[kelly58]

I have a similar  situation. 
One of our neighbours is a farmer, really nice man, lived with his mother but  she passed away end of last year, so he is on his own with a cousin who pops in on him.
Yesterday he arrives with 3 lambs, one 4 days old, one 2 days old and one just born ?, still wet.
He has leukemia and had just come out of hospital and his cousin couldn't  cope with the lambing and hes not allowed to go near the sheep.
He was very upset and pleaded with me to take the lambs and do ' right by em ' ?
I keep a closed flock so its against my better judgement  but l had to help.
Other folk are helping him too, how could you not hes in his 70s !
The 2 younger ones l did both their navels with iodine, he said they all had watery mouth powder at birth and colostrum.
One was really empty, yelling, gave her and the other older one a bottle, took some persuasion.
The little guy however was not looking good. Weak and had no idea how to suck.
Spent hours afternoon and last night coaxing him to suck, too scared to tube , gave him a packet of colostrum to be sure he had some.
Fighting my way through this calamity and looking out the window theres a fire blazing about a mile and a half away in the rough heather land, fire men and police ? So now l am ringing my sister who has a farm to bring her stock box and horse box over in case we need to evacuate ! Finally got the wee man to take a full 200ml by 2am, while watching this fire through the sitting room window, phone in hand ! Had a couple of hrs sleep on the settee inbetween making like a meerkat watching the fire.
All lambs took a bottle this morning, l am relieved and drained.
Have a question....... lve had the lambs in the utility room overnight, keep them warm and easier to feed.
What to put them in a hay shed l have, would they need a heat lamp or now they are feeding would they snuggle up and keep each other warm ? Haven't needed to do anything like this before my girls are pretty self reliant ?
Any input gratefully received. By the way l have no intention of putting them anywhere near my sheep for a long time yet untill  lm sure they are 100%  no risk to my flocks.

[SallyintNorth]

You're a hero, kelly58 

I only give lambs heat if they're cold - mouth feels cold to the touch - and not feeding.  Once they're feeding happily, they'll be fine in a covered building with a box or something draughtproof to climb into for a bed, and lots of straw, especially when there's more than one and they can snuggle up together.

[kelly58]

Thank you Sally  Have put them in, they have plenty of room. Just had feed so all snoozing, not snuggled up though yet. ?

[Hellybee]

Phew Kelly what a night!  Glad they settled.


Caroline , please try and put shavings down underNeath straw for drainage, it will help absorb and drain, we have concrete floors too!

[babysham]

I had great success this week - a lamb still on mum but being topped up was scouring and very smelly. I washed her bum well with Hibiscrub removing all the poo and given Live goats milk yoghurt from Supermarket - 20ml in a syring twice a day. Worked an absolute treat within 24 hours. Kept her on this for a week. She loved it!

[waterbuffalofarmer]

I have 5 orphans I am feeding atm, from my own flock I never buy in orphaned lambs anymore. I find that when I move them over from whole milk they seem to do the same, runny poos and such. I give them yoghurt, a little in their milk everyday but only in 1 of their feeds. Also according to the milk replacer (some are different of course, I use Enilac by volac) it says 250g of milk powder to 2 litres of water; I add 200 ml extra water to it, so it is slightly watered down and not too strong. Also yes plenty of hay for them to nibble on, also a few pellets too, I use my local CCF farming store which has its own brand of lamb growers pellets, they do have soya in though but the orphans are usually reared for slaughter anyway (I did try Wynnstay once or twice but they hated it, a bit too bitter I think).  I usually fill a medium container with water for them, about halfway, and they drink quite a bit. It is essential they stay hydrated when on the bottle, especially powdered milk. If they don't really touch the water then between their bottles, afternoonish time, give them some warm water with honey in, they love that and it will keep them hydrated. Depending on how old they are and what the weather is like I put them outside during the day and they nibble at the grass; it really depends where you are and what the weather/grass situation is like, but I find it helps keep down disease as they're not in their pen all the time. Hope this helps and all the best with everything!

[Paul and Caroline]

They seem to be settling down now and their consumption of pellets is up to 900g per day (between them). I haven't reduced their milk feed and they do have hay in a rack available. I am working to 35 days of age) before weaning however they are already looking a bit more rounded than I would have expected. I cant put them out on grass  just yet as my fencing still hasn't been done (been cancelled twice now). I am thinking of making temporary pens in my field using hurdles until the stock and electric fencing is done. As I increase the pellets should I decrease the milk? I have noticed that they do not drink much water - I have a shallow bucket for them which I refresh every day.

[SallyintNorth]

I know some people do wean at 5 weeks, but in my view it's too young.  As I understand it, the rumen isn't fully developed until 8 weeks.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

I know some people do wean at 5 weeks, but in my view it's too young.  As I understand it, the rumen isn't fully developed until 8 weeks.

Thanks for that sally I never knew. I have always been told to wean at a month old, I do usually give them 1 and a 1/2 months to 2 months before taking them off the bottle anyway.

[Hellybee]

We now have one ourselves.  He's a big boy but been so slow on his mum, a first timer herself, so been topping him up, was going beautifully, more a Molly but left with his dam cos she loved him.m so anyway, 36 hours ago he went off bottle, from being a real guts to no interest.  That evening , tried him, went and fed the other lambs and with the idea of trying him again found him being more or less sat on by other cuddling up lambs, thank god was going back to try again, otherwise i think they would have suffocated him.  So he now in the house with a pal, we ve given him orojet, he's being tubed three hourly with half milk and rehydion,ve aloso given him half ml Alamycin LA, he goes for little walks, has belly massages, will be giving him a little oil later when he s due another squirt Orojet.  He shows a fight when he s given summat so he s fighting but is a little depressed.  Will give him some more kick start tomorrow, space some things out a bit.  Just to add after not taking the bottle he was tubed from then on in... Brought in later.


Eta we sadly lost the beautiful boy this morning, the only thing we can think is that his colostrum was inadequate.   He was enormous, why didn't I double up   

[Hellybee]

We bottle feed, soon to go to sucky bucket    And they have milk til about 8 to 10 weeks.  They have one evening hard feed, feed two  added this aft for the first time.  And water and some hay.