The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: marie on May 03, 2011, 07:26:09 pm
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We have a new born lamb born around 4pm today. Its one of twins and mother pushing it away. Have tried to get the mother to accept but wont. Other ewes wont accept. Getting desperate. Please help.
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Make sure they are in a small pen.
Hold Ewe and make sure lamb has a feed - even lay her down if needed while the lamb feeds.
If she still refuses to accept the lamb after a few hours then you may have to rig up the pen like an "adoption pen" where the Ewe's head is held in some form of yolk to keep her still and allow the lamb to feed without being pushed away.
.........or you could bottle feed........
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ok thankyou we are going to try that and other methods we have looked up to get the mother to accept it i will update on how it is doing later thankyou
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You might have to go in every few hours, pin the ewe to the side of the pen, and hold the lamb to the teat. It sometimes takes a few days for the ewe to accept her lambs, keep them in a pen next to her, so she can smell them but not hurt them. (but better than bottle feeding for a few weeks...) Also for the first couple of nights tube the lamb with milk/colostrum from the ewe, or goatsmilk if you have it, saves you from getting up at 2am for a feed... about 150ml at 10.30 should last the night, then start again at 6am latest in the morning.
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Another trick to help is to milk some from the dam then splodge it on the head and tail of the unwanted lamb - the ewe will lick it off. It might be worth doing the same to the other lamb so they become indistinguishable
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Thankyou for your advice. We tried to get the lamb to suckle from the ewe by holding her down, but lamb wouldnt and in the end bothe were getting stressed, also tried pening her tight but that didnt work. In the end someone gave us a recipe we could make up and have bottled fed every 3 hours. I made a small pen next to the ewe and so far all well. I put a blanket in for it so that it would have something soft to be with. It seemed to settle well. I'm not sure how I'll manage today with the feeds though due to work. I'll have to do them when I can.
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we had that problem once, but they lambed in field so didnt know whose its mum was. we bottle raised him.
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Another trick is if mum doesn't push him around too much is leave lamb with her and substitute with bottle milk as well as feeding from teat but you will have to pen them all in.
We have also taken our dog into the shed with this kind of mum it is amazing suddenly how protective a mother will become when faced with a prediter, but i stress keep dog on lead and do not allow situation to become too stressfull so mother runs around pen and hurts lambs.
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I assume you also made sure the lamb had got it's first drink of colostrum?
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Using a dog in the vicinity is one of the techniques mentioned by Eddie Stratten in his book on Sheep Ailments.
I quote:
"During the course of my practice I have discovered a simple and apparently infallible method, which I would like to pass on to all shepherds. Put the lamb and ewe in a small pen and bring the dog in. The ewe's in-born maternal instinct will more or less immediately stimulate her to offer protection and refreshment to the lamb. Keep the dog in the pen for 3 or 4 minutes. Repeat this twice daily until the ewe has settled down with the lamb. Seldom does this take longer than 4 or 5 days at the most".
I agree with feldar - If we had to do this with our sheep then I would definitely keep the dog on a short lead and the ewe and lamb in a small pen. I would also approach with caution in good visibility and not startle the ewe.
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remember as you feed substitute milk the lamb will lose the smell that bonds her to mum, one trick we did, that really worked well when we had the same problem, was to bottle feed lamb (kept it with ewe) then squirted the milk onto the ewe's nose/face... it was my hubbys idea & it worked ::)
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We are not sure if it got anithing when it was first born, but we did try and get it to suckle from the mother and it did get a small amount. But things have changed a bit. The lamb that was with the ewe has now died. Reasons unknown. The lamb we bottle fed is doing well. We have tried to rub the dead one on the bottle fed one and tried to get her to sniff it, but she is still pushing it away. We have also tried to get hold of her to try to get some milk from her but she is getting more distressed. She is bleeting for the loss of the lamb and we cannot do anymore for her. Her sacks are full of milk and we cant get the lamb to her to suckle. Can anyone advise on this.
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Watch out for mastitis - can you handmilk her? Keep trying with the lamb, hopefully she will eventually accept it (if you can get any milk from the ewe, try & get in down the lamb - it will keep the familial smell going) . Have you tried the trick with the dog yet? - I have seen it work (under tight control though)
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We have tried the dog trick but she still wont accept it. We will keep trying to get hold of her to milk her. Will try again tomorrow.
