Author Topic: How to get an older lamb on the bottle after loosing it's mother? (Read 15464 times)

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #15 on:** April 19, 2014, 01:42:27 am »

Quote from: langfauld easycare on April 19, 2014, 12:09:52 am

to spend hours . stressing the lamb ,risk of choking ,risk of pneumonia if it breaths in milk you are trying to pour down it throat .stressin you and heart ache just no worth it . if it doesnt take it within a couple of days i would leave it ,as long as its eating well . it will need a bit more creep or will take a bit longer to finish .
a more commercial point of view you would be as well selling a slightly lighter lamb for say £50 than spend lots hours ,milk powder etc to get an extra £10 or £20

I don't spend hours. I spend a few minutes each feed time. If it doesn't drink, it doesn't drink. But I keep offering. Not stressing. Calm, quiet, firm but gentle and kind. They nearly always do come round.

From a commercial point of view a healthier lamb that finishes sooner and resists disease better is always worth a little bit of effort.

I wouldn't be so bothered with a fit lamb eating plenty of cake if it's 5 weeks old or older. But a younger lamb, or one not eating much cake, or not very fit, then I would want it to have a good couple of weeks on milk to help it through the stress of the change in its circumstances.

langfauld easycare · « **Reply #16 on:** April 19, 2014, 08:15:19 am »

i dont no how to do the quote thing on this .i agree it would be better to get it drinking for a few more weeks but the point i was trying to make is at 4 weeks it wont starve to death if it doesnt(some never will) . if the lambs standing rigid there is no point forcing it . i do find if there was a couple of others on a bucket they were more likely to join in on it .

Ladygrey · « **Reply #17 on:** April 19, 2014, 08:47:43 am »

Thats really terrible Rachel

I know you dont want to talk about it so I wont say any more on here, but I really do feel for you.

I had 6 orphan lambs 2 years ago who were successfully weaned at 3 weeks of age, all texel crosses...oh wait a sec you have two of them now

They were out in the field from 2 weeks of age and I was struggling to capture them at 3 weeks for a bottle so I just stopped, they all did fine and dandy

they ate plenty of creep which I weaned off them at 6 weeks of age and after that they only had grass.

I would try next time to keep them on milk for 5 weeks but just goes to show 3 weeks at weaning didnt kill them and they all thrived

Goodluck

xxx

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #18 on:** April 19, 2014, 09:10:57 am »

We could do with one of the vets giving an authoritative input here, but my understanding is that the rumen isn't fully developed until 6 weeks, so although they can get by from earlier than that without milk, for optimum health they should have milk up to 6 weeks.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #19 on:** April 19, 2014, 09:18:02 am »

Quote from: langfauld easycare on April 19, 2014, 08:15:19 am

i dont no how to do the quote thing on this

There's a forum tip about 'doing the quote thing' . However I don't know if it is still correct for all interfaces - it still works like this for me

Ladygrey · « **Reply #20 on:** April 19, 2014, 09:19:32 am »

Yup milk up to 6 weeks is of course the best, but bottle fed lambs can have a higher incidence of dropping dead from redgut if not weaned around 5 weeks, so if they are taking in a large amount of barley straw/hay/creep at 5 weeks I would rather wean early before one drops dead

langfauld easycare · « **Reply #21 on:** April 19, 2014, 09:43:07 am »

Quote from: SallyintNorth on April 19, 2014, 09:10:57 am

We could do with one of the vets giving an authoritative input here, but my understanding is that the rumen isn't fully developed until 6 weeks, so although they can get by from earlier than that without milk, for optimum health they should have milk up to 6 weeks.

haha look at me quoting . again agree. the old directions when i was young (not yesterday)used to be to wean from 4 weeks .that has now changed to 6 . but all the lambs bottle reared 20 odd years ago would have been weaned at 4 . a five kilo pail of dried milk was £5(my full pocket money) which was enough for each lamb .bigger bags were cheaper .gave them adlib corsemix

Hellybee · « **Reply #22 on:** April 19, 2014, 09:51:15 am »

If an older lamb from experience if eating cake and hay and drinking water nicely we woul d leave be, from the experience a lamb that had got in with another flock and then not retrieved til that flock was gathered (we did try to catch the little mite but couldnt) we tried to get her on the milk but all it did was make her scour lots, so then we had to solve that, so in hindsight regardless of size, if they ve weaned, no point going backwards. but a few weeks old, different situation, like sally i woul d persevere,tiny steps, i find that it takes three to four tries on average for them to get the jist, then we re away. not about forcing but mothering and cajolling xx

waterbuffalofarmer · « **Reply #23 on:** April 20, 2014, 10:56:59 am »

Hi
I would say if you have any ewes with a single lamb which is similar age to them, then it might be a good idea to adopt the lamb onto the other ewe.
Hope this helps

Hillview Farm · « **Reply #24 on:** April 20, 2014, 03:02:09 pm »

I don't think I stand a chance of any of my ewes allowing a lamb on at a month old to adopt on and I doubt the lamb would accept her anyway! She's eating cake and hay and the water is going down, she has around 100 ml four times a day and seems fine apart from having extremely strong wee!

waterbuffalofarmer · « **Reply #25 on:** April 20, 2014, 04:58:50 pm »

thats good and all the best of luck.

Penninehillbilly · « **Reply #26 on:** April 20, 2014, 05:51:55 pm »

Sorry to hear about the dog - bl''dy owners! hope that part of the problem gets sorted.

I took a couple of lambs on, they were much younger, but I really tried for days to get one to feed, I'd back her (and me) into a corner and get her to take a bit, she lost all her wool(?) and other problems, I thought 'while she's alive I'll keep trying', one day she just clicked on and after that she was the first there, grew into a big hefty girl.
Trouble is now she's a darn nuisance and wants attention every time she sees me!
Did I read somewher if you rub or tickle above the tail that encourages them cos that's where the mum would nuzzle?

twizzel · « **Reply #27 on:** April 20, 2014, 10:27:35 pm »

Quote from: Ladygrey on April 19, 2014, 09:19:32 am

Yup milk up to 6 weeks is of course the best, but bottle fed lambs can have a higher incidence of dropping dead from redgut if not weaned around 5 weeks, so if they are taking in a large amount of barley straw/hay/creep at 5 weeks I would rather wean early before one drops dead

I agree, if the lamb is being awkward I would get it eating hay and creep ad lib. I wean my tame lambs at 6 weeks, although my last group from this year were weaned a week earlier as I lost one at bang on 5 weeks to bloat/redgut the day before I was going to cut down on milk... sods law...