The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: kanisha on May 04, 2011, 04:28:11 pm
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First time mum all going well except she has got very little milk. Am I better feeding to keep the lamb on the bottle ( but with mum) or is it Ok ( ie not going to cause a digestive upset ) to top up the ewes milk with a bottle once or twice a day?
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Is she still at the colostrum stage if so there won't be much there, try a good thumping and massage and stripping some away to make her produce a bit more but don't waste what you strip away give it to the lamb
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Hi thanks have stripped the colostrum ( two days ago) and gave that to the lamb in the hope that her milk would come in, it really hasn't ( yet) so far the lamb has just been on mums milk but it clearly isn't enough.
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ASK vet for some oxytocin and top the lamb up ,the milk should come .
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thanks :)
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Leave the lamb with the ewe - the sucking action should help to stimulate more milk production. Top up the lamb though if it looks hungry.
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we had a ewe that had no milk at all, she had a lung infection so I guess that caused her to be a bit under the weather and not produce anything at all, any how we gave the lamb some colostrum power for the first day, then bottles of lamlac as directed, he is doing really well and kept him with his mum, so he runs for his bottle and then runs back to his mum after he has demolished it, so he still has a good bonding and not too humanised.
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Many thanks for all the replies. She went out into the field today with mum and a full belly i'm happy to report this evening its still full :)
(http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd278/SperedBreizh/P1000408.jpg)
BTW the orange feeder next to her is a chicken feeder, she is tiny