The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: kerplonk on April 28, 2010, 01:30:26 pm
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help!!!
twins born last night,one is fine but the boy has a bent neck.mum has not rejected him, cleaning him regularly. sadly, he is finding it difficult to latch on to mums teat, when i attach him, he suckles. any ideas? perhaps i could make a simple neck brace.
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Hi! Kerplonk, This might not be of great help, but I am wondering whether this 'bent neck' might clear up after a while - I have had a number of lambs with bent ears (I know thats slightly different as there are no joints in the ears), but they do straighten out after a few days. Meantime, make sure he's feeding regularly. Might be an idea to speak to your vet or experienced local farmer.
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thanks for that info.
i am feeding him with a bottle...going to try and milk mother as she has got loads of milk.
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Hi, don't give up on him. Keep bottle feeding and perhaps turn mum over and lie lamb so he can feed in a position comfortable to him.
I had one who ended up looking backwards and not sure if this was just due to an attack in the night. He has after a week or so fully recovered and although a bit stiff in the neck feeds fine (quite often when mum lying down initially) but now playing with other lambs and calling.
Perhaps mum lay on him or position on womb. Keep fingers crossed and just make sure he feeds. I did also try gentle massage to relieve any possible muscle spasm but not sure if effective.
Good luck
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I was wondering if it was to do with the position in the womb - maybe got squashed by the other twin? We have had a goat kids born with bent back legs, and also a lamb. I put this down to how they had been lay in the womb - you can imagine if you had been in one place for a while, you would be feeling a bit bent too. Anyway, after a few days both lamb and goat kid were looking much better. Hope your lamb is too. So long as you can get it to feed, there is hope that it may recover.
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This condition is unfortunately fairly common its also associated with having bent knuckles and twisted legs. if they don't improve and straighten out then on commercial farms they are a disaster as they can't be sold through the marts and have to have a vet signed form as 'safe to transport' for slaughter.
sometimes they do come right, splinting knuckled lambs for 3 days often helps 'gye necked' or bent necked lambs are more difficult to deal with we usually have a rule that if they can suckle by themselves they have a chance.
as scotsgirl and roxy say current theory is that is caused by position in the womb and that it is more prevelant in the larger breeds especially when they are fed to rear heavier lambs.
good luck with this lamb massaging and exercising his neck muscles may help