lead to dangerous health challenges. Consult with your veterinarian before making big changes to their supplementation.
In general, you should be very mindful of an older sheep’s weight. It is common for sheep to become overweight as they continue to eat at the same pace while lowering their general activity levels due to arthritis or stiffness. Overweightness in sheep can lead to a host of health issues. Underweight sheep may be losing out on food from competing sheep or be eating and ingesting less due to teeth troubles and may need their own special source of food to stay healthy. You can supplement a thin sheep’s food with a source that is higher in protein to help them put on more weight, just make sure to keep monitoring their weight to evaluate its effectiveness, and be sure to identify the cause of the weight loss to determine if other interventions are necessary!
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