Author Topic: Sudden death in lambs (Read 6519 times)

twizzel · « **on:** April 04, 2014, 03:09:59 pm »

One of my youngest tame lambs just died

she was absolutely fine this morning. They were fed a little later than normal about an hour or so later and were vacinated with the first dose of heptavac yesterday lunch time. She was 5 weeks old and although small was still a decent size- she came to us small but after a few teething problems getting her to suck has been fine.
She was fine this morning and drank well, about 2 hours ago I went down after lunch to check and she was cold and lethargic, her belly was distended but not solid, very watery, and then within an hour she had died.
The hunt master was at the farm putting down a calf that was quite ill so I asked him to shoot her too but in the time it took him to get the gun she died.
The rest of the lambs in the pen with her are fine. 17 lambs had the heptavac vaccine yesterday, a few were off colour last night but are ok now, she was as I said fine until this morning. I wonder if she ate too much creep and milk and got redgut? She was a week off weaning age. Bloody frustrating and now wondering if I did something wrong or shouldn't have vaccinated them at all...

Hellybee · « **Reply #1 on:** April 04, 2014, 03:14:09 pm »

thats really sad, big hug, could she have had bloat ? xx

twizzel · « **Reply #2 on:** April 04, 2014, 03:53:18 pm »

That's redgut which is what I'm leaning towards given that she was a week off weaning and I was going to cut their milk right down tomorrow. I think she might have had a lot of milk on a tummy of creep which would explain the sudden death. Still a bugger though and kicking myself if it was that... should have cut it down earlier.

jaykay · « **Reply #3 on:** April 04, 2014, 04:33:58 pm »

Redgut and bloat aren't the same things, as far as I can see, and I don't know where the theory that lambs eating creep shouldn't have milk comes from? That's how weaning goes, they eat more creep, their milk reduces.....but there'll be a patch when they're having reasonable quantities of both. Including hay helps develop the rumen. And undeveloped rumen might predispose to redgut later in life.

redgut

I think abomasal bloat is most likely.

Quote

Abomasal bloat
Abomasal bloat affects artificially-reared lambs, especially those that are hand-fed warm milk. It seldom affects lambs that are self-fed cold milk. Abomasal bloat is believed to be caused by a build-up of bacteria in the stomach of the lamb. Clostridial bacteria and species of Sarcina have been implicated. Affected lambs have swellen bellies and abdominal discomfort. Treatment is usually unrewarding. The addition of yogurt or probiotics to milk replacer has been shown to reduce the incidence of abomasal bloat.

Foobar · « **Reply #4 on:** April 04, 2014, 05:22:47 pm »

I've had lambs that have had bloat, but they really do looked bloated, like they are going to explode. (I sorted mine out with a drench of ginger and veg oil, and massage..and burps:) )
How bloated was your lamb?

twizzel · « **Reply #5 on:** April 04, 2014, 05:36:13 pm »

Fairly bloated but instead of the abdomen being hard it was very fluid like, almost like it was full of water. They had been on cold milk on a feeder although not totally adlib as they emptied it quicker than it's filled (twice a day). I had a lamb die of bloat last year after it got into the calf feeder in the field and had a guts full of corn- he took longer to die from that and had a totally different bloated tummy, very hard and gassy.
It's the only thing I can think of though, I've never had heptavac kill a lamb before and if it was the vaccination would have thought she would have been dead sooner. The huntsman was a bit stumped too (he also offered to leave her and see if she perked up... within 30 seconds of him saying that she was dead). So my guess was she had a guts of milk on a fairly full stomach of creep and the creep expanded and either ruptured her stomach or something similar... hence such a quick death?

Bramblecot · « **Reply #6 on:** April 04, 2014, 06:25:55 pm »

that is a great link Jaykay, thank you

.

jaykay · « **Reply #7 on:** April 04, 2014, 06:36:25 pm »

I think that the usual sort of bloat (in older lambs and adults) as a result of over-eating grain etc. is bloat of the rumen - the wrong sort of bacteria proliferate, make gas and froth, the gas can't escape because of the froth, the pressure builds up against the diaphragm and the animal dies from not being able to breath, and heart failure.

Treatment - oil and bicarb of soda, syringed in, to settle the froth and reduce the acidity (which is favouring the wrong bacteria). Successful treatment usually is followed by plenty of gas emitting from both ends!

Abomasal bloat is a bit different in that the bacteria causing it produce quite lethal toxins and this is what kills the lamb. I don't know that you can treat it, just prevent it. Which isn't easy in artificially fed lambs. I don think it's as 'hard and gassy' necessarily as normal bloat, but they can still have swollen stomachs.

langfauld easycare · « **Reply #8 on:** April 04, 2014, 08:09:08 pm »

could be a reaction to the heptavac .no sure about the bloat mind but heptavac can be ruff on them .i am sure there are statistics that say that a percentage will have an adverse effect although it is a tiny percentage

farmvet · « **Reply #9 on:** April 04, 2014, 10:39:53 pm »

When you post mortem lambs with "sudden death" its surprising the number that are full of abscess but have appeared healthy. Lots of pets haven't had the best start - eg triplet, poor mothering, low intakes of quality colostrum, artificial milk etc so you've done well to get them to this age. you wont save them all, sheep have an inexhaustive list of ways to die...