[gapcap]

Hi, I hope someone can advise, I have twin bottlefed lambs, fed as normal about 5pm, just went to feed them at 8pm and the one is very bloated, doesn't want her feed,I have given her 20ml oil via syringe as it was all I could think of to do, :-\any suggestions please? They are out at grass with the ewes and lambs, in at night,and fed approx 3 hourly thro the day,last feed at night about 11pm,morning feed at 6am with access to creep day and night.Panicking now dont want to loose one of them at this stage

[plumseverywhere]

I had a similar situation a few nights ago, if you go through last few posts you will find what I posted and the replies. I gave mine some ginger water as  a drench and then had a sleepless night only to have my little lamb come bounding over completely gas free next morning!

I've put him onto a slower flow teat now.    I know that Sallyinthenorth answered my plea for help and mentioned that all the new grass could have made my boy bloat up. 

[colliewoman]

I have stomach tubed before now to let the gas out, but was told that it's 50/50 help or hindrance. We did it as the little mite was blatantly going to die anyway and it worked, but please let someone more experienced comment before you try it!

[gapcap]

Thank you both for quick replies, I have some fresh ginger , do I just grate it into warm water and leave it a bit before drenching? Re the stomach tubing, (if ginger doesn't work) colliewoman,is that done just as you would for tube feeding?

[colliewoman]

yep, just the same, but don't hold you face too near the other end of the pipe

[jaykay]

How's he doing? Fingers crossed. The oil is a good help as it reduces the 'froth' so they can burp out the gas.

Apparently there has been some research that shows that making the lamb milk into effectively weak yoghurt helps a lot (add a small pot of live yoghurt to 2 litres lamb milk and culture for a day - making sure you have kept it scrupulously clean when making it up). Feed the mixture cool, not body temp. Keep a bit back to inoculate the next batch. Takes a bit of prep but the research says that when this was done they didn't lose any pet (orphan) lambs with bloat.

[Herdygirl]

let the milk mix down by at least a third, it seems that powdered milk and grass do not mix so well

[gapcap]

Thanks so much for your help folks!,have got some ginger infusing, have just been out and given her tummy a good rub,dont know if it helped but she seemed to enjoy it and lots of "gurgling" noises were heard,I had thought of live yoghurt,which until last night, I had in fridge,but it was eaten,  now only got bog standard stuff!Typical!Also the stomach tube which has been sitting in the "animal" cupboard for yonks, seems to have disappeared, I could worm her, deflea her, bandage her,give her a/b's, heptavac,etc etc, but can I find the tube..no chance when in panic  mode!!

[woollyval]

Just for info I will add that its the point when the rumen starts to work properly that this can happen! When a lamb is with its mum it suckles little and often, when on its own it gets larger quantities infrequently. So when it starts to eat quantities of grass the amount of milk plus grass causes a big problem....it ferments and causes gas. The best way to avoid it is to keep the orphan lambs off good grass until weaned, giving plenty of creep and hay to develop a good rumen. Hope this is helpful.

[landroverroy]

 I've found that bicarbonate of soda in water (about a teaspoon/pint) reduces the bloat. I used to get it a lot in bottle fed lambs but haven't for a few years now, so don't know if the milk formulation has changed.

[gapcap]

I'm afraid we lost her, :'(I gave her the ginger and a bit of bicarb,we found the tube and were just about to try that but alas were too late,my god it was so quick!she was skipping round the field playing with the others shortly before this!I'm gutted,but suppose it was going to happen one day,I've reared a fair few bottle lambs in my time and she's the first one I've lost I don't know whether to bring her sister in off the good grass or not, trouble is she'll have no other lambs to play with,but I suppose thats better than going the same way as her sister. Thank you for your help,its more info for future reference

[jaykay]

I'm sorry 

[Rosemary]

Sorry to hear that the lamb didn't make it 

[plumseverywhere]

Really sorry to hear that 

[in the hills]

So sorry