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Author Topic: Caring for a newborn lamb  (Read 1214 times)

Aprilshowers

  • Joined Apr 2019
Caring for a newborn lamb
« on: April 23, 2019, 09:39:45 pm »
Hello and looking for some advice please.  My daughter and I visited our local farm to see the orphaned lambs and saw one tiny little newborn lamb that was a triplet and not sucking on the milk machine so unlikely to survive.  We asked the farmer if we could give it tlc for 24 hours and so he gave us milk powder and a bottle but didn’t think it would survive.  However she did as we cosseted her, kept her warm and encouraged her to take frequent small feeds.  We’re allowed to keep her and she will live her life out on a hobby farm when she’s a bit older and self sufficient. At the moment she’s living in our house and has to wear a nappy when running around.  It’s not ideal but we just have a small garden and no where outside for her to stay.  She has been back to the farm for ‘day care’ and for her to mix with the other lambs but she was too small to leave there overnight as she could have been squashed by the bigger lambs and it was so cold.  Anyway she’s thriving, putting on weight and being an inquisitive lamb.  However at about 10 days old, she is now 16 days old, she started to loose her fleece around her eyes, no redness or anything and also developed a reddish spot in her nostril, which has burst and looks a bit runny.  We’ve taken her to the vets but not very helpful.  The vet said she might have lice, hence the fur loss but couldn’t see any and also might have the condition Orf?  I’ve looked that up and it’s horrible.  Question is should I keep her away from the other lambs and second I know humans can catch the virus so is my whole house going to be contaminated?  We are being very careful with hand hygiene  but she’s everywhere sniffing lots of things.  Her nose looks nothing like some of the pictures I’ve seen on the internet of  Orf and at the moment isn’t getting any worse.  None of the other lambs up at the farm are showing any signs of infection.  This is our first encounter with a lamb so apart from reading lots on the internet and scaring ourselves silly, we know nothing!  Sorry it’s so long and look forward to any advice.  Thank you!

harmony

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: Caring for a newborn lamb
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2019, 03:55:24 pm »

Post in the sheep section. You will get more replies.


I'm assuming your vet doesn't do farm animals? What did the farmer say? I would expect him to recognise orf.


You have done a good job but I would get her back to the farm. She should be able to hold her own now and if you haven't anywhere to put her out with another lamb or lambs it is going to be far from ideal for her. Not only that you need to be registered to keep sheep, have a holding number, the move to you should be licenced, the lamb tagged and each time she arrives on a holding she shouldn't move off again for 6 days.


shep53

  • Joined Jan 2011
  • Dumfries & Galloway
Re: Caring for a newborn lamb
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2019, 08:17:10 pm »
Take it back to the farm , you have done a good job . As harmony says  you have no CPH no FLOCK NUMBER no Movement Licence and the lamb is not Tagged .   You have no where to keep her as she gets more lively and starts nibbling everything plus she needs  a flock

Lesley Silvester

  • Joined Sep 2011
  • Telford
Re: Caring for a newborn lamb
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2019, 11:33:40 pm »
Well done for saving the lamb's life. It's not everyone that would have the patience and dedication to do what you do. However, I agree that she should now be on the farm, either where you got her from or the hobby farm you mentioned if they have other sheep. I'm sure it will be hard on you but you can pat yourself on the back and, maybe, go and visit her occasionally.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Caring for a newborn lamb
« Reply #4 on: April 25, 2019, 12:13:29 am »
Well done for saving her.

If the vet and farmer can’t diagnose from seeing the lamb, we are not going to be able to do it from a description!  We probably won’t be able to do it from pictures either, but it would at least give us a fighting chance! 

Which said, the nose lesion sounds like orf.  And yes, if it is orf, she’s busy infecting your whole house, and yes it’s a zoonosis and you can catch it.  And the virus can live a long time inside a house, on fabrics, etc. It gets in through broken skin, so if it’s there, it will get one of you when you have a cut, a blister, or something.  At its least offensive it’s intensely irritating verging on painful, and rather unsightly.  Takes about 6 weeks to clear up.  At its worst, people have had it get into joints and been hospitalised.

The other thing which I thought about as I read your description is that some brands of lamb milk are  irritating to skin, especially broken skin. Is it possible she has got milk over her face, and that has caused her wool loss?  And if she had a cut on her nose from nosing at something sharp, and gets milk on that cut when she feeds, then it could keep the lesion from healing.  How would you know if you have one of these types of milk?  If one of you has a cut or a keen, spill some of her milk into it, and you will know. ;) 

In terms of finding her somewhere more appropriate to be, it might be impossible now she has possible orf, but any sheep farmer is likely to have batches of bottle lambs, so she could (if you can find a farmer willing) join one of her own age group.  Look for a farm which has lambs the same size as her in their fields, and knock on their door ;).  Proper farmers will have enough to be able to batch the lambs in appropriate size / age groups, so she would have playmates her own size.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

harmony

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: Caring for a newborn lamb
« Reply #5 on: April 25, 2019, 09:36:12 am »
Wel

In terms of finding her somewhere more appropriate to be, it might be impossible now she has possible orf, but any sheep farmer is likely to have batches of bottle lambs, so she could (if you can find a farmer willing) join one of her own age group.  Look for a farm which has lambs the same size as her in their fields, and knock their door ;) .  Proper farmers will have enough to be able to batch the lambs in appropriate size / age groups, so she would have playmates her own size.



Agree with Sally's comments about milk irritation.


If it is orf and she has been going back and forth between you and the farm then others lambs there probably have it and it is their lamb so it would be the best place to go. I can't think another farmer would want someone else's orphan lamb, potentially with orf, needing feeding  introducing to their flock along with the bio security risk. I can imagine some of the responses you might well get when farmers are tired and busy with their own lambing when you knock on the door with your lamb. You can't offer her to a hobby farm with orf.


"Proper" farmers try not to end up with batches of pets by getting them fostered on as quickly as possible.


Many vets only do small animals and are not farm vets so may not have seen orf since their training.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Caring for a newborn lamb
« Reply #6 on: April 25, 2019, 12:28:01 pm »

I can't think another farmer would want someone else's orphan lamb, potentially with orf, needing feeding  introducing to their flock along with the bio security risk. I can imagine some of the responses you might well get when farmers are tired and busy with their own lambing when you knock on the door with your lamb.

I’d assumed the OP would offer to visit to feed, and so could help with the other bottle lambs.  And that this would only be an option if it’s definitely not orf or anything else contagious.


"Proper" farmers try not to end up with batches of pets by getting them fostered on as quickly as possible.

Depends on the farm and their systems.  Agree that all farmers will *try* to not have pets, but a lot of farms (most, in my experience, but that is hill, moorland and upland farms ) will end up with a few batches of them anyway.  And those that don’t usually have a place they sell or pass them on to, so might know where to point her.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

harmony

  • Joined Feb 2012
Re: Caring for a newborn lamb
« Reply #7 on: April 25, 2019, 04:20:32 pm »

I am right in the middle of a hill farming area and it would be a bad year to end up with batches of lambs to bottle feed.






 

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