Author Topic: Orphan lamb (Read 9223 times)

caroline griesel · « **on:** May 06, 2012, 09:28:28 am »

H i everyone, i really hope someone can give me some advice. I found a lamb ON Thursday 3rd in the freezing cold and it was raining, just lying in the dirt road (I LIVE IN SOUTH AFRICA) no mum anywhere in sight, i picked it up and wrapped him my jacket not sure what to do, and i thought he had died twice as his head flopped back and his mouth was freezing cold......anyway long story shortened...i phoned a couple of friends it was now 9pm at night, who said try to get it to drink cows milk and an egg yolk , which i did, but there was no sucking or anything, put it in the bed with an electric blanket, and in the morning it was much better, and drinking lots, it is now thriving but the internet says whatever you do DONT give cows milk?

and what happens if he didnt get Colustrum? PLEASE HELP!!

Brucklay · « **Reply #1 on:** May 06, 2012, 10:17:52 am »

Well I think there's no point in looking backwards so if he didn't get colostrum he may well not have the immunities that give but I guess you'll have to deal with that whenever something happens. At the end of the day giving him some milk is better than him starving but if you can get hold of some goats milk that would be better than cows milk. You've got a hard job on your hands but I have had the weakest things pull through and live so hang in there.

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #2 on:** May 06, 2012, 12:01:51 pm »

Homogenised cows' milk won't do them any good, it doesn't seem to clot right, but mine and many other local farmers' pet lambs are raised and thrive on fresh raw milk from a Jersey cow.

Yes, ideally they get colostrum and that gives them some immunity - you can compensate for that by giving them a jab (Heptavac-P or Covexin-8 are the ones we use here) as soon as they're old enough. And if they seem sickly, jump in with the antibiotics soonest, since they will be low on natural immunity.

Well done for rescuing the litte fella - sounds like you've got him over the first hurdle, at any rate

Hellybee · « **Reply #3 on:** May 06, 2012, 01:27:03 pm »

Nowt to add, brilliant points made there, good luck with the little lamb

caroline griesel · « **Reply #4 on:** May 06, 2012, 05:47:20 pm »

Thank you so much for the feed back, just one more thing, there is a product they sell at agriculture store called Dinkavet or something like that, should i put my lamb (Henry) onto that

and when do you stop using the egg yolk???

Brucklay · « **Reply #5 on:** May 06, 2012, 10:50:42 pm »

Hi Caroline - done a search on Dinkavet and can't find it online so don't know what it is - over here we have Lamlac - http://www.volac.com/agriculture/our-product-range/milk-replacers/product16/lamlac - which is a ewe milk replacer and does the job well. From the link above you should get the Lamlac info and compare to your Dinkavet.
Sorry have never heard of the egg yolk trick, added protein I suppose but a new one on me.

caroline griesel · « **Reply #6 on:** May 08, 2012, 05:39:37 am »

Thank you so much, i eventually found Lamlac, and he is enjoying it and doing well, cant thank you enough for all the help

Sylvia · « **Reply #7 on:** May 08, 2012, 07:30:59 am »

If you're going to keep him, I should castrate him as soon as you can. I hope he continues to thrive

Tilly · « **Reply #8 on:** May 09, 2012, 10:43:47 am »

Hi Caroline,
.... been wondering ,how is the little chap?

Tilly

caroline griesel · « **Reply #9 on:** May 09, 2012, 05:51:47 pm »

Hi Tilly, he is doing so well, and is loving the milk formula lamlac. Oh my word!!! must i really castrate him soon?? he will be a week old Tomor, so should i make an appointment with the vet ASAP??

::

Small Farmer · « **Reply #10 on:** May 09, 2012, 06:28:26 pm »

The deadline is 7 days legally though how it can be checked is a mystery. You can do it yourself if

1 you're not a bloke or squeamish
2 you can beg borrow or steal the rubber ring needed and the pliers to hold the ring open
3 the necessary items are descended and accessible - not always the case

We haven't bothered doing ours. One was impossible, a second was unconvincing and it isn't a problem until around 5 months allegedly. Two of last year's failures are just off next Monday on a new career path in the meat trade.

caroline griesel · « **Reply #11 on:** May 10, 2012, 11:48:03 am »

Oh my Word!!!! Cant believe its before & days, Thanks for that, will definately give it a bash and let you know

.....

caroline griesel · « **Reply #12 on:** May 10, 2012, 11:51:43 am »

When do you start introducing hay/lucern or pellets etc, at the moment he is having a litre of the Lamlac a day split into 5 meals .... is this right ?

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #13 on:** May 10, 2012, 12:05:13 pm »

It's a week old, right? You could have it on 4 bottles a day now, I would think, unless it's no trouble to you to feed five times.

It needs some sort of forage - hay, straw, grass - available now, also fresh water. It may not take much water as it's getting plenty of fluid in its milk, but have it available as it will start to need the water as it starts to eat hay and/or creep.

Creep-wise, it'll probably not start eating creep yet, especially with no mum or other orphans to copy, but you could start putting a few pellets down now and again from about 10 days onwards, see if it bothers with them. Don't leave stale pellets down, better to remove them after 12 hours and try again in a day or two. They often don't really bother with the creep until 3 weeks or older, and even then may not take them until you make them hungry, either by reducing the quantity of milk or cutting the number of feeds.

There's no hard and fast rule about creep, but you want it eating at least 1/2lb a day before you take it off milk completely. The earliest you would be thinking about doing that is 5 weeks and only then if it's really tucking into its creep and eating plenty of hay / grass.

Fowgill Farm · « **Reply #14 on:** May 10, 2012, 12:59:44 pm »

Just to add that how wonderful the power of this forum that someone in South Africa thousands of miles away can be helped by you sheep keepers here in the uk. Another thought i had that was in SA you're going into winter now and if you lamb in the spring like we do in the UK likely then that this was an unplanned lamb which is why the ewe has probably abandoned it, best of luck with him. Picture would be great
mandy