The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Remy on April 02, 2020, 04:55:26 pm
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One of my ewes had two lambs pulled out by the vet as she had produced a water bag in the morning, another in the afternoon and looked uncomfortable but was not pushing, so vet was called as I have arthritis and was worried I may not be able to pull the lambs out as she was extremely tight in the birth canal. One of the lambs couldn't stand up and was thrashing about so I regularly put it onto the mum, and tried to make it stand throughout the day. Eventually on day two it stood for a while on its own but couldn't get up if it fell down. After three days of this it finally got up on its own and the ewe let it suckle. Five days on and the ewe won't let this lamb suckle unless the other one is on her. It hasn't passed any sticky meconium like the other one although I did see it pass a small dropping after a couple of days, so it does have an opening! I'm wondering if the reason the ewe is not fully accepting it is because she can't smell anything on its rear end, as she is always sniffing them there. What is the best recommendation to get things moving? An enema or oil?
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If it had not passed its meconium then it would be dead , if you really want to give it an enema then warm soapy water using a syringe and tube for giving colostrum orally with lambing lubricant on the end . ti might just be that the lamb is not taking in enough milk to produce lots of sticky yellow poo , if the other lamb is producing lots then just rub their bums together
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Why not just take some of the sticky stuff of the backend from its twin? If indeed the lack of smell was the problem, then that should solve it. I would persevere and keep latching the lamb on for a few days at least. If the ewe was lambed she will not necessarily know she had two lambs?
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I had almost the same situation. One lamb was big and the other very underdeveloped and struggled to stand. Ewe didn’t want it to feed but he could get away with it when his brother was on. Mum took a while to recover from the birth, wasn’t eating or drinking, and because the first lamb was so big and thirsty I took the little lamb out so she could focus on the one she liked. Vet said this was a good decision.
I didn’t know if the ewe maybe sensed something was “wrong” with the little lamb (albeit he found his feet in the end, she didn’t like him crawling about around her) and this is why she rejected him?