The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: sokel on April 22, 2013, 10:15:21 pm
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We have a lamb here that is on the bottle , we are 99% sure it is blind :(
When she came we noticed she was different within minutes but as the week has gone on we are convinced she cant see.
She is a very strong feeder but as soon as you pick her up she starts sucking on anything she gets her mouth on ,
She does find the creep and hay and nibbles on both but when she gets to a sheep hurdle she puts his head through it and tries to continue to walk :-\
Any idea what her future would be like or if she even has a future?
If she could manage she would have a home for life with a stable and secure paddock to live in and another ewe lamb for company
she is living in a stable at the moment with the other orphans
Any advice would be great
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Maybe she isn't, my orphan tonight was following me about as I did a few joinery repairs and was sucking my fleece, chin and ears - but as soon as I move she follows my ankles/trousers - in her pen she definitely believes she can get through!! Hope she picks up.
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I wrote this on another thread about my blind lamb:
A Shetland ewe here had a single blind ewe lamb a few years ago (the ewe herself had only one eye but that was unrelated and it's a different story (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/sheep.gif) (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/grin.gif) ) Once we realised the lamb was blind (she ran away from her dam every time she was approached and was quite scared) we penned them up together for a few days. The lamb wouldn't feed when outside and I was worried the ewe wouldn't cope even in the pen. We left them overnight expecting a dead lamb by the morning but she was up and bouncing - unfortunately smack into the pen sides which made us all wince. After a couple of days we put them outside together - lamb stayed close beside her dam and the dam soon became used to her lamb's funny ways. We thought she wouldn't join in with the lamb wacky races, but she would put herself right in the middle of the group, so she could hear lambs all around her, then run as fast as they did. She did occasionally crash, but mostly she was ok. Once she grew a bit older the ewe would wander further afield to graze, and the lamb would follow her scent trail to find her, if she wasn't calling - this meant that even if her dam was only 20 yards away, the lamb would take a wiggly route to find her. Eventually she was weaned and continued to find her way about but a couple of years later her dam died. I felt sorry for her as she was now lonely, having relied so much on her dam. So we put her to the tup (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/Smileys/default/shocked.gif) . When her lamb was born we had the reverse of her own birth - she would butt the lamb if she went straight to the udder, so the lamb learnt to bump the blind dam's chest so she could smell her, before going under to feed.
Because your lamb would have another one for close company, like having a twin, I think she would be fine. They might have to stay together forever, with the sighted lamb keeping an eye (ha) on the blind one. Our Alice dropped down dead suddenly when she was about 4, no obvious cause, but she had a very happy and relatively normal life.
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Hi I am in NZ and have two blind sheep. One -also called Alice is 6 years old and is the fattest healthiest sheep ever! She has lived with her mates (all pets) for her life since she was found blinded by pink eye as a four- six week old lamb on a friends farm. She wouldnt feed from the bottle and was very dehydrated, but came right with lamb meal, grass and possibly a bit of water from the bottle. I talk to her constantly when with her, and she became tame and reliant on myself and the other pet sheep very quickly. She calls if she is lost or worried, and listens intently to everything that goes on. I keep her only in safe paddocks, you have to make sure there are no sharp things (such as wire ends on the fence sticking out) holes in the ground and ponds or rivers. She is incredible and knows her way around her paddock and a couple small ones that she and her friend are rotated into. I put her in the same one each night with a good shelter, and she finds her way in. I have also just got a 4 month old lamb with her sighted mother who was born blind, the three of them now are living together) the weather is terrible here and I am keeping her in the shed with supplements and a pile of grass so she does not chill (she has a cover on) until she knows her way around properly and has put more weight on. Just before i got her, she was bumped by some bigger lambs (she is small) and hurt her back making her back legs limp at different times. With med from the vet this is coming right after three weeks. I am wondering with her if she has a skin over one of her eyes, which i will get the vet to look at once she is stronger. The other is folded and blind. Check that your lamb does not have pink eye, as i have had totally blind lambs with this (sore and red and weeping)which were totally blind, who with ointment from the vet can now see. One is still blind in one eye as it had ruptured but it has healed.
