The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: craiglockwood on August 02, 2011, 12:53:17 pm
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I have just two lambs, both 4 months old. They seemed to be joined at the hip but over the past 2-3 days, one has been very distant and constantly hiding in longer grass.
She seems to have very little energy but is eating. I managed to 'force' her to drink water with a bottle but she still chooses to hide (often in a corner and hiding her face).
Before this weekend she was very lively, but she is now obviously off colour.
Any advice on what I should be doing?
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I'd look to give her a course of antibiotics, both short and long acting perhaps some teramycin based long acting but a penicillin based short acting. 40ml of calciject (make sure it is the one with glucose in it) under the skin will help give her a boost (twice a day until you see improvement). Once i'd done that to try and stabilize the situaltion I'd be trying to find out what is causeing the worry. Is she all bellied and bloated which would point to having eaten something bad, it could be a meningitus (the antibiotics will help against this) which will put them off their legs very fast. Seen lambs go like this with fly strike but i'm pretty sure you would have noticed that. If she won't eat in the next 24-48 hours try her with tree ivy, that can some times stimulate them to eat.
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I have seen this with fly strike especially when it is between the legs under the belly, I would start there and then go through the list above.
Whatever it is you need to act quickly lambs cannot tolerate too much before giving up
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Maggots was my first thought.
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I managed to take a quick look this morning and she doesn't seem to have maggots/flystrike. I will give a thorough inspection as soon as I get home.
If it were to be maggots, what treatment is recommended?
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I use coopers spot on to kill the blighters if I haven't got that to hand iodine will work but make sure you have trimmed away the wool and take it further back than the strike area as they can be hiding under there when you think you have got the lot.
If it has strike and is this listless it will be bad so anti biotics will probably be a must for a young one. I have been lucky and all of mine that have been struck are strong and I have never had to use anti biotics except a spray of terramycin a coulpe of days after the maggots have gone.
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At this time of year I'd clip the lamb all over so that the maggots have no habitat to live in then dress the wounds with maggot oil which sooths the wounds and keeps the flys away. Otherwise i'd treat the lamb with crovect which will kill the maggots and stop reinfection. clipping the wool away from the affected area isn't always needed when using crovect, other treatmants (vetrazin and click) will need the wool and the maggots removed for them to be affective.
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Maggots can go into clean wool on their backs for example, and you will not see anything until it is very established - been there last year and was very upset about it all.... If you can grab her, go all over her body and check through the fleece. If all is clean - could she have caught pneumonia? Did they get vaccinated with heptavac or similar?
If nothing like this, antibiotic and possibly anti-inflammatory should help, sometimes you just don't know what it is.
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Hiding head in grass probably means fed up of flies even if not actually struck. Check ears, horn buds, around the mouth, for any scabs or bloody bits. If found, look whether there seems to be any infection and use terramycin spray if infected, antiseptic otherwise. A fly repellant (mind the eyes) will help.
Depending on where you are and the local mineral deficiencies the lambs may be needing a mineral drench. Up here our grasses are short on cobalt, copper and selenium so the local animal health suppliers stock drenches to top up particularly on those - and a one without extra copper for Texels, which are naturally good at managing on low copper and in fact can be harmed, even killed, by excessive copper in their diets.
Does the sickly ewe lamb walk ok when you get her up? Sometimes they get scald between the toes, become reticent to walk, get bothered by flies, retreat into the long grass...
Sorry if I am hurling too many ideas at you - it's just it could be a host of things and I'm hoping that between us we offer you the right idea(s) of what to look for and how to deal with it!
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Any news on the lamb?
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update on your wee lamb please :sheep: :sheep: