[morri2]

Afternoon all,

Could I possible ask for your very experienced opinions on the following:  I have a Bowmont ewe with twin lambs.  The lambs are six weeks plus but are not growing.  They are healthy in all other respects, eating creep (just started last couple of days in view of the following problem....) and grass but their bellies are a bit round and their bodies look a touch stunted.  It appears that the ewe is not feeding them anymore although she does have milk as we checked.  Or perhaps she's not feeding then enough - I have noticed her walking off when they try to feed.  I cannot catch the lambs, they are far too quick and even if I did the chances of making them take a bottle at this age is pretty slim I would think.  Can anyone advise me what to do - will they 'catch up' if I feed them enough?  Otherwise is there something I can do or give them to make up for the lack of mother's milk?

[Yeoman]

If they are eating creep and grass they will probably start becoming less dependent on mum anyway.  They are probably weaning naturally...

Too much creep can cause bloat so make any changes to their diet gradual.

I assume mum's "bags" looked OK when you examined her?  No mastitis or other problems?

They are probably still feeding from mum when you're not around - otherwise she would dry up quite quickly.  So my suggestion would be to keep back and keep vigilant.

Any other suggestions anyone?

[Hellybee]

We take them away from they're mum if they're not thriving, they get wormed, multi vit dose, held for a day or two , then put out with the Molly /Cade lambs x

[Anke]

You are right at 6 weeks or older you will be struggling to get them to take the bottle - your only chance really is to increase their creep feed and make sure they have grass. Not sure they will grow as well as the properly fed lambs.

I would suspect that the ewe has either mastitis or had it in the past and now has no milk.

[shygirl]

do you have other lambs? if not - how is your grass? just wondering as our neighbouring field was rented out to a sheep farmer but he took the sheep and lambs off it quite quickly as apparently the grass wasnt good enough and the lambs were "suffering" for it. just giving you something else to consider.

[morri2]

Well thank you all!  And in reply ;

Yes, we've had plenty of grass this year - no concerns there.
Udder shows no signs of mastitis, no soreness etc.  There's definitely milk there as we've turned her over and checked.
Other lambs doing fine.  It's just these two.

From the advice you have all kindly provided I will keep them close to home, give them a dose of vits (if they can be caught -I will have to think of some fiendish plan to get them in the pen) and keep feeding creep in slowly increasing amounts.  And then see how it goes. 
I don't breed my sheep for the meat market - they are purely for their fleeces so it's not important to 'fatten' them, I would just like to see them growing properly.

Thank you all again. And hello Anke!  Long time since we've chatted.  Hope all well with  you and yours.

[shep53]

 Sounds like lack of milk so they have started grazing at a young age hence the big belly and lack of size  as they can't get enough nutrients out of grass at this young age , creep is a good idea , vit /mins and wormer  personaly I would also treat for cocci , small un thriving lambs are very open to worms and cocci

[Anke]

Thank you all again. And hello Anke!  Long time since we've chatted.  Hope all well with  you and yours.

Hi Morri - all fine here. Just starting with coloured Shetlands, after having had only white sheep before. Good to hear that you still have Bowmonts!