[wellies]

Hello everyone,
Last Thursday we had a very small lamb born with slightly contracted tendons in both front legs. She has had splints on for the last 3 days and today I took them off as instructed by the vet. The legs are looking much better and the one she is just on her toes & the other on her toes but with a slight bend. I was just wondering if any of you have had any experience of this in sheep, my experience is limited to horses? At the mo she is still penned with her mum, feeding and growing well. I just wonder if she would benefit from being out and about and at what stage do I leave the splints off, does she need to be completely straight before then or is it ok if she's on her toes but not knuckled over? She's a bright little lamb so happy to keep going to try and straighten those legs. All advice welcome 

[Anke]

I had quite a bad case last year, but the vet advised that the lamb would be better off outside running around and it would all straighten out - he was right! Mine wasn't even splintered, I just massaged and straightened the leg a few times for a couple of days.

[VSS]

Agree with Anke - they usually come right with exercise and time. We turned one out last year that was knuckled right over and effectively walking on it's knuckle joints. Within a week I couldn't tell which one it was any more!

[SallyintNorth]

This is discussed several times every year.

The main ingredient of a recovery is running about in the sunshine.  You can do splints, massages, etc, if you want but even very badly knuckled-over ones come right within a few days as soon as the sun starts shining