I have been trying to follow my own advice and stop being so anxious about hand rearing little Dylan ( adopted Welsh mountain lamb, three weeks old now and taking four 10oz bottles of cool milk each 24 hours ) when I read Twizzel's post about his 5 week old lamb bloating, and dying. Dylan has only just begun to take very small amounts of creep feed, which I offer him twice a day, between feeds. He has also begaun to eat very small amounts of hay. His droppings are still very soft but a darker colour now. Because I know that none of my neighbour's ewes are vaccinated I had asked the vet when he should have his first jab. She recommended any time after three weeks.
When I over reacted and took him to the vet after my neighbour's dog bit off the end of Dylan's tail, she gave him a shot of long acting antibiotic. I was already wondering if that had upset his gut activity and if giving small amounts of live yogurt would help. Didn't know how much, so I was going to ask if anyone on here had ever used it. Now I am worried that it would be too severe on his system to take him for the Heptivac P injection at the moment and I should leave him until he is older and he has proper droppings, with the risk that he might pick up something when he comes out for exercise several times each day. Any suggestions from the more experienced members of this forum would, once again, be very much appreciated.
Alison.