The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: FiB on April 24, 2014, 08:14:03 am
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And it just keeps pulling through? Brilliant but emotionally exhausting! Had a lamb looking dead in field evening before last.... Alamiycin given and saw it up and with mother before night fall, all good. Dawn yesterday still with mum and looking ok.... 9 half lying in stream and shivering eyes closed and rolling. brought in, wrapped and warmed up.... Took it with me to vet to see if any stronger ab's, ended up being seen.... Sample taken for cocci, pneumonia not likely ( a relief because this was one of the surprise lambs who's mum was not given heptovac booster in time), could be worm burdens or tick borne disease.... But basically no idea but proclaimed unlikely to survive..... Still £40 poorer (whispers, so oh doesn't hear - he would go bonkers) go home, put in pen with nuts hay water and other pet lamb. Convulsions on and off through day, not taking more than 1-200 ml lamlac all day ... But standing and looking ok by evening. Mum came to get it evening so let it out to see... Happy to be together but no feeding and lamb wanders off towards stream.... Nope, back in pen not expecting it to survive night. Woke up this morning to find it standing in water bucket,but very much alive! Still won't have much lamlac,but have seen it sniffing the nuts so may be getting some.... At 4 weeks old and very well covered, maybe it have enough reserves to survive a couple of days on minimal food? Asked the vet about the water thing was that a sign of anything (other tha stupidity) she didn't think so (not dehydrated, temp ok). Phew. Needed to that off chest, anyway, 36 hours of minimal food that I can be sure about and still going. Vet gave it strongest abs, an anti inflammatory, wormer and drench for cocci... So hopefully one of those is the thing!
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Our first lambing in 2009, we had a lamb that was so poorly the vet asked if he could PM it after it died. She's now five years old ;D
:fc: :fc: :fc: for the wee lamb.
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You just never can tell - you get ones like this, seem to have a death wish but survive anything, then others seem well all along, feed well, never ail, and then just die.
Endlessly fascinating, an emotional rollercoaster - :love: :sheep:
:fc: for your lamb.
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Endlessly fascinating is one word for it! ;D It is though. At least the more I go on ( and the more I spend at the vets to come out with still no idea :-J ), the more reassured I feel that I am doing my best and that it is probably ok. As a novice the biggest worry is missing something stupid or not doing the right thing quick enough.... That's why having you guys on the end of a wifi is so golden :) :bouquet: :hug:
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It's probably a good idea to count a proportion of the vet fees as 'training/education', lol!
On a farm scale we can kind of shrug it off - a vet visit for an individual ewe may not make financial sense if you look at it that way, but overall so long as our vet fees are affordable across the flock, we just get the vet if its something we can't deal with.
Harder decisions sometimes with a very small flock, I guess. So chalking it up as 'training' makes sense!
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Fi, it sounds like a tough little lamb. Lets hope it gets stronger and stronger :fc:
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Unfortunately i've noticed that the little buggers often like to perk right up . . . . just before they keel over!
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Unfortunately i've noticed that the little buggers often like to perk right up . . . . just before they keel over!
Yep still not holding my breath, but it's still here......
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sounds strangely attracted to water?? In the stream, in a bucket....
anyway good luck!
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Hope he sorts himself out soon. If not for him then for your sanity :hug:
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As a novice the biggest worry is missing something stupid or not doing the right thing quick enough.... That's why having you guys on the end of a wifi is so golden :) :bouquet: :hug:
I know that feeling! Took my tiny cade ewe to the vet the Thurs before easter. She had started snuffling and although I know (i.e. read it in a book) they can get viral upper respiratory tract infections (a cold!) she had had no maternal colostrum and the day before a 4 day BH weekend didn't seem the right time to see how she went for a day or two. Picked up beautifully after 24 hours following antibiotics and metacam (or she just got better :innocent: ).
:fc: For your little one.
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ditto!
trouble is every time you learn how to deal with one crisis, the next sheep presents you with some new problem.
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soooo true Mab !! :sheep: :sheep:
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Mab, that's it in a nutshell ::) .
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Once they start fitting they're usually goners.
