[Shepherson]

We have a pet lamb, ring was on him when he came to us. The lamb will be around 4 weeks old and has been subject of many problems... bloat/cocxy/scouring. Hasn’t been the healthiest lamb and has lost a lot of body condition. He is still very lethargic when we feed him but he has stopped scouring. We have noticed that his sack has died off but is still hanging on him and it looks like he has puss coming on the flesh as it hangs off from him. Should we iodine him/jab him with antibiotics? Thanks in advance!!

[SallyintNorth]

Only just seen this, so apologies for tardy reply.

With a healthy lamb you’d probably just leave it but keep a weather eye on it (apologies for terrible pun, I simply couldn’t resist  ). But as this boy’s a bit of a flake, I’d probably wash it with salty water, let it air dry, then if I had some, give it a spray with the blue antibiotic spray. If no blue spray (and no nearby farmer who’d let you have a squirt of his/hers), then iodine and repeat the salty water/iodine daily until it’s clean.

Personally I wouldn’t use systemic antibiotics (injection) unless there is reason to believe the infection is spread inside.  As he’s a sickly one, you might think it better to be safe than sorry on this and I don’t think any of us would hold that against you.