[Lockdownlambs]

5 week old triplet , had been doing well but suddenly went off colour and had diarrhoea, got diatrim from vet, but continued to get weaker. Another trip to vet and this time slighted bloated and constipated. Vitamin injection and buscopan given along with emena. We had been holding ewe for it to suck as it’s now to weak to fight it’s brothers at feeding. Have now tried to supplement with a tube feed to keep it dehydrated . It’s just slow and weak and obviously not getting relieved. It is just a case that this lamb has an issue we aren’t going to be able to resolve. I don’t know what else to do and the vet basically said they had done everything they can but I want to try everything I can. Any ideas or remedies to try?

[SallyintNorth]

We have posts about relieving bloat using yoghurt, sunflower oil, ginger, bicarb of soda...  Some use charcoal... 

There's a thread discussing using this in lambs here

:bookmark: bloat remedy

[shep53]

Did the vet take a poo sample ? 5wk old diarrhoea  , was it very smelly ?   i'd be thinking coccidiosis ?

[twizzel]

I was going to say the same as shep, get the vet to do a worm egg count.

[Lockdownlambs]

Vet never mentioned coccidiosis or took sample. Could it be and would this be how it would leave a lamb? They just said that there were very hard pellets which were creating a blockage, this was after it had been treated for the scour. Just seems very weak but is getting up , bleating and going after mum and the other lambs and when we hold her he will go in and suck quite aggressively. Was nibbling thorn hedge today but not eating grass or creep. Stomach still swollen, just looks poorly and I’m not sure how else to help it

[shep53]

From your latest description it reads as a lamb that is starving ,when a ewe has triplets to rear they may all get enough milk to start then often 1 starts to get pushed out and slowly this gets worse so the lamb has to drink water and try to eat grass , leaves to fill its stomache but at 4-5 wks old its rumen is not developed so it cannnot get sufficient nutrition and goes lean ,slow to move  ,rinkly skin ( dehydration ) (hard dry poo ) and develops a large  " pot belly "  .  It is on a knife edge  ,if you do nothing  it MAY survive but will always be under developed with a pot belly  , if you try to help it MAY survive , it is often very difficult to get a lamb of this age to take a bottle  ,it needs lots of patience  , you could try milk in a bowl or bucket  which it MAY drink  ,tubing again is very difficult for a lamb of this age and not a long term solution  but will help keep it alive  . When you say it sucks aggressively ,does it actually get much milk or has his siblings taken all ?  . Good luck     .  A ewe has to be very milky and on the best of grass  ,hard feed to rear triplets well

[Lockdownlambs]

Hi thanks for your reply, we have been tubing it just to get milk in it and have now started it on bottle not sucking well but getting it in him at least. Trying to encourage the creep and a little hay. Will continue to do this regularly throughout the day. The sheep is on good grass and getting nuts and has plenty of milk, knew it was a gamble keeping three on her but it was all positive at the start. Will continue feeding this little guy and hope we can bring him around as long as there isn’t another issue with him.