The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Jethro Tull on March 14, 2016, 10:36:04 pm
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Having lots of fun lambing this year. Out of eight breeding Jacob ewes four have lambed so far, three lots of twins and one set of triplets. Triplet mother has always been delinquent, a real old sourpuss. Anyway she coddled her eldest, beat up number two and totally ignored the last one. So we are bottle feeding two and three. No point in trying to re-mother, she exudes hostility from 80 metres
One of the mothers of twins has a distended teat, the lambs (now two days old) are sharing one teat. The other has grown large and is being ignored. Fearing mastitis we isolated her and milked off the enlarged teat. It is not inflamed, and there is no granulation in the milk. Still I am concerned things could deteriorate.
Anyone got any suggestions, please?
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If they are both feeding from one side you need to spend lots of time physically putting them onto the full side to feed. I had this last year and after a day or so they started using both teats and it was all fine.
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A farmer I know told me when that happens to put a large piece of sticky plaster over the teat they want to suck. Might be worth a go.
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Yes, you need to get the lambs onto the cow-teat side. It'll go back to near-normal size after a day or two of being suckled.
For future reference, we always get them in a pen when they're like this. Milk some colostrum off the cow-teat side for the freezer, and to reduce the size of the teat, then get the lambs on sucking that side. Repeat each feed until it's normal size and you are sure at least one lamb is sucking the cow-teat.
Mark the ewe. Either cull if you don't want the extra work, or know that she'll be donating to the frozen colostrum store again next year ;)
I hadn't heard the trick with the sticking plaster on the normal-teat side. You'd have to be careful you didn't cause mastitis that side, of course, so you'd need to let them onto that teat at least two or three times a day, but otherwise it's not a bad idea.
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I once had an elderly Mule ewe who had one fat teat at lambing, milked it off bottled it to the lambs and after a couple of days all well lambs were able to suck, one happy ewe and happy lambs :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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All good advice thank you, that's what I love about this site. We did bring her in and milk her off, a bit that night and again the next morning, and she was normal again by that evening with lambs feeding both sides.
The colostrum point is a good idea and worth remembering.
Not sure about the sticking plaster trick, a little harsh on the lambs when the teat was so enlarged and taut
Slightly depressed by the idea that it is going to happen again next year, she is a favourite of mine and I am reluctant to cull her. Is it inevitable that it will recur?
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Slightly depressed by the idea that it is going to happen again next year, she is a favourite of mine and I am reluctant to cull her. Is it inevitable that it will recur?
In my experience, yes. 'Fraid so. :(
Got a Mule in with a cow teat tonight. One ice-cube bag of colostrum freezing, I'll get another tomorrow. #2 lamb now replete and happy. Red marker for her, I'm afraid; she was a bu&&er to load, too. It gets too busy here to be doing with all o' that.
But if you have one that's good to catch, and you're not lambing hundreds, well, then, she's your #1 colostrum donor :)
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I should also mention that it's hereditary. So her daughters have an increased chance of being the same. Sorry.