[OhLaLa]

Would be grateful if you could help me with the answers to a couple of questions (the info is not on the packets):

Once the metal seal is pierced, how long will Colostrum purchased from the vet keep?
(the lid is sealed tightly and it's in the fridge)

When making up milk replacement (bought from Agricultural supplier), can I make up the bottles and store them in the fridge ready for warming/feeding?
(each of my sachets makes up a litre at a time)

If a lamb doesn't finish a bottle, can I pop it in fridge and reheat an hour or so later?
(for same lamb)

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Also - the sachets of replacement milk once made up look an almost clear dirty grey, with a froth on top - do they all look like this?
(It is within use by date and I've made it up exactly as per instructions - I expected it to look milky, like a baby formula would look)

[jaykay]

I don't know the answer to the colostrum question so will let someone who does answer.

I used to make the day's bottles up, store them in the fridge and warm them in the microwave before feeding (have to shake well and do the 'on the wrist' test you'd do for a baby bottle to check for temperature)

I don't re-heat milk but let the amount they take guide me as to how much to take out each time.

I've never used replacement colostrum. The milk replacement I used looks creamy-yellow, just like you'd expect a bottle of milk to look like (ovilac). Maybe check your quantities again? Or perhaps it is just the brand?

[Anke]

Re: making up bottle in advance: I make up a stronger concentration of milk already in the bottle, store in the fridge and then top up to the required amount just before feeding time with boiling water. It is usually the right temperature (I used to do that with my children's bottles too), but yes wrist test is needed.

For goats milk bottles I fill up bottle in the morning, store in the fridge and then put into bucket add boiling water (quite small and you have to judge the amount of water needed for the number of bottles you have) and by the time I get down to the lambing/goat shed it is usually near enough the right temperature.

I have kept colostrum for more than a year in its container (dry) and not in the fridge. Lid tightly sealed. It seemed to work in the second year, and was still within its use-by date.

What brand of milk replacer  do you use? I have used Lamlac in the past and it is creamy yellow, exactly like baby formula.

I have re-heated bottles in the past, but only once.

[Fleecewife]

I wouldn't reheat milk which has been warmed and the bottle sucked from, because you are providing an ideal environment for bugs from the lamb to proliferate.  Particularly for a new lamb, just put a small amount in the bottle at a time - depends on the breed and size of lamb just how much they will take - try 50mls at a time first, as you can always add more.  Store the rest of the unused batch in the fridge for a day or two. 
With colostrum, if you have made up a sachet and don't have any more, and the lamb doesn't take it all in one go, then you don't have a choice but to store it in the fridge - make sure you take off the teat and sterilise it in Milton or equivalent before you give the rest, and always clean and sterilise empty bottles too, just as you would for a baby.
I have been told that you can even use milk powder once it has mould on the top  - just scrape off the mouldy bit  .  NOT that I'm recommending it, because any milk powder which has got to that state has been poorly stored and hanging around so long that its vitamins etc will have gone.  I wouldn't use it beyond the sell-by date, but I have used a tub of opened milk powder which was stored indoors, the following year with no ill-effects (not mouldy  ).
Milk replacer should look like normal milk, although our cat doesn't like it.  The instructions on ours says to make it up to a certain volume, not to add that volume of water to the powder, and the two methods make for a very different concentration.  Is it worth a quick phone call to the manufacturer to check?
Colostrum can be bought in different presentations.  You can get it as a single dose in a bottle with teat - expensive but a good way if you need a new bottle and are unlikely to need the colostrum, so you can keep it til next year.  It can also be bought in single-dose sachets, to make either 50 or 100 mls (different brands).  I haven't seen it in a larger single package, but I think that if you keep it tightly sealed away from damp once opened that it will certainly be useable throughout this years lambing, if you are unlucky enough to have to use it again.
The size of the hole in the teat is significant - too small and the new lamb can't suck fast enough, too large and it will choke.  Once it is well established on the bottle, make the hole larger.
If you are going to have to bottle feed the lamb to weaning, you would be best to buy a big tub of powder - 15kgs I think, which is about the right amount for one lamb.

[OhLaLa]

Thanks, v informative.

I will chuck what i have and buy in another make of milk replacer (online), just in case it is needed, not much choice at the Agricultural shop. i definately measured it out right but really don't like the look of it.
Preferably will buy sachets as i don't need to open a huge tub (I would prefer to open smaller amounts at a time, as have a small flock and would rather keep it as fresh as possible). Any recommendations?

The Colostrum i have is in a 100ml plastic bottle (thickish yellow liquid, this one is how I would expect it to look) which I opened yesterday - at £45 for 100ml I'm hoping it will be ok to have 'at the ready' this season in case the worst happens again. It has no teat on it, screw top with a long pointy nozzle (I didn't use this as have a flat end syringe type plunger with measurement on it in MLs. The Colostrum bottle only has the dosage guideline written on the side (10ml per lamb, it says one 100ml bottle is for 10 lambs, went through the dosage info at the vets too) but no way of measuring it out. I had to get what I could in the circumstances, not much choice at the vets.

[HamishMcMurray]

We started feeding our first lamb last year as we were convinced that she wasn't taking milk from her mother. With hindsight she may well have been feeding all along but I guess the extra we gave her in the first few days didn't hurt.

[jaykay]

If you pick a lamb's front legs up (rest them over one forearm) so it's standing on it's back legs only, you can squeeze gently with one hand (thumb one side, fingers the other) on the sides of its belly, just where it joins the back legs. This way you can tell if it's fed or not. Slightly plump and it's feeding, skinny and hollow and it's not.

If you practise with a lamb that you've seen feeding then you'll get to know what it should feel like. Then you can check the lamb you never see feeding and find out that probably it spends every second when you're not there sucking away  But you can also pick up the ones that are not, for whatever reason.

Do you check the ewes have milk?

[SallyintNorth]

Wow, some great advice on this thread.

I happily use all my milk and colostrum replacer powders until they're gone - the last one from last year gets used up the following year.  As long as they've been stored dry, they should be ok.

I will reheat mixed formula once only.  After that the dogs, cats, chickens get it.  I'll keep fresh milk / colostrum in the fridge for maybe three days before using, mixed up formula I'd prefer to use within 24 hours, really. 

My cat (RIP Jacob  ) loved lamb milk so much he would guts out on the unmixed powder if he managed to get at it!

Like Fleecewife, I clean all teats and bottle-tops after each feed, even when it'll be going back to the same lamb - in the first few days / week at any rate. 

We get Lamb Colostrum from our local Animal Health place in a handy tub.  We'll probably use two or three tubs per lambing (300-ish ewes.)  Mole Valley have a similar one - Net-tex - at just under £20, enough for 20 lambs.  I also keep cow colostrum in the freezer and will use saved ewes' colostrum if available, or the colostrum powder if not, for the first one or two feeds then the cow colostrum mixed half-and-half with lamb milk replacer for another feed or two, then onto lamb milk or half-and-half lamb milk / cows' milk.

I do think that the use of cow colostrum works much the best when it's your own cow, who has been exposed to your own farm's bugs.  I suspect that some of the stories you hear about scouring-to-death lambs on cow colostrum / milk are using cow's milk from a different farm.  My order of preference is:

• lamb's mother's colostrum
• other ewe's colostrum (ewe from this farm)
• lamb colostrum replacer
• cow's colostrum (cow from this farm)
• other ewe's colostrum (ewe from another farm)

I wouldn't use cow colostrum from another farm.