Shadow Ridge Acres Farm

05/15/2026

I’m a bit late doing my 50 day weights but this ram lamb definitely topped the scales at 83lbs💪🏻

05/13/2026

This is why vaccination is important. My lambs will be receiving their booster shot this week and all my ewes and rams are vaccinated yearly.

Sheep, Goats, & CD&T — Article 4
Why Can Such A Small Wound Cause Tetanus?

One of the strangest things about tetanus is how small the original injury can be.

Sometimes it’s obvious:

- castration
- docking
- puncture wounds
- cuts and scrapes around the farm

But sometimes?

People never find the wound at all.

And that leads many people to ask:

How can something so small lead to such severe disease?

Because with tetanus, the wound itself is not really the main problem. The toxin is.

*Tetanus Has Been Feared For A Very Long Time*

Tetanus has killed humans and animals for a very long time.

Historically, it was often called:

“lockjaw”

because one of the classic early signs was rigidity of the jaw and difficulty opening the mouth.

Long before modern vaccination, tetanus was widely feared because:

- The wound itself could appear minor
- The neurologic effects could become devastating once toxin production affected the nervous system.

Tetanus is a classic taught in college. Many people in medicine, nursing, veterinary medicine, and animal science are first introduced to tetanus as one of the classic examples of a toxin-mediated disease.

And for good reason...

- Tetanus Is Different From Most People’s Mental Model Of Infection -

When many people think about bacterial disease, they imagine:

- bacteria spreading aggressively through the body
- visible infection
- swelling
- pus
- fever
- obvious tissue damage

That’s not usually what tetanus looks like.

With Clostridium tetani:

- The bacteria often remain fairly localized
- Usually in contaminated, low-oxygen tissue
- The toxin does the real systemic damage

That distinction matters.

- The Organism Likes Low-Oxygen Environments -

Clostridium tetani is an anaerobic organism.

In plain language, that means it thrives in environments with very little oxygen.

This is why:

- puncture wounds
- deep tissue injuries
- dirty healing wounds
- damaged tissue

can become risky.

The surface injury may even look relatively minor while deeper tissue conditions are creating an environment in which the organism can survive.

- The Body Is Not Being “Overrun” By Bacteria -

Just to reiterate...

In tetanus, the animal does not usually die because the bacteria have spread throughout the body.

Instead:

The bacteria remain relatively localized, but the toxin travels and affects the nervous system

That’s why such a small wound can create such devastating neurologic disease.

- Tetanus Interferes With The Nervous System’s “Brake Pedal” -

This is the best example I can think of when explaining the toxin.

Normally, the nervous system constantly balances:

- stimulation
- inhibition

Signals tell muscles to contract. Signals tell muscles to relax.

Tetanus toxin interferes with those inhibitory signals.

In very simplified terms:

The nervous system loses part of its ability to “turn muscles off.”

And once that happens, we see some "classic" symptoms:

- rigidity develops
- muscles stay contracted
- movement becomes difficult
- eating becomes difficult
- breathing can become compromised

The system becomes locked in a state of excessive muscular activation.

- This Is Why The Signs Look So Distinctive -

Sheep and goats specifically may develop:

- stiffness
- abnormal posture
- difficulty walking
- “sawhorse” stance
- hypersensitivity to stimulation
- inability to eat normally
- progressive rigidity

* In advanced disease, even relatively minor stimulation can trigger severe muscle spasms*

- noise
- movement
- handling

- Why Vaccination Matters So Much With Tetanus -

One of the difficult realities of tetanus is this:

“Natural immunity to tetanus” doesn’t fit the biology very well.

Animals are not gradually “training” safely against tiny harmless exposures in the way people sometimes imagine.

With tetanus, a small amount of toxin can create a serious neurologic problem.

That makes “natural immunity” a poor way to think about protection.

This Is Also Why Certain Procedures Carry Risk

Once again:

The bacteria are the source.
The toxin is the problem.

Next article, we’ll start tying all of this together into what the CD&T vaccine is actually doing inside the body and why timing and boosters matter so much.

04/21/2026

This is so important. Especially a late gestation bloom. We think it’s all about pasture management but it could also just be a compromised ewe and the parasites can just take off suddenly. If you’re not following Linessa Farms you should.

Barber Pole Worm in Sheep and Goats — ARTICLE 4

Why Late Gestation and Early Lactation Change Everything

If the parasite is present in most systems…
and always cycling…

Why do problems seem to show up suddenly?