So YES blind lambs become strong and healthy and love their lives too, the sun and warmth, being patted and hanging out with their paddock mates. You sound like your setup is great, I think she will be fine. Try to find out though what has caused it, if she has a infection or it is just how she is. Blind eyes are milky normally. Lead her around the paddock as she grows and watch that the other lambs ae gentle with her. Sheep pellets shaken in a bucket are a good lead.
I dont breed any lambs, and would suggest probably avoid breeding from her, as there will be enough stress in her life with shearing , vaccinations etc . Though Fleecewife your Alice sounds like she got it sorted with her lamb! Good luck!
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sokel I posted almost indentically last week!!!.... But I'm not sure he's blind now - still tries to feed off everything except the teat in front of him, but follows me around the field so who knows? Strongest lamb we have so far! My neighbour said - 'no he's just daft'! Good luck and great posts above.
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Thanks for the replies, She does bump into things and if we go in there quietly she does not respond until we speak. Once we speak her head turns to our direction and she heads that way. As long as we keep talking she finds us but if we are quiet she goes past us.
She cant find the bottle racks so she is on bottles only.
She would have a lifetime home and we would keep one of the ewe lambs as a companion for her, infact we have already noticed one in particular always sleeps beside her
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thats fabulous I think shell be fine, good luck.
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She would have a lifetime home and we would keep one of the ewe lambs as a companion for her, infact we have already noticed one in particular always sleeps beside her
:love:
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We had a blind lamb we reared on the bottle - and she did manage the bottle-rack system, by learning to follow the others in the pack to the rack.
It's a long story but she's ended up still here and in lamb. ::)
Graham, I've PMed you about her - she and your wee lamb would have something special in common! Although it could of course be the blind leading the blind - literally! :roflanim:
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One of my best Dorset Downs was totally blind from birth....we didnt notice to start with ntil she walked straight into a gate post! She went on to lamb herself and was a very good if very loud mum. She had a special friend in another ewe who was a lamb at the same time as her and would walk by her. She was sold eventually to a forever home with her friend.
They manage very well, the only 'problem' i had was when lambing outdoors.....as trying to move her and a new lamb/s into a pen took 2 people at least!!!!
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Thanks we have decided she will just stay here and we will take things from day to day, might even have a friend coming in the future for her ::)
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Sadly we lost this little one today :( She didnt get up for the first feed this morning then only took half what she usualy does. We took her indoors and She gradualy deteriated as the day went on and she died at 3pm
Really got to me :'(
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Oh that's so sad. Wasn't expecting that :'( . You have a big lovely heart and I'm sure her short life was a happy one.
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I am so sorry to hear that, you take care. You sound like you really tried, and it will have made such a difference for her knowing there was someone there for her, that she wasnt all alone. It is very sad.
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Sorry to hear about your little lamb, bless her heart :bouquet:
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Oh that's terribly sad.
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I really feel for you. We had a pair of blind lambs this year. I think they got chilled - we lamb outside - and maybe they had brain damage. But we brought them in to the house and had them in a haybox by the rayburn and eventualy they regained their strength after a week enough to go back outside and into the barn with mum. Amazingly she took them back, even though they had no concept of her as mum and she was by then dry. We fed them every four hours, all through the night for two weeks then down to three times a day eventually. They grew, prospered, got quite strong. They went outside into the straw yard with other lambs and tried to play with them but kept getting hung up on hurdles or crashing into things. We'd rescue them out of the water trough and put them in the barn again at night. Finally, one awful afternoon, We found one drowned in the water trough. My wife cried her heart out. I took the other to the vet and had it put down. She fought the injection with a real desire to stay alive and I felt like a complete brute, but I could not let her face life without her sister and worry she was going to die anytime. Once before we ahd a blind lamb but he had a sighted sister and they went everywhere together quite happily and it was fine, but this, well, this was just too stressful. It was the worst moment in 15 years sheep keeping, so like I say, I really feel for you. Sorry