[Michelle.L.]

Hi all,

one of our pet lambs (7-8 weeks now) might not have had very much colostrum when he was born. He was a twin and his mother kept abandoning him, until the farmer finally took him away. He is bright and growing nicely but just seems to have small issues popping up, most recently an infected eye (vet's coming out tomorrow morning to have a look). I was just wondering if there is anything you can give a bottle lamb to improve their immune system if they didn't get enough colostrum? Vet didn't know of anything, but I thought it would be worth a try to ask here. :-)

[Anke]

I would do his Heptavac asap, if he has not had much colostrum and is now 7 to 8 weeks old he will probably not have any defence against enterotoxaemia and/or Pasteurella, both of which can kill very quickly in summer.


Other than that I would focus on him eating roughage rather than lots of creep feed to develop his rumen, and if he is on real (raw and unhomogenised) goatsmilk I would continue with that (maybe two bottles a day) for a few more weeks.


You can also give him (and all your pther lambs) a mineral/multi-vitamin drench, though I do not know what the best age is for that, as mine are still on their dams at that age and I dose the ewes rather than the lambs.

[Michelle.L.]

He's had his first dose of the vaccine. He's grazing all day long, chewing his cud nicely and gets two bottles of Lamlac a day. The plan is to continue giving milk until August, but reduce to one bottle in a couple of weeks. Do you think that's alright?

[twizzel]

The risk of bloat increases as they get older and are still on milk. At 8 weeks old you probably ought to think about weaning him onto lamb creep pellets and cut the milk out.

[Anke]

The risk of bloat increases as they get older and are still on milk. At 8 weeks old you probably ought to think about weaning him onto lamb creep pellets and cut the milk out.

I disagree to some extent, but I feed real milk and tend to have my bottle fed lambs on milk until at least three months old. But with Lamlac (which is not real milk) it is probably not the same. I would look at how much powder you have left in the bag, and then slowly string it out. With Lamlac you can also offer more diluted bottles as a way of weaning, which is not the case with real milk.


I also tend not to feed much in the way of concentrates (and especially not ad lib) to my lambs, but it depends on the breed you have and what the plans are. If he is castrated and planned to stay as a pet (or for mutton as mine are), then I would feed only very little  ewe&lamb mix and leave him mostly on grass. If he comes inside for the night, then offer hay (and lukewarm water). Part of the reason is that feeding lots of concentrates to castrated males massively increases the chances of urinari calulii, very painful death in most cases. Especially if you intend to keep him on, he will do fine on grass/hay alone. Nohting else needed.


If you are planning on sending him off for meat in the autumn, feeding some concentrates may be necessary, and then I would err on the side of caution and use a feed designed for males to reduce the risk of stones.

[twizzel]

Lamb creep and lamb finisher will have the additive ammonium chloride to reduce the risk of urolithiasis. It’s perfectly safe to feed to male lambs. Having rock salt available will also encourage them to drink more which will help reduce the risk too.


My pet lambs are only on grass only now but the period between weaning off milk and turning out to grass they need something extra than hay to keep growing whilst transitioning to grass. It’s advised not to water milk down, but reduce quantity fed, as diluting it will just fill them with water and not encourage them to find food elsewhere, therefore stunt growth even more. I abruptly weaned my lambs this year from an ad lib system; I was sceptical about doing it, but it went very well and they adapted extremely fast to no milk.


Your lambs milk is probably more of a comfort thing at this age going forward, he will be fine without it. I had to wean a set of twins reared on their mother at 9 weeks this year as she got mastitis, to be honest I tried to integrate them with the pet lambs so they could have some creep, but they were happier back with the flock just on grass. They never looked back for their mother ! The difference between them and the pet lambs was they had been out at grass since a week old, and were grazing properly when their mum got ill. Pet lambs take a while to transition to grass so need something to fill that gap and keep them growing in the meantime.

[Michelle.L.]

Thanks for all the advice. I've read and heard sooo many different opinions on how and when to wean, hard to find "the right way" ;-). Eventually decided to go with the advice from the farmer we got the lambs from and of course be guided by how the lambs are/behave/etc.
They are currently still indoors over night, of course with access to fresh water and also a little hay, but they show very little to no interest in that.

But - in regards to my original question - you all think he should be fine and there's nothing I should/could do because of the potential lack of colostrum?

[Anke]

But - in regards to my original question - you all think he should be fine and there's nothing I should/could do because of the potential lack of colostrum?

Nothing you can do really...

[twizzel]

Thanks for all the advice. I've read and heard sooo many different opinions on how and when to wean, hard to find "the right way" ;-). Eventually decided to go with the advice from the farmer we got the lambs from and of course be guided by how the lambs are/behave/etc.
They are currently still indoors over night, of course with access to fresh water and also a little hay, but they show very little to no interest in that.

But - in regards to my original question - you all think he should be fine and there's nothing I should/could do because of the potential lack of colostrum?

Nope nothing you can do really. He might live or he might die but if it's the latter the damage is already done. fwiw we had a calf that we don't think got enough colostrum in time, he never made it past day 3. Your lamb might just pick up more infections until he succumbs, or he might be ok. Hence the importance of colostrum management (not that it's your fault if you bought him) but maybe wouldn't have bought him if the doubt was there.

[SallyintNorth]

Just vaccinating, as someone mentioned earlier on.  And keeping on top of worms and fluke, make sure he isn't low on minerals and vitamins - in other words, do whatever you can to keep him in top-top condition so he has the best chance of fighting any infection off. 

[Michelle.L.]

Will do! :-) On that note, does anyone have recommendations for vitamin/mineral drenches? Especially ones that come in small packages, as we only have the two lambs ;-).

We didn't buy the one knowing about the colostrum issue. He was given to us by a neighbouring farmer, who'd grown fond of him and didn't want him to be slaughtered.
 
The eye just had a light inflammation btw. already looking better, and the vet was happy with his overall appearance :-)

[twizzel]

Normally the smallest quantity of mineral drench is 1 litre. You’d be better finding a farmer that will let you take a syringe full out of their bottle. If he’s just a pet though I doubt he’d need regular mineral drenches unless he’d been blood tested deficient in a certain key mineral 

[SallyintNorth]

He ought to be fine for minerals while he's on Lamlac but I would give him a drench when you wean him.  And probably twice a year thereafter. 

The best ones are chelated, these stay in the body longer.  Cheaper drenches have a more transient effect.  But as you only want 2 doses, you will probably have to take what you are offered! 

ETA  If you let us know where you are, one of us may be able to help.  Quite a few of us use JG Animal Health minerals, which are chelated

[Michelle.L.]

We're on the Isle of Skye - anyone else up in the north as well? :-)

[Michelle.L.]

So far I've not found someone in the area who's drenching now and could give me some. But I've come across Provita Jump Start - would that maybe be an option? It comes in much smaller packaging.