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Notice you rubbed the lamb with it's dead sibling, you really need to skin it & put the "jacket" on the live lamb.
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How have you been feeding the rejected lamb? - if by bottle it will now be unlikely to suck from the ewe. Tubing is better at this early stage, and I have to say, in this situation I am not too gentle with the ewe - pin her to the side of the pen (I have a sflk txl X that behaves similar), hold with my knees (if need be tie her to the corner) and put the lamb as close as possible to the teat. They normally suck if done soon after birth.
However if the ewe now "lost" both of her lambs - she will have too much milk, and will need easing out. Otherwise mastitis is almost certain.
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If you can skin dead lamb then i would, but leave tail on this is the bit mum smells the most.Or you may just be better to orphan this lamb off and bottle rear it. hand milking mum is hard work so it maybe better to dry her off by not milking her anymore just keep an eye on her udder for mastitis
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I couldnt skin the lamb, but did think about it. We are hand rearing him. He's doing very well at the moment and seems to be putting on weight. Thankyou for all your advice.. I'll keep you informed as to how he is doing.
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That's great, good luck with him it is very rewarding rearing lambs and good experience for the future.
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I have a shetland ewe with 2 day old twins that rejected one. I'm now stantioning the ewe to allow him to feed. I tube fed the first day, hoping she will eventually give in to the fact she has 2 instead of one.She is an older ewe that usually only has one lamb so hope this works. great to find some ideas here
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we have a shetlad first timer who though protective wont let her lamb feed - we milk her every couple of hours and feed this to lamb them when finished give lamblac as top up and also put lamb under her - hard work but I live in hope that they might both get the hang of it if I keep up - she was born early saturday morning and still with us and in pen with mum! who is very protective but just wont let her feed. We bottle fed colostrum and tube fed her early on day two when we had to bring her in to warm up by the aga when she was a bit flat.
Luckily our vet is next door - cost me a good bottle of red but great that he came round and helped get us sorted as we are first time lambers - shetlands are supposed to be so easy!!!!
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horsemadmummy - I have had the same with Swaledale first timers, and not just once or twice. Usually it has resolved after a day or two, especially where the ewe seems to love the lamb. Where she gets cross with the lamb or even seems to actively dislike it it can take longer - once I persevered for a week before the ewe capitulated. I have only occasionally given up, usually because I simply can't devote the amount of time to a single couple in a busy lambing period. (I have been known to tie the ewe up with a halter, though never to leave the shed with anyone so tied up. I often think about making an 'adopter' pen but have never quite gotten around to it...)
I wonder whether by now you would be able to get the lamb to suckle directly, rather than having still to milk mum and bottle baby; it would reduce your workload a little and help to get the ewe used to the feeling.
The other thing I sometimes do is have a woman-to-ewe conversation in which I explain that the sheep are not pets and that freeloaders don't get to stay on the farm. The word "chops" is sometimes used in this conversation. You would be amazed how many times it has worked... ;)
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Update on lamb. He is doing realy well. We had him inside with us for the first 4 days, then I put him in the stable with the other ewes but made a small pen for him. He seemed realy content. I put a box in for him with a blanket. I am still bottle feeding him. Then when I went down yesterday morning he had got out and joined up with one of the other ewes with her lambs. He seemed so happy to be out and with them i have left him with them. We all keep a check on him and give him his bottle, but so far he is realy happy and the other sheep have accepted him. He follows me after I have fed him but he soon goes off and finds the others. All being well he will continue to grow. :wave: :sheep: :)
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That's great, marie.
Only thing to watch out for now is that he isn't 'pinching' off ewes who can't spare any and whose own lambs then go short and/or she gets mastitis - hopefully there won't be a problem this year as there seems to be lots of grass and ewes are good and milky.
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He isnt suckling from any ewes. He waites for us to feed him. He has also got friendly with one of the rams, I will keep an eye on him though.
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You could rub the lamb with its mother's milk, or even if you want to adopt it onto another ewe, then it can be rubbed in the other ewes afterbirth, so she then thinks its her own lamb.
Hope this helps