The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Introduce yourself => Topic started by: dottydiva62 on April 16, 2010, 10:39:15 pm
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Help! I took on a pair of two week year old orphan lambs last weekend from our local farmer. I am feeding them 350ml lamlac 3 times a day and they also have pellets, water and hay that they can browse and nibble on. I am keeping them in my children's old wendy house with a huge bed of straw and I have made a little garden area for them so they can sit out in the sun during the day. I do shut them away when out for brief periods and at night as obvoiusly they are not big enough to fend off any passing fox. My main worries are should they not have feeds more frequently? What are the main poisonous plants in the garden, I know rhododendron is one but what about honeysuckle and laurel? Is it ok to let them out for a run in the garden supervised? What age should I let them out into the paddock with my donkeys? And finally am I doing it right? All advice greatly appreciated. Oh and lastly one has a little bit of discharge from his eye which I am bathing in mild salt water solution.
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Hello and welcome to the forum!!
I assume you are giving that amount three times a day? Are the lambs large/medium/small? Are they finishing off their bottles ...... Most people can only manage three feeds a day, or at the most 4, due to work, so don't worry. The amount you are giving sounds more than enough to me, althought as they grow they will want more of course!!
You are right to be cautious about putting them out in the paddock full time, they need to be quite big, as they have no mum for protection. It is best they are put in at night, but if its a nice day, no harm in them going in a little garden area, so long as they are safe there.
With regard to poisonous garden plants, most evergreens, in fact most garden plants can be poisonous to livestock. Laurel definitely is, and fir trees, yew, privet hedge etc. Daffodils too. I would keep them out of the garden if at all possible, if you think any of the above are growing there. We have honeysuckle in our hedges, so our animals have access to it. I would not be happy if they ate a lot though.
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hello and welcome
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Hi from Clackmannan :wave:
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Hello from Devon :)
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Hi and welcome from Alloa, in the rain!
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Is it railing? HAving a long lie this morning - now dressed and off out with the dogs. TTFN
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Hi welcome from the Scottish borders :wave: My sheep have all but demolished my leylandii hedge with no apparent ill effects. There are daffodils in their field and they seem to only have a little nibble on them too
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hello and welcome from Australia
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Hello and welcome, another Scottish Borderer too.
Don't want to put a spanner in the works, but have you got a holding number (DEFRA) and sheep herd number? You need them even if you only keep a couple of pet lambs. Are these for the freezer or for keeps? How much land have you got available? Have you got ear tags for them (I know they should be in when they leave their holding of birth, but their ears are quite small at this stage and tagging is no fun, the tags are bigger than their ears)
I think 4 feeds of 350 per feed would be good for them, space them evenly through the day, with the first and last one as early/late as possible within reason. Also if you are increasing their feed volume do it slowly, probably by about max 100ml per day, lets say increase two feeds by 50 ml each? That way you minimise the risk of runny back ends. Also I always make up Lamlac a wee bit less concentrated than it says on the packet, again reduces the risk.
Once they get to 4 - 6 weeks you should be thinking of vaccinating them, especially if you are not sure how much (if any) colostrum they got from the (boostered?) ewes. If you know any local farmer it may be easiest to ask for a couple of doses (2ml per lamb, has to be done twice 4 - 6 weeks apart) from them, minimum bottle sizes are quite large....
If the lambs eye doesn't get worse and you can clearly see its eye lashes on the lower lid without touching it, it has probably just got an eye infection from some hay seeds or similar. If it doesn't get better soon however, get some antibiotic ointment from the vet.
Sorry if all this sounds quite complicated, it really is not and they are a lot of fun!
Anke.