The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Lilljoho on March 05, 2014, 08:01:46 pm
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Hi everybody
Hope lambing is going well for everyone.
My lambing has been going well until I had a blip today. Two of my older ewes lambed but they both have had one live lamb and a dead lamb. The dead lambs have been dead sometime, one at a few weeks and the other barely resembled a lamb so longer than a few weeks. Is this just one of those things or should I have the fetus tested for infections?
Thanks in advance for replies
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Cant comment on why but I would defo get the vet to look at them and test them!
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sounds very suspicious of toxoplasmosis. I'd get them checked out as if it is you could vaccinate next year to prevent losses. Put lambs from each ewe into seperate bags together with the afterbirth to go to the lab. If you dont have the cleanings then you may want to get a blood sample taken to put in with the lambs. Toxoplasmosis is more easily detected from the placenta than from the lamb, but a high blood titre would also inidcate a probable diagnosis. The lab will also screen for other causes of abortion. Remember the potential health risks to humans!
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Quick update, I've spoken to my vet and we're going to blood test them so we know what we're dealing with if theres a problem.
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just saw this older post, did you get a result from the blood tests?
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Interested too.... I had one dead one live twin (but mine are outdoors, so it is possible mine died at birth or shortly after as it was a rainy cold night and unusually she lambed before dawn which is when I do first check. My dead one looked fine and was clean one side Either licked or rain, and still slimed on underside, so assumed born dead. Looked perfect though.)
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I had one born live and a second one, an hour later, born dead. It looked perfect. Perhaps for mine it was just that there was too long a delay between births.
Having said that I had another set of twins where the delay between first and second was even longer and they are both alive and perfect :thumbsup:
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It might be a good idea to get the feotus tested.
We had a calf aborted last week it looked perfectly normal and was 2 months away from being born. It could be salmonella infection, however if it was it might have affected the other lamb and killed both of them.
Hope this helps.
Thanks
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stress of being born ? failure to take first breath ? membrane over head ? umbilical detatched ? died in the womb ? hypothermia ? etc
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I had one born live and a second one, an hour later, born dead. It looked perfect. Perhaps for mine it was just that there was too long a delay between births.
Having said that I had another set of twins where the delay between first and second was even longer and they are both alive and perfect :thumbsup:
very much down to luck but also the strength and energy of the ewe in cases like this, so when i keep sheep year round and start lambing a a few years i will keep a bottle of twin lamb drench on hand
in cases like this if the ewe hasn't had the second with in about 20 mins i would catch her gently and have one person restraining/holding her and then i would go up behind and feel inside try and locate the lamb and pull it out as it might not be presented correctly
Cheers Ed
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I had one born live and a second one, an hour later, born dead. It looked perfect. Perhaps for mine it was just that there was too long a delay between births.
Having said that I had another set of twins where the delay between first and second was even longer and they are both alive and perfect :thumbsup:
very much down to luck but also the strength and energy of the ewe in cases like this, so when i keep sheep year round and start lambing a a few years i will keep a bottle of twin lamb drench on hand
in cases like this if the ewe hasn't had the second with in about 20 mins i would catch her gently and have one person restraining/holding her and then i would go up behind and feel inside try and locate the lamb and pull it out as it might not be presented correctly
Cheers Ed
Thanks for the info Ed but with only 5 ewes we didn't get them scanned and therefore didn't know they were expecting twins. My local farmer told me to check by feeling their stomach with my first but that didn't work for me either. :(
We did have another set of twins that was taking too long between births and realised that there was a mis presented. So OH had to help out and we had 2 healthy lambs :)
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I had one born live and a second one, an hour later, born dead. It looked perfect. Perhaps for mine it was just that there was too long a delay between births.
Having said that I had another set of twins where the delay between first and second was even longer and they are both alive and perfect :thumbsup:
very much down to luck but also the strength and energy of the ewe in cases like this, so when i keep sheep year round and start lambing a a few years i will keep a bottle of twin lamb drench on hand
in cases like this if the ewe hasn't had the second with in about 20 mins i would catch her gently and have one person restraining/holding her and then i would go up behind and feel inside try and locate the lamb and pull it out as it might not be presented correctly
Cheers Ed
Thanks for the info Ed but with only 5 ewes we didn't get them scanned and therefore didn't know they were expecting twins. My local farmer told me to check by feeling their stomach with my first but that didn't work for me either. :(
We did have another set of twins that was taking too long between births and realised that there was a mis presented. So OH had to help out and we had 2 healthy lambs :)
when i start lambing will only have 3 or so ewes so won't get them scanned either due to cost but i will try to lamb them all in pens i reckon and that way if not much seems to be happening after one is out and a few minutes have passed i will have a feel up inside her
Cheers Ed
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also what breed? just some are known to be very easy lambing (like the Clyyn i am working with and shall be getting) and some rather hard and most ewes need help (can't think of any by name right now but there are some!)
Cheers Ed
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I had one born live and a second one, an hour later, born dead. It looked perfect. Perhaps for mine it was just that there was too long a delay between births.
Having said that I had another set of twins where the delay between first and second was even longer and they are both alive and perfect :thumbsup:
very much down to luck but also the strength and energy of the ewe in cases like this, so when i keep sheep year round and start lambing a a few years i will keep a bottle of twin lamb drench on hand
in cases like this if the ewe hasn't had the second with in about 20 mins i would catch her gently and have one person restraining/holding her and then i would go up behind and feel inside try and locate the lamb and pull it out as it might not be presented correctly
Cheers Ed
Thanks for the info Ed but with only 5 ewes we didn't get them scanned and therefore didn't know they were expecting twins. My local farmer told me to check by feeling their stomach with my first but that didn't work for me either. :(
We did have another set of twins that was taking too long between births and realised that there was a mis presented. So OH had to help out and we had 2 healthy lambs :)
when i start lambing will only have 3 or so ewes so won't get them scanned either due to cost but i will try to lamb them all in pens i reckon and that way if not much seems to be happening after one is out and a few minutes have passed i will have a feel up inside her
Cheers Ed
all right ed,
I've 1 ewe that always as its 2nd lamb 2 hours apart, if sheeps not stressesd I leave well alone. I don't bother with scanning my self either. its really done for extra feed for triplets etc. but I'd rather go on condition as a ewe carrying a single can be in worse condition than a healthy ewe cattying triplets :thumbsup: