Shower dips: what are they good for?

Image: Unless your shower dip is a well-maintained and operated Buzacott, it is better retired from sheep use. Source: Deb Maxwell

by Deb Maxwell, Operations Manager, ParaBoss, May 2015

Shower dips: what are they good for?  My preferred use is for empty drum storage, but our Tassie correspondent, Paul Nilon, says that with their draining, concrete floors they can make handy animal pens too. But what about sheep lice treatments?

Producers across the country may still be using some shower dips that cannot hope to eradicate lice, because they are not wetting the sheep to skin level all over. Application failure is one cause of ongoing lice infestations, and the need to treat for lice every year.

Only Buzacott™ shower dips are still commercially available, but some producers may still have old Sunbeam™ showers or rectangular shower dips on their farms. These will not effectively wet sheep and should not be used. Mobile shower dips also often fail to wet sheep adequately.

Although a Buzacott can wet sheep completely, like any equipment, they won’t do so if poorly maintained or operated.

If you use still use a shower dip, read the following LiceBoss shower dipping note and see the video on shower dipping,  ...or maybe it's time to look for another use for your dip.