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Camile

Hello,

It's not all happy with lambs ..

my ewe had some triplets last wednesday and all was well, we made sure they all had a suck and all.

On thursday things were ok but 2 of them (the smallests) looked like they didn't have enough to drink, so I had to bottle feed them some colostrum replacements, and they had their shot of anti scour thingy.

The smallest ewe lamb took it fairly well and perked up fine, but the other one (ram lamb a tad bigger but weak) didn't.

Next morning, the ram was almost dead ... and the ewe lamb had scour, the 3rd one was a healthy as can be, and twice the size of the ewe.

Tried to warm up the ram with the hair dryer and all but he didn't make it. They also got a shot of antibiotics.

I had been adviced to bottle feed the ewe lamb and to keep her warm, so I did giving her 40ml every 3 hours. Fresh unpasterised cow milk, with a know of butter and an egg.

Next day we tried bringing her back to the ewe but the ewe is rejecting her !

we tried rubbing the lamb and myself on the ewe to try to get her scent on it, attached wool on the tail of the lamb, rubbed her against the other lamb, rubbed barley on the lambs ass, got the dog in with them to kick the maternal instincts .. with no luck ..

so I basically have to hold the ewe in the cattle trailer so that the ewe lamb can have a god feed on her, usually until the lamb looses interests and usually within 5/10 mn the lamb goes to sleep.

So far I feed her at 6am, 10ish am, 2ishpm, 7h30pm and last feed at 11pm.

Every now and then she has a tiny bit of scour, especially morning I think.

It's hard enough work, but the lamb is picking up well I think,although she is not as plumped and filled like the other lamb, she was getting a bit bouncy yesterday, and starting to nibble on things a bit, and is definitely lively enough when she is hungry.

Now is there anything else I should be doing ? should I top up her food or so ?

any ideas how long I will have to do that for ?

Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Camile

phil · Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2009 12:12 pm Post subject:

Hello Camile.
You will have to feed the lamb on ewe milk replacer cows milk is not rich enough,five feeds for the first couple of days,then four then three at a week old,as you miss a feed up the amount of milk you give it.the worst thing you can do is over feed,at a week old you can give it a small amount of creep feed and good quality hay and water.Another lamb to keep it company would be a good idea.

dara · Joined: 01 Aug 2007 Posts: 186 Location: Mayo

Rearing poddy lambs is a waste of time and money. I tried it a few times and found the tame lamb became a complete nuisance not to mention a hazard.
If you can't give the lamb away the best thing I've found is to restrain the ewe. You can make up a simple fostering crate very easily whereby the ewe is restrained from smelling and thus pucking the lamb. Or you can confine all in a small space and then restrain the ewe yourself - I found that the ewe and the lamb both quickly learn that it's feeding time when you enter. After a few days the ewe realises that resistance is futile and lets the lamb suck when you catch her. In the end she'll just stand there and let him suck when you're there but as soon as you leave she'll resume her normal defence.