The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Muggin5 on April 06, 2022, 07:38:17 am
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Hi,
I have been a regular forum reader but not so much a poster until now.
We have a small flock of Ouessant sheep and one of our ewes had a lamb 18 days ago. Everything has been fine up to now but yesterday we noticed that the lamb wasn’t acting herself.
She has been very lively but yesterday she was very subdued, walking around with her head down, looking weaker and I would describe her seeming almost drunk or in a daze.
We only noticed this quite late on in the day and called our vet right away. The vet was about to close but said if we drove over we could go and pick up an antibiotic injection.
We drove over and spoke to the vet. We told him we hadn’t given an injection before and were quite nervous but he said we’d be fine. He told us to inject under the skin. The antibiotic wax Trymox.
We managed to give the injection around 7pm last night and kept an eye on her. She didn’t seem well and wouldn’t settle at all, just kept going round and round in circles. I felt like she wouldn’t make the night.
She seems to be feeding but is making mistakes when going to the mother, sometimes trying to find a teat at the front rather than at the back. We have held the mother a couple of times and let the lamb have a big feed.
This morning, as we were disposing of the syringe, my partner noticed that the instruction said to inject into the muscle and thus isn’t what the vet told us. Now we’re really worried about this too.
She is up and about today thankfully but seems the same as yesterday afternoon. Very slow and subdued. We’ve just helped her feed again.
Does anyone who has had small primitive breeds recognise any of this, can anyone offer any advice at all? We’ve only taken on sheep last summer and this is our first lamb.
Thanks in advance!
Mat
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Could be a number of things, so I would get the vet to look at the lamb today.
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Definitely take the lamb to the vet asap.
As to giving AB's under the skin rather than into the muscle - it will still work, just a bit slower. It is an easier option and whacking a syringe into a lamb this young may be quite nerve-racking (and there may be no muscle to put it into). My vet often suggests to do young lambs (or goat kids in my case) under the skin rather than muscle.
If this is your 1st lamb, it may make sense to check through previous posts on here wrt what 1st aid kid you should have for your sheep/öambs - a thermometer is really really useful.
Hope the wee one perks up.
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Have your ewes had their Heptavac jabs? Any chance of dog worms on the pasture? It sounds as if it could be something which is affecting the brain, definitely need to go back to the vet, preferably when she/he is not just rushing home (and ask them to demonstrate an intramuscular injection for you).
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Could also be a mineral or vitamin deficiency, or CCN... I am a bit surprised the vet didn't give you B vits as well as antibiotics (although they are not as available, and are very expensive now, so maybe that's why.) I would probably give a squirt or two of LambBoost or similar if you have it to hand.