[agri293]

after my first ewe aborted two lambs on monday  i had a stillborn this morning the mother is fine and had milk i called a neighbour one of his had triplets and the mother was struggling with three ideal i thought rushed and brought it back put it in the pen only for the mother to reject it she tryed to trample and butt it so guess what we are now on the bottle it can only get better

[Hazelwood Flock]

Was the ewe bonded to the stillborn? if she was you could skin it and make a jacket for the foster lamb. Usually works a treat.

[Fleecewife]

Hi Agri You will need to put more effort into getting a ewe to adopt a strange lamb.  Her natural instinct will be to reject it as it doesn't smell right, and to the lamb the new ewe doesn't sound right - it has been listening to a different ewe for months from inside, so neither will immediately recognise the other.
One way of getting a ewe to adopt a strange lamb is to rub it in the dead lambs afterbirth or to put it in a bucket with the dead lamb and stir them about until the new lamb smells of the old.  Or you can take off the skin of the dead lamb and put it on the new lamb like an overcoat - this is more likely to work if the dead lamb lived for a while and was cleaned by the ewe. This method is useful too if the new lamb is a bit older so already on its feet - the skin will make it fall over a bit.   If those methods don't work you can tie the ewe with a head collar and place bales to stop her kicking the lamb, then supervise feeding.

[henchard]

If you are saying that you put a lamb from your neighbours triplet in with your ewe and she rejected it, I'm nor surprised that is normal.

To put another lamb onto a ewe you need to either

1. Secretly introduce at the time of birthing - smothering and rubbing the introduced lamb in afterbirth (doesn't always work)

or

2. Skin the dead lamb (like a rabbit) and tie the skin on the lamb to be adopted. Cut it off once the lamb is accepted

or

3. secure the ewe in a lamb adopter (or rig up some hurdles so she can't move) and put the lamb to the ewe

In all cases ewes tend to accept lambs once their own milk has been through the lamb.

Sorry if have got the gist of your original post wrong.

Edit: see others beat my typing speed.

[agri293]

hi there the ewe had the lamb in seconds she spent no time with it when i got the foster lamb i covered it with the afterbirth thinking it would work it was quite alarming how violent the ewe got f i had left her in there i think she would have killed it

[colliewoman]

I have always had success by putting mum and orphan in a smallish pen and putting a dog close outside it. The mothering instinct seems to kick in then regardless of whether it is her lamb or not x

[SallyintNorth]

I have always had success by putting mum and orphan in a smallish pen and putting a dog close outside it. The mothering instinct seems to kick in then regardless of whether it is her lamb or not x

I will post my usual warning - take care with this approach; with some hill sheep, the presence of a dog can make her so mad, she butts everything near to her, which can include the lamb.

[Moleskins]

I hold the ewe against a wall grab the lamb and put it on the teat, repeat! Repeat! After a few times ewe accepts lamb, depends on breeds though.

[Anke]

I hold the ewe against a wall grab the lamb and put it on the teat, repeat! Repeat! After a few times ewe accepts lamb, depends on breeds though.

That would be my strategy as well, once the ewes milk comes through and she will sniff lamb's backend while lamb suckles, she will accept it.

[jaykay]

Yes, I put the ewe in some sort of head restraint (my Roughs were too big to hold) and got the lamb to feed. A few times usually sorts it out. That said, I had one who fed a lamb for a week and then decided she wasn't doing it anymore. She let him hang out with her and her own gimmer, but I had to feed him 

[ellisr]

I would watch hygene with using the afterbirth or skinning at the moment with Schmallenberg, it has been advised against by Defra as it may contaminate the new lamb. Especially as you are having ewes abort and still borns better safe than sorry

[colliewoman]

I have always had success by putting mum and orphan in a smallish pen and putting a dog close outside it. The mothering instinct seems to kick in then regardless of whether it is her lamb or not x

I will post my usual warning - take care with this approach; with some hill sheep, the presence of a dog can make her so mad, she butts everything near to her, which can include the lamb.

Thanks for that Sally I don't have experience with hill sheep so will remember that one

[SallyintNorth]

I would watch hygene with using the afterbirth or skinning at the moment with Schmallenberg, it has been advised against by Defra as it may contaminate the new lamb. Especially as you are having ewes abort and still borns better safe than sorry

Well, now I'm confused.

Generally one wouldn't be spreading materials from any deformed or aborted foetuses about because of all the other diseases than can spread this way - enzootic abortion for one.  But I thought that Schmallenberg was only an issue when it infected a ruminant in the first third of her pregnancy.  In fact, we want all non-infected ewes to be exposed to the virus at some other time, so she gets immunity to it when there is no risk to her unborn foetuses.

So I can't see how skinning a lamb and using the skin on another lamb would be likely to cause any problems relating to Schmallenberg. 

And whilst I shouldn't be surprised at Defra giving incomprehensible advice, I guess, we do usually get good advice from AHVLA etc.

[jaykay]

That's my understanding of Schmallenbergs' Sally, such as it is.

But yes, wouldn't be spreading afterbirths etc if the ewe had aborted anyway.

[kanisha]

my understnading is that some lambs ( affected by schmallenberg) have been born viraemic. Not recorded to my knowledge in the UK but abroad.