The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: shotblastuk on April 09, 2016, 12:57:31 am
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Bit of advice/what would you consider doing.
I've had a case of acute mastitis in one of my ewes. fortunately I caught it early and with the aid of antibiotics/antiinflammatory and pain killers and some tlc the ewe is back to good health, of course only firing on one good cylinder now.
She has two ewe lambs at 25 days old which are doing ok, they are taking creep and haylege and cudding and supping occasionally from the good side of the udder when allowed but Mum's a bit tender.
My dilemma is I think they are a little young to be without a full belly of milk so should I supplement with a bottle for a couple of weeks or leave them as they are and keep an eye on the situation? I don't want to separate them at this stage if I can help it.
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I'd top up if you think they're not getting enough - but only twice a day, and not a full ration, so that they keep going to mum and feeding from her, stimulating her milk production.
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Thanks Sally. I will take your advice. They're at that age where they're too young to wean too old to remove. My first bottle feeders in three years of lambing.!!
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You may find it difficult to get them to bottle feed at this age. Their growth rate may be a bit slower than optimum but they should survive.