The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Keelan H on June 25, 2016, 09:54:44 pm
-
About 2 months ago i purchased a weaned orphan lamb, since then he has lost a lot of condition to the extent that you can feel each individual rib and basically all of his spine. I Heptavced a while back and wormed him today as i put them on some fresh grass. I thought it may be worms but he's not scouring and apart from being a bit unsteady on his feet h is fine. The vet said he may just not be a 'do-er'.
so i'm a bit lost on what it could be, i'll see if there is any improvement over the next few days after the wormer has kicked in. Has anyone else got any ideas?
Many thanks,
Keelan
-
White muscle disease?
-
How old was he when you bought him, and at what age had he been weaned?
-
Johne's disease is a slow wasting disease, usually showing up in older animals.
Orphan lambs often don't get a full dose of colostrum or a good start in life as they often are short of milk from their mothers in the first days and that's why they are taken away.
Like Sally says, age when you got him and when he was weaned are likely to give clues as to whether he got enough time on milk replacer.
Are you feeding creep, as they usually need some extra protein to grow when they didn't get their mothers' milk?
-
When you say "a bit unsteady on his feet" does he appear stiff (possibly joint ill) or unsteady at the back end (possibly swayback). Orphan lambs can come with a back history of Mama being a ewe lamb that wasn't supposed to be tupped (and therefore didn't have a Heptavac booster pre-lambing), having little milk, being rejected, etc. A lamb weaned before 13 weeks old that hasn't been fed creep will have the odds stacked against it.
-
Thanks for all the replies guys,
he was around 9/10 weeks when i got him and was told he showed no more interest in the bottle and therefore was weaned. He's not stiff just rather weak, having been wormed two days ago he has just started scouring. Is this just a side effect of the wormer passing through him with any dead worms?
He was on creep up until about a month ago when i put them on fresh pasture but since yesterday has been back on feeding creep and also have a mineral lick.
Thanks again,
Keelan.
-
Does he have a companion? With all this rain again he possibly is getting too much wet grass? And possibly too rich for him? Ration his grazing? If he slacking energy perhaps he needs some Vitamins, n B 12? Wormer shouldn't cause him to scour.
-
Yeah he's been in a flock of about 14 others, I've got him in a stable with an lib hay, creep and today I gave him a mixture or ginger, syrup, sugar and water which appeared to brighten him up. before I'd have to pick him up so he could stand but today after school I found him up by himself which was good. He's still scouring though, but I brought him some willow leaves that he devoured so there's improvement at least. Still not sure what's wrong though!
Thanks again,
Keelan
-
Sounds like if you've been having to pick him up so he stands, it's a bit more than "unsteady on his feet". Sounds like something not right inside, may well be that without enough colostrum and possibly lacking roughage such as hay or straw to eat while his rumen was developing, his guts haven't developed to use grass properly. If he's improved on the regime you've described, you might be able to keep him going at that, but scouring after worming twice with ivermectin doesn't sound good. If your vet has checked him over, including faecal sample for any nasties, you may find that he will be a "poor doer" and if not able to get up himself and scouring it might be kinder to put him to sleep.
-
Good stuff! you could also give him a little apple cider vinegar mixed with water 1:1. Most health shops have it for a few quid, I keep Biona ACV for all manner of things. The idea is with the drench that the pectin in the ACV causes the gut to get a little sticky with the pectin and it kinda grabs the fibre as it moves through the gut, thus slowing down the faeces. Also it alledgedly normalises pH value, so cutting down the proliferation of bad bacteria that would thrive in Wishy washy pH value. That's what I would do.... perhaps a little combivit too?