The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Manuka on June 01, 2025, 09:49:54 pm
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Has anyone had any experience with reintroducing milk due to weaning too early. My cayed lamb about 10 days ago went down with blaot. We passed a tube and it was frothy and green. We gave him some surfactant and he improved. Also some loxicam for the pain. We decided to stop feeding him milk in case this was the problem. He was 11.6kg at this point and was eating grass. The grass he is on is very lush. Hwoever over the last 10 days he won't eat much grass, a tiny bit of creep and tiny bit of hay. He is now 10.6kg and got diarrhea. I was thinking I might need to reintroduce milk as he's not getting enough energy. Does anyone have any advice. And also any brands of creep which are highly palatable cause he turns his nose at it.
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I forgot to add he is 9-10 weeks old and he was a very small lamb when he was born (3.4kg). He's a Welsh mountain.
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what does your vet suggest ?
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Age-wise, he wasn't weaned early if you weaned him 10 days ago and he's 9-10 weeks old now.
But I'd agree that bottle lambs generally need to be eating a decent amount of creep before losing the milk. General advice is 1/2lb a day for a healthy commercial lamb, half that for a small primitive type.
Several of us do well with Champion Tup & Lamb. If you can't get that locally, try a pasture mix rather than a pellet; the different shapes and textures make them explore and play with it more, so it starts to be eaten as they mouth it.
It sounds like his digestive system is generally not in good order, probably wants a bit of a reset. You might find it best to take him off grass for a while, let him eat hay and a feed only until his digestion rights itself.
I would certainly speak to the vet, it's possible he has an infection which will need medication. Otherwise, I'd be inclined to bring him off grass, give hay only (the best softest hay you can get) at first, and for 24 - 48 hours, give him PFS or similar to keep his electrolytes right and get him rehydrated. If he brightens and is eating hay well by then, introduce a pasture mix / creep.