[Carolyn1124]

Hi

After registered so that I can post because I’m a bit stuck.

I’ve got a 4 week old lamb. 4 weeks old today. Ewe has just one teat. But the lamb has been doing well.

Now the working teat is sore and the ewe won’t stand for it. The lamb looks like all hungry lambs do, hunched and skinny. I can’t get the lamb to bottle feed. I’m holding the ewe so that the lamb can feed as often as possible. (It does mess around with the teat. No wonder she’s sore!)

I’ve been doing this since Monday.

The lamb sniffs as creep but doesn’t seem to eat anything. Or if it does not a lot.

Any advice for keeping the lamb going? Or getting extra calories into it?

Thanks!
Carolyn

[Carolyn1124]

Oh, and it won’t take a bottle

[Anke]

You could persevere with the bottle by removing the lamb from its dam completely, but it is difficult. I have found in the past that both lambs and kids start eating a mixed concentrate (as opposed to a pelleted feed) quicker, adding something like readigrass as well as offering very fine hay should help. Also if you can access real milk (doesn't need to be raw, but shouldn't be homogenised and preferably goat rather than cow - not sure if you can, goat keepers nearby?) rather than using powder/milk replacer it may be a lot more like the dam's milk and the lamb may take it easier.


It is unlikely that the ewe is going to improve if she is being forced to feed the lamb while she is sore, and she may already have very little milk.


But it is really difficult to advise for this kind of problem.

[Carolyn1124]

Thank you!

The ewe’s teat is much improved. But I take your point. (She’s got plenty of milk)

Pesky thing is going downhill. I’ll keep on with the bottle attempts. It seems to find sufficient strength to fight me! It’s already got coarse mix creep over pellets. I’ll give readigrass a try too when the shops open tomorrow.

It feels rather useless doesn’t it. But can’t give up.

[shep53]

Have you been putting cream / salve on the teat between the lamb suckling , if the ewe has plenty of milk then once the teat is healed then the lamb should recover , letting the lamb suckle 4 times per day with some salve applied after suckling should get all back to normal .  To get alamb of that age onto a bottle it needs to come of the ewe and only have a bottle and it could take a week or more to get it going , you could try  a small bucket / bowl of milk , some lambs find this easier , even at 4wks old you can still feed them with a stomach tube