The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: sokel on May 21, 2014, 06:51:18 pm
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our last 2 Ryeland lambs where born at 9pm last night both gimmers and 1 is tiny
both fed although the tiny one was very wobbly
this morning the tiny one was flat out and couldn't stand.
warmed her up then got 100mls of colostrum into her.
We had to pop out for an hour, when we got back she was not moving at all and mum was nudging her and talking to her.
I really did think she was dead. but when I touched her she did stretch her legs out. mum was stressed when I took her out so left her in. 10 mins later we where shocked to see her with her head up 30 mins later she was on her feet but still not feeding from mum .
she is taking 100mls every couple of hours from the bottle. how much should I aim to try and get into her a day ? bearing in mind she is only half the size of her sister
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I can't help with advice but from one set of Ryeland twins I had the second lamb was very tiny. She was a long time getting to her feet and couldn't stand to suckle. We kept holding her up to mum but it didn't seem to make any difference. We gave her a squirt of kickstart and most of it went over our hands instead of down her throat. .
Each time I went in to see them I was expecting to find her dead. I kept my fingers firmly crossed and now she is the ring leader. She leads all the other lambs a merry dance.
Fingers crossed that yours comes through as well. :fc:
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If you can get her to take a little every couple of hours, she'll get plenty for the first day or two. You've done the most important thing, which is the 100ml of colostrum promptly. :thumbsup:
If you're worried about her getting too much, it's better to limit her to 50ml every couple of hours (she'll be fine for 6-7 hours overnight if she's been feeding regularly throughout the day ;)) than to feed her less frequently, just for the first 24-48 hours while she's so weak.
Hopefully she'll start feeding off mum as she gets stronger, and will take less from you.
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Can you milk off the ewe and give some to her? It will contain antibodies specific to the challenges on your holding and will prime her immune system for the future.
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Thanks for the replys. She is trying to latch onto mum but so far she has not managed on her own so we will continue as we are for now.
she is def stronger than she was yesterday :fc:
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What Sally said is pretty much what I do too. I reckon that by emulating mum's feeding, little and often I can make a weak lamb a bit greedy and get it to the stage where it goes looking for extra from mum. If the lamb has stronger siblings it may be having to wait it's turn for a teat and getting the dregs. Give it an advantage and build it up a bit then just watch it go!
Good luck :)