The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: bj_cardiff on March 08, 2020, 06:43:26 am
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Are some breeds more suseptable to never taking their first breath than others? I've been using Lleyn rams on my Lleyn ewes for years and its never been an issue but this year I used a Texel on 12 of them and have had three perfectly formed lambs that simply didn't take their first breath. Two of them I found in the morning, cleaned off and looking prefect and one of them I lambed myself. The lamb I lambed was born alive, came out, kicked around quite a bit but wouldn't take a breath, I tickled its nose, swung it, even tried mouth to mouth but it wouldn't breath and died. Two of the ewes had singles and one had a second lamb that I pulled which was perfectly healthy.
I'm wondering if its the Ram?
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The 2 that you found- could they have died during lambing I.e if they came backwards? Are they full term or slightly prem- if too early the lungs aren’t developed enough to inflate, something to do with surfactant ?
If they are just too weak then maybe get the vet to blood test a few ewes after lambing to see if toxo is a problem?
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The 2 that you found- could they have died during lambing I.e if they came backwards? Are they full term or slightly prem- if too early the lungs aren’t developed enough to inflate, something to do with surfactant ?
Thinking back the first one could of been premature, it just had a slightly 'flat' look to it and its head was a bit underdeveloped. The one this morning was perfectly formed, not to big, or small. I suspect your right, the first was premature with undeveloped lungs and the second was a breech and drowned before he came out.
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Bit gross for first thing but if you want to know if they were born dead or took a breath and died, open them up and look at whether the lungs have inflated.
Any more and I would get a PM.
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The 2 that you found- could they have died during lambing I.e if they came backwards? Are they full term or slightly prem- if too early the lungs aren’t developed enough to inflate, something to do with surfactant ?
Thinking back the first one could of been premature, it just had a slightly 'flat' look to it and its head was a bit underdeveloped. The one this morning was perfectly formed, not to big, or small. I suspect your right, the first was premature with undeveloped lungs and the second was a breech and drowned before he came out.
Sorry :-[ it’s rubbish when things go wrong. It would be worth pm anymore and taking some ewe bloods after lambing if you have any more weak ones... toxo can be prevented if it’s that that’s causing the problems :) hope the rest of lambing goes better for you