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Well it is still alive and strong now ( strong enough to very assertively resist me putting anything in its mouth! Did consider asking about tubing, is it too old?)- god knows what it's surviving on cause it won't take any lamlac... I wrestled 100ml into it this morning and managed a few hundred ml of rehydration fluids last night by syringe... It does have access to hay grass and growers... So MUST be sneaking some in else it would be dead by now. Got it shut in a shed at the moment with greedy pet lamb and some nuts (it's peeing down at mo, and ill lamb still doesn't seem to have full dose of sense and was just standing there getting soaked) - hoping it will copy pet lamb. The saga continues. There is still a chance :)
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did you ever consider some animals are just stoopid???
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This one certainly is a few pennies short, wether inherently or as result of illness.....definitely daft!
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I dread opening this thread just in case but its still good news :thumbsup:
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So sorry ;) I seem to have sucked others into my will it wont it! Is it best I finish here? I am 50/50 now each morning.... Just goes to show there is always hope (and antiinflamatories, antibiotics etc) even if no one has any idea and all are expecting the worst ;D
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So sorry ;) I seem to have sucked others into my will it wont it! Is it best I finish here? I am 50/50 now each morning.... Just goes to show there is always hope (and antiinflamatories, antibiotics etc) even if no one has any idea and all are expecting the worst ;D
Oh no Fi, you need to continue this thread until we know that the little lamb is raring to go
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Hell no Fib,
Some of us have all sorts of issues and need closure on daft lamb (his current name in my brain) and how he gets on, we expect regular update till he either dies (bad option) or he leaves the flock for whatever destiny awaits happy daft lambs!!!
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Ok then :) Daft lamb still strong and daft living on apparently air. Shut him in old chicken shed overnight with hay growers and water and he MUST be eating that as still STRONGLY opposed to lamlac from bottle. I would say he seems to be through worst :fc: .... But would be more confident if I could see him eating anything! (He had a mouth full of soil at last nights wrestling match to get about 30 ml of milk into him (and about 100 ml all over me where bottle teat pings out of mouth and sprays me). Anyway I slept better knowing he wasn't going to go of hypothermia at least. Out in the fields now, probably eating soil or standing in water trough(moved flock form the field with the stream in it, so that possibility removed. :innocent:
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:roflanim: ::) :sheep:
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SO pleased to read that he is still alive this morning FiB. You have invested so much time, effort ( and money!!) into trying to help him survive whatever has made him ill it would be so sad if he doesn't make a full recovery. As Bionic says, please keep us all informed of developments. At least the weather around us is a bit sunnier this morning Fib. Hopefully it will encourage him to keep fighting.
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You have made me smile on a sad day - so thank you FIB. Keep posting :thumbsup:
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Well 6th day of milk wrestling... (50 Ml in him this morning woo hoo)..... Be time to wean him by the time he has submitted! He is nearly 5 weeks old now, at least he had 4 good weeks on his mum. Spends morning penned up with pellets etc, afternoons moseying around field on his own (with the flock, but not actively WITH them) , presumably stealth eating (still no concrete evidenc of eating). I think we must conclude (touch wood) that daft lamb is here to stay - I've at least stopped going out EXPECTING a dead lamb. I'll post a pic later , but thanking you for all your company and support. :bouquet:
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:thumbsup: :sheep: :thumbsup: :sheep: :thumbsup: :sheep:
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Well 6th day of milk wrestling... (50 Ml in him this morning woo hoo)..... Be time to wean him by the time he has submitted! He is nearly 5 weeks old now, at least he had 4 good weeks on his mum. Spends morning penned up with pellets etc, afternoons moseying around field on his own, presumably stealth eating (still no concrete evidenc of eating). I think we must conclude (touch wood) that daft lamb is here to stay - I've at least stopped going out EXPECTING a dead lamb. I'll post a pic later , but thanking you for all your company and support. :bouquet:
My billy kid last year lost his sucking reflex when I brought him home, we fought all summer including an episode of near death at the vets on drip.... he finally started to properly suck his bottle just before Xmas... now he still gets a bottle at night and loves it! (He will be 1 year old this week)... but I have to thank my OH for persevering.
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Still here, still wandering around in his own world, still off milk.... But loving lick! Thanks again for all support :bouquet:
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I bet daft lamb will still be with you long after all his mates have gone into the freezer.... and he will still be called "daft lamb" too... :-J (is he castrated, he would make a great companion for a tup in future)
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He's a real cutie :love:
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Aw, bless his little wooly socks :love:
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I love the ones that have a real will to live :hugsheep:
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yay for daft lamb!!!
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Have just read this and was a little apprehensive reading through to the (current) end. So glad he's surviving on whatever he's surviving on!