[morri2]

Well, this is more 'no growing' than 'slow growing'.  I have a little ewe lamb, fit and healthy, very cute, but she's now five months old and still the same size as she was at around six weeks.  I have a couple of other little lambs which are slow growing but they are at least growing a bit.  This one isn't growing at all!!  Her tummy is fat and round, but the rest of her is not developing.  She's had plenty of grass, some dried food too, wormed, Heptavac etc, but she's just not growing.  Anyone any ideas as to why this is?  Is there anything I can give her to get her to start growing properly?

[Fleecewife]

She could just be a dwarf, of the Lorraine type ie in proportion as opposed to the Achondroplasic type with short legs.
 
A farm in our village had a Blackie lamb which was a dwarf, and we have had two Soays from our unreg originals which were dwarves.
 
Other than that, I have no idea 

[Foobar]

Can u tell us more of the history of this lamb?  Was it an orphan, or raised normally?  When was it weaned?  How much does it actually weigh?  What breed?

[Anke]

I have got a Shetland ewe lamb that is tiny - the only reason I can think about for her stunted growth is that she had a couple of bouts of cocci early on - treated immediately with Intradine and cleared up quite quickly. But ever since then she had lagged behind. Her brother is bigger, although not as big as I would like.
Any worm burden at some point?
So if there is nothing that could have stunted her early on, the only other thing could be that she got hit with fluke quite early? All of mine have been treated already this year, because of all this wet and my fields are really quite wet. In a normal year I wouldn't treat for fluke until end of October....

[morri2]

Yes, Foobar, something I omitted - this little darling was the lamb of a lamb(!!)  An accident as a result of my escaping Bowmont ram.  Her mother wasn't a year old when she had Matilda (that's the little one's name), and although she was a doting mum to start with, she soon became fed up and I have a feeling she might have been neglected somewhat.  That said, I would have thought she'd have caught up after the creep feed and decent grass.  As for weight - not sure exactly, we don't have any scales, but I can pick her up easily, so I would think no more than 15 - 20kg.

Anke, no great worm burden and she has been treated for both worms and fluke - its been so very wet. 

Fleecewife - a dwarf?    You mean, like people are sometimes dwarfs?  If it wasn't so  unusual I might think you have a point as she is a bit 'odd' looking.  She's in proportion other than her round tum! 

[jaykay]

When I first started with sheep, my neighbour came by and asked if I'd noticed my lambs had stopped growing. I had! He said the land was copper-deficient and that they needed additional copper. I did, having run it by the vet too, and lo and behold, they began to grow again.

So it could be a mineral thing - though I don't know why one would be so much more affected than others. Could try a lick bucket?

[morri2]

Thanks Jaykay - but they have a lick.  Don't know how much copper it contains though - I check that out.

[jaykay]

Most sheep licks contain no copper because it's toxic to sheep in too large a quantity. And not everywhere needs copper, we have copper deficient land so the grass is too. I'd ask your local farming neighbours or at the vets.

[Ina]

In case of doubt, get your soil checked out.

[morri2]

Jaykay - what lick did you get for your sheep?

[Fleecewife]

The thing with copper is quite complicated and is not just a deficiency.  Both Iron and Molybdenum are involved in the way the body can use copper, so soils which also have these elements in can worsen the problem.  Here we have a known lack of copper but we also have a lot of Iron in the ground.  Moles turn loose soil up, the sheep ingest this and it prevents copper uptake from the rumen.
A lot of research was done into this with Hebridean Sheep and eventually a copper bolus was designed - Co-Secure - which is a glass which dissolves slowly over about 10 or 11 months, so gives enough Copper directly, without Iron having an effect.
We find we need to use Co-Secure every two or three years although some people use it every year.  We are not obsessive about our sheep being jet black.  The bolus seems to be a safer way of administering copper than the rather hit and miss way of licks, or feeding cattle coarse mix (which contains copper) or giving injections and so on.
As well as causing colour fading in dark sheep, lack of copper can cause weakening of the wool fibre and swayback.  Although sheep can be blood tested for a deficiency, apparently a true picture of the situation can only be obtained from necropsy - which we have never had done.
 
The added info about the lamb being daughter of a lamb is relevant morri2.  The dwarf thing is possible but as others have said it's more likely to be the other factors mentioned.  You might find that she catches up after the winter 

[jaykay]

In fact I give them a Coppavit drench (sorry, brain in neutral re lick) but I might try the bolus idea. We have a lot of iron in the soil too, judging by the colour of the water and streaks in the stone.

[morri2]

Great, thanks guys!!

[Anke]

Well I think this is probably more a combination of a) lamb born to a lamb and b) not enough milk early on if the ewe(lamb) got fed up with feeding early on. I have found that if anything sets them back in the early weeks they don't really ever catch up. This plus the awful weather we are having all this spring/summer/autumn could easily explain why an individual lamb is doing so badly.
The tup (daddy) isn't by any chance (closely) related to the mum (ewe/lamb)...
I would worry about soil deficiencies if there is a significant number of lambs doing badly, and repeatedly so. Having said that, I think I will invest in a trace element/multivitamin drench next year, to give to the lambs just around weaning time. Mine did have an awful shock, and setback following weaning...

[ballingall]

You can get dwarfism, and also giantism. But they are quite rare.  She sounds cute though!


Beth