[ScotsGirl]

does anyone have any experience with lambs stiffening up and ending too weak to stand? I have a triplet, now about 5-6 weeks old. She came out like a torpedo with all legs back and was quite tiny compared to her siblings. I took her off mum and put with an orphan after she had taken a few drinks as she wasn't strong enough to fight for food.


At about a week or she developed a limp and swollen knee but no heat. 5 days pen and strep and she seemed better. Gradually over 2 weeks she got stiff. Quite subtle so took me a few days to decide if something was wrong. Started back on pen and strep and metacam but on Wednesday she was struggling to stand up and shuffled on her knees with bum in air. She had deteriorated and now doesn't appear able to get up.


She is still eating and bright. She had a temp and vet gave her vitamins, alamycin and metacam on Thursday but she hasn't improved. I've never seen anything like it before. Looks like I will have to put her down but if anyone has seen this and come through it let me know. 

[Anke]

Delayed swayback?

[mowhaugh]

Did the vet give you a diagnosis? Sounds like joint ill from your description, which can be difficult to treat in that some respond and recover and some don't. We have had a bit of a problem with that this year, which we've put down to a different brand of disinfectant for the pens we tried in the first week, we've probably had 50 lambs (out of about 1800) with it, and have had to put 6 down. The rest are recovering. Synulox was our vet's choice of treatment. I'm really annoyed about it as I'm totally obsessed with hygiene in the lambing shed.

[Hellybee]

White muscle disease?  Ask them about BoSe?

[kanisha]

the ewe is vaccinated?

[ScotsGirl]

Vet didn't really have a clue. We both had thought joint I'll but no heat or fluid but there was a temperature. White muscle disease was sort of ruled out as other two are strapping big lambs but she gave vitamin injection just in case. Ewe was vaccinated.


I've just given calciject this evening as the only thing left I haven't done. I just don't know at what point I give up.

[kanisha]

If there is  a temperature then there is a non responsive infection somewhere; I was thinking along the lines of tetanus

[ScotsGirl]

That might make sense but is there a fix for it? I will have to go look...