Marketing at the Exotic Animal Auction

[bigfish]

Auction is coming up on 10-14 Nov in Cookeville TN. My first time selling, have 3 lambs ready for market, so I have no clue Anyhow, one of the requirements for selling lambs is health certificates from a vet. Does anyone know how this process will work? i.e. is there a certain timeframe before the auction that this needs to be done.. Also, when having a vet do this check is it something that can be completed with one visit? Ideally, I'd like to schedule a visit with the vet and then head on over to the auction. Is that realistic?

[denice]

I have had healths done on horses and dogs but never sheep. It is a pretty simple thing usually. Mostly look at the animal and fill out paperwork. They will do a physical exam, temp maybe. You may need to know the address of the market, phone number for the paperwork, I have never used a health to sell at a market. I would think you would need a scrapie tag. A call to the livestock market should answer all your questions. If it is a standard health yes you can do it on the way, will not take longer than a regular appt. It could take less time if they fill out most of the paperwork before hand and simply have to do the actually exam and have the vet sign it. I imagine each animal will need it own papers so I would see about doing the paperwork ahead of time.

Denice. RVT

[bigfish]

Great thanks Denice. Guess I'll have to look into the 'scrapie tag' a little more but otherwise sounds pretty simple.

[Sylvia Murray]

Here in CT the health papers are supposed to be issued based on inspection of the whole flock at the farm even though only some of them need to have the papers. The reason for this is that the sheep you want the papers for could appear healthy but others in the flock have pink eye, soremouth, foot rot or some other contagious disease which your sheep could be infected with or carrying but not showing symptoms yet. Also if you don't have your own USDA ID# the slaughter/auction houses have their own USDA ID assigned to them and they will tag your animal for a fee. Veterinarians also have ID's assigned to them for clients that only need them on an occasional basis and of course would charge for that as part of the inspection process.