Author Topic: Heavy breathing lamb 6 hours old...HELP!! (Read 17714 times)

Ty Siriol · « **on:** April 22, 2012, 04:18:20 pm »

Our 3rd (and final) lamb was born this morning. He's approx 6 hours old. The Lleyn ewe lambed out (as we thought she wasn't pregnant, the others lambed about 3wks ago) We brought her in but the weather is awful here today and little lamb was out in hail stone showers before we could get them in. They are now penned together with everything they need. I'm pretty sure he's fed from her but he's breathing really heavily and has done for about 3 hours now. I'm really concerned. Any ideas or help please guys? Thanks in advance. Suzy

Muttley94 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 22, 2012, 06:19:46 pm »

This was my first year lambing so I'm not that good a help. However this happened to me and asked my vet for advice, it turned out the lamb had a chest infection from the cold and he gave her an injection. She is fine now. Hopefully someone with more experience will be along soon, incase this isn't the same

Fleecewife · « **Reply #2 on:** April 22, 2012, 06:27:07 pm »

You're right muttley - the lamb needs an injection of long acting penicillin - as soon as you can give it or it will die

Pedwardine · « **Reply #3 on:** April 22, 2012, 06:36:36 pm »

Could be rattle belly/watery mouth picked up via the untreated umbilical. As Fleecewife says antibiotics ASAP. We have Spectam on hand always for potential cases but P&S or similar will do just as well.

Ty Siriol · « **Reply #4 on:** April 22, 2012, 06:50:13 pm »

Thanks for the advice guys. I haven't got any penicillin, so I'll have to try to get some asap. He's not interested in eating now either, Mum has plenty for him and keeps calling to him. I guess if he's feeling yuck he'll have no appetite. Right.. off to try fix things! thanks again. Suzy

Brucklay · « **Reply #5 on:** April 22, 2012, 09:54:03 pm »

I hope he's doing better - I had the same thing - 2 lambs born out in the field (planned) but once inside noticed the wee ram lamb had a bit of a "gurgle" or "raspy breath" now and again, didn't improve by morning so vet trip and he had anti biotic and something else to lift x off chest and he's finished his 4 days of jabs today and is doing great - no sound of anything on his chest.

MrsJ · « **Reply #6 on:** April 23, 2012, 08:42:18 am »

Hope you managed to get some antibiotics- any improvement?

Ty Siriol · « **Reply #7 on:** April 23, 2012, 09:20:08 am »

YEY! we are getting somewhere with this little lamb. We got hold of a pen jab but decided not to administer it as I didn't really know how much to give. I'm going to ring our vets today to find out for next time. We persisted to milk the ewe every 2 hours ish and feed the lamb the ewes milk with a proper bottle. He would not suckle and i was having to squeeze little amounts of the milk in to his mouth with his chin held up and stroked his throat to make him swallow. We continued to do this (on the advise given from the amazing people we bought the Ewe's from originally) By 4am he'd had enough of me doing this and decided to suckle from Mum himself. Hooray!! We kept checking every 2 hours to make sure they were okay and every time we went into the shed, they both got up and he fed from mum. Thank goodness the Mum is so good, she let me do everything i needed to yesterday and even let me watch him suckle really close to make sure he was getting some. Phew! I think we'll keep up the same routine now until he's bouncing around like he should. He's still breathing a little heavier than I think is normal but the poor little guy has had an outing, so I'm going to keep a close eye and go from there. The breathing is much better than yesterday and there is no 'rasp' with it.
We are very lucky to have 2 great contacts to ring for advice and this forum. Thanks everyone. Suzy