[melholly]

Evening,
I'll keep it brief so as not to bore with yet another 'advice liked' post! My final ewe has lambed his morning. This is  her 3rd lot of lambs. LAst year her milk bag was low, this year it's ridiculously low - practically on the ground. Our farmer friend popped over and said she was 'deformed' in this area and that her breeding days should be over... That aside, I haven't yet seen her twins feed. They are big, bouncy and 'alert' but what will the signs be that they are not feeding? ie when do I intervene?


On an entirely different note the farmer noted that one of our earlier lambs out in the field has Streptococcus and given us some squirty thing Verm...? We've treated them all on his advice. All very rushed as he did warn us this lamb might not survive... Could someone enlighten me (in plain terms!) what this infection is?

Many thanks
Mx

[Young Ed]

as for the non feeding lambs i would say if they haven't fed in say 6 or maybe 12 hours i would try just putting them on the teat one at a time whilst the ewe is distracted by eating some nuts or so
Cheers Ed

[ZaktheLad]

I had a ewe the same with a huge udder and massive teats - like a cow.  I milked out quite a lot of milk until the teats were a reasonable size for the lambs to be able to latch on - they just were not able to get the hang of grasping the teats with them so low to the floor and with them really too large for their little mouths.  I fed the colostrum milked off to both lambs from a bottle and then they were fine once they could get to the udder/teats.  If lambs not drinking they will look hunched up and will be bleating quite a lot.  You need to intervene asap if you think they are not drinking as they need that colostrum inside of them very quickly - ideally within 30 mins but at least within a couple of hours max. After 6 hours you are asking for trouble if the lambs have not suckled/had the colostrum.

I am probably going to cull this ewe before next tupping - shame as she is also only a young ewe on her 3rd lot of lambs and she does have some smashing lambs but can do without the hassle of such huge oversize teats. 

[SallyintNorth]

Lambs should look plump and happy, not hunched and concave.  As ZtL says, colostrum within 6 hours if at all possible.

Streptococcus is a bacterium and he'd have given you an antibiotic injection to use.  I suspect he said coccidiosis and the med he's given you is Vecoxan.  It's expensive stuff, so a bottle of whisky could be in order

Edited because I got the product name completely wrong.  Really must get more sleep

[melholly]

Thank you all. Lambs are together in corner but looking 'ok' Mums a bit of a moo and is difficult to manage. I'm heading down there in a mo to see whats what.


I think this ewe will go this year too. There's nothing great about her really.


Sally - cocciodosis, yes, sounds more like it. Sorry, not sleeping great....zzzzzz..... But a couple of decent reds will certainly be going up the road with a big thank u!!


If nothing happening will try the milking out, thanks for the tip.


Mx