Why do animals that looked fine weeks ago begin to decline?

⸻

This Is Where the Animal Becomes the Variable

Haemonchus contortus doesn’t suddenly become more aggressive.

The animal’s ability to control it changes.

⸻

During late gestation, the demands on the animal shift.

- Energy requirements increase.
- Nutrients are prioritized toward fetal growth.
- The immune system becomes less effective at controlling parasites.

This isn’t a failure.

It’s a shift in priorities.

The animal is prioritizing reproduction systems over parasite control.

⸻

When that control weakens, the balance begins to change.

- Worms that were being held in check are less suppressed.
- Arrested larvae can begin to resume development.
- Egg production increases.

At the same time, exposure doesn’t stop.

The animal is still grazing.
The environment is still part of the cycle.

The balance shifts.

⸻

This period — late gestation into early lactation— is known as the periparturient rise.

- Parasite burden increases.
- Egg shedding increases.
- Pasture contamination increases with it.

Not because the parasite changed…

Because the host did.

⸻

What makes this important is that it doesn’t stay isolated to one animal.

- As egg shedding increases, pasture contamination builds.
- As pasture contamination builds, exposure increases across the group.

What started as a physiologic shift in one animal becomes:

a population-level event.

⸻

From the outside, this often feels sudden.

Animals looked fine… and then they weren’t.

But the system was already in motion.

- The parasite was already present at some level.
- The environment was already part of the cycle.
- The animal’s ability to control it was what changed.

You’re not seeing the start of the problem —you’re seeing the tipping point (thus the scale analogy for the article image).

⸻

This is often where things get misinterpreted.

It’s blamed on:

- weather
- pasture
- a “bad worm year”

Those factors matter.

But they don’t explain why it is so much more likely to happen at this specific point in the animal’s cycle.

⸻

The Critical Clarification *Important*

This isn’t the only time the balance can shift.

Periods of stress, poor nutrition, or heavy exposure can create similar effects.

But late gestation and early lactation are when this shift happens most predictably.

⸻

System-Level Takeaway

Parasite pressure isn’t just about the parasite.

It’s the interaction between:

- the environment
- the lifecycle
- the condition of the animal

When those line up…

pressure increases quickly.

⸻

Why This Matters

This changes how you think about:

- timing of interventions
- nutritional support
- which animals are most at risk

⸻

Next Article

If some animals struggle more than others under the same conditions, the next question is:

Why?

In the next article, we’ll look at the difference between resistance and resilience — why the term “resistance” is often overused — and why that distinction matters more than most people realize.

⸻

Good livestock management isn’t about always having the right answer — it’s about learning how to think when the answer isn’t obvious yet.

04/12/2026

Out for a rip😂

03/16/2026

I love when lambs are like rambunctious teenagers at only a few days old😂

03/15/2026

So we are 2 weeks into lambing and only two left to lamb. The last couple of days have been a bit rough. I wish I didn’t take it so much to heart but I do. Last night June had a very difficult birth, one lamb was over 13 pounds and the other one was almost 10. Both were coming breech and four hooves presented. Figuring out which feet belonged to which lamb to get them out was not fun. I couldn’t push either lamb back in either. They were both jammed inside her pelvis. June is sort of in shock today, eating very little but drinking ok. My best girl Mabel is having huge late gestation issues too so she is getting lots of TLC. Hope my girl delivers soon. I will say my first timers have been absolute champions so I guess I can be happy about that🤨say some prayers for Mabel🩷

03/11/2026

This is another one of my AI ewes. Ciara is off my calmest friendliest ewe Janelle. Ciara has never been friendly, she has almost ran me over and literally hates me every single day😂But she is definitely a rock star with her first time lambing with a beautiful set of twin girls. I think she is going to be a very protective momma!

03/10/2026

Queenie is our first Ironman Ewes, or as some friends have said “ The Iron Ladies” from my AI group that has lambed with a beautiful ewe lamb. Queenie was a small lamb at birth and she is still a small ewe but has big personality. I was worried Queenie would struggle with lambing because of her size, and she did need a leg pulled forward and then this lamb popped right out. Queenie mom is Christy who is an excellent mom so I have no doubt Queenie will do a great job raising this lamb.

02/08/2026

This weekend we are trapped in a cold spell. Super windy with wind chills making it feel like minus 35 C. Next week is supposed to warm up. Thank goodness. I feel like feeding sheep is an Olympic sport, maybe curling? Hurry hard and get the sheep and horses fed fast😂