[Gunestone]

Hi, We have three cade lambs at the moment that are 4 weeks old, kept in a shed at night and out in a small paddock in the day.
They are having 4 feeds a day and two of them have about 750 ml per day but the other one is barely having 300 ml a day. It's not that she won't eat, she is always eager, but her stomach always seems so huge and rounded that I fear she will explode if she has more!
They are eating grass, in fact they spend most of the day grazing.  They are all happy and growing, but is that enough milk for her? Should I be doing anything different?

Thanks

[Marches Farmer]

Were they of a similar size when you got them and are they still?  Are they getting any creep feed?  Is the grazing of good quality?  Are they also eating hay?  Do they have constant access to clean water?

[bj_cardiff]

I think your underfeeding them and their eating a lot of grass because their hungry which is making them bloat when they drink. I'd bring them in and restrict their feed to milk only for a couple of days and see how much they will drink.

My cade lambs will be on 350ml 4 times a day from 1 week old until their at least 5/6 weeks old, when I start to drop it.

[SallyintNorth]

My cade lambs will be on 350ml 4 times a day from 1 week old until their at least 5/6 weeks old, when I start to drop it.

Different milk products have different feeding guidelines, so check the bag for the maximum daily - the one I use is 1L, but some are 1.5L.

I do agree that it sounds as though they're filling up on grass, so then don't have room for their milk.  At 4 weeks they're not fully ruminant yet, so do need their milk. 

Is her tummy also full and rounded first thing in the morning after she's been in all night?  If not, then a) make sure she gets a good feed then! b) don't let them out for an hour after their first bottle, so they don't blow up on grass when their milk stomach is already full and c) give them their last bottle an hour or two after they come in at night, by which time their tummies should have shrunk a bit so there's room for a good milk feed.

If her tummy is fulll and rounded first thing, then are they eating hay all night?  Or has she got a blockage?  Might be worth looking to see that she has a fully functioning anus and vagina.

[Gunestone]

Ok thanks for the advice everyone. They are eating creep, as much as they are given. The grass is good, lot's of clover.
They are all around the same size, in fact the one who is drinking the least milk is the biggest, and are eating hay but mainly grass.
We are giving them lamlac which says 1/1.5 litres per day which the two will easily take, but not the biggest one.
Will keep them in more now and restrict their grazing.

[twizzel]

We don't put our pet lambs out to grass until weaned at 6 weeks old. Up until then they have milk creep and a bit of hay.

[Gunestone]

Ok so have kept them in a strawed pen with water today and at midday I gave her 250ml. At 5 pm she was Very bloated so gave her oil and bicarb of soda. She was trying to poop but only a few large lumps came out.
 Just now I checked her again and she is still very bloated but her stomach isn't as hard as earlier.
Other two are fine, any ideas about her? Can I do anything else?

[SallyintNorth]

What's the possibility she's actually older than the other two?

[bj_cardiff]

I'd take the water away and if she wasn't bloated after eating but was a few hours later I can only imagine she's eating straw? When their eating roughage and drinking milk it can ferment and produce gas, which is why she's bloating. Its very dangerous and can kill them. I'd take away the straw and water and feed only milk.

[Gunestone]

Thanks for the advice. Sally they are triplets, she's not that much bigger, but you can tell she's the biggest of them.

This morning her back end was covered in poop and she looked a little better, but her stomach was still bloated!? Could she have a blockage somehow? She wants milk, should I give her any?

[bj_cardiff]

I'd keep feeding milk and nothing else until she settles down.

One of my lambs started looking a bit rough when it was 3 weeks old and then looked thin and had a bad tummy. Its mum had milk and the lamb seemed to be suckling but for some reason the lamb wasn't actually drinking. Because the diet was wrong for him he had the runs and he truly stank! It took a good couple of days to get him drinking again (he'd been surviving on grass) and then he dried up and he's fine now, although smaller then the others

[bj_cardiff]

Sorry just re-read your comment. Her tummy is bloated this morning I'd suspect she's filled up on straw. Put her in a dog crate with some blankets for a couple of hours with no food or water and then feed her milk

[Gunestone]

So I kept her in a crate today and eventually she went down. I then gave her about 100 ml of milk with a little yoghurt and oil. But when I came back about two hours later, she was bloated again! Is there anything I can do for her? It seems whenever I feed her she bloats.

[bj_cardiff]

I think its probably a vet job - I can't see how only 100ml of milk could make a lamb bloat when its not eaten anything else?? There may be other problems contributing to make her bloat?

[SallyintNorth]

I'd take the water away and if she wasn't bloated after eating but was a few hours later I can only imagine she's eating straw? When their eating roughage and drinking milk it can ferment and produce gas, which is why she's bloating. Its very dangerous and can kill them. I'd take away the straw and water and feed only milk.

Milk should go into the first stomach, the abomasum, while other feedstuffs - creep, hay, grass and other forage - are digested in the rumen, the large fermentation vat.

The rumen develops over the first 8 weeks of the lamb's life, so in lambs being still bottle fed, is developing, not yet fully developed.

If milk gets into the rumen, it can cause problems.  Milk gets into the rumen if the lamb is overfed milk, and the abomasum overflows, or if the lamb was not introduced to the bottle correctly and does not have the oesophageal reflex, whereby the groove in the oesophagous that directs the milk into the abomasum closes as the lamb begins to suckle.

JayKay wrote an excellent post on bloat and its possible causes, which I link to at least once a year!  linky