[Treud na Mara]

We have a  2.5 day old pet Jacob tup lamb, (his mother was rejecting him so strongly with her nasty horns that we removed him for his own safety, leaving his brother who mum has taken to fine). He had 100ml synthetic colostrum on his first day (tubed) and has been a less than enthusiastic bottle feeder (OH tubed 150ml Lamlac this morning about 6am). Lamb now is completely refusing bottle and seems very unsteady and scouring. Advice or reassurance please   

[ZaktheLad]

Are you making up the milk powder to the correct amount of power to water?  If you are putting in too much powder this might give scours and upset his tummy - therefore he is unlikely to want to drink.  Do you have any lamb kick-start - 1 x pump of that might do him some good.   Hope he gets over this - lambs are such a worry.

[Treud na Mara]

Thanks for that, last lot of scours looked bloody, so we are contacting our crofting angel too. Meanwhile we will try some kickstart.

[Hellybee]

Id firstly ask the vet to give you some Orajet or spectum scour halt in case of watery mouth.  Also get him tubed again dedinatelywith milk and a little colostrum in it.  Kick start great idea, good luck, hope he picks up xx

[SallyintNorth]

I would stop the milk, give him antibiotics and get electrolytes into him; Pfizer Scour Formula or Rehydion are both good.  (Both are for cattle really, but work fine on lambs.)

If it's watery mouth, antibiotics should sort it.  He won't have much appetite until the a/b's kick in, so just give him enough PSF to keep him hydrated until he seems hungry.

If it's proper scour, milk is the worst thing to be giving him.  But you should be able to get him to take PSF.  Orajet, Spectam or Scour Halt will all deliver appropriate a/bs.  Don't reintroduce milk until the poo is normal.

[Treud na Mara]

Tried Kickstart but more of it ended up outside than in. Then our crofting angel arrived and administered a long acting anti-biotic. Within half an hour he was up and jumping around and shouting for food    He's just eagerly sucked 50ml of half strength feed and has fallen asleep cuddled up near the radiator. 
Thanks everyone - I'll keep you posted.

[Hellybee]

Brilliant news, I agree with Sally about the rehydion, great stuff x

[Treud na Mara]

Don't like to jinx things but....progress still being made and rehydration going well. Totally different creature from 24 hours ago.
Thank you all for your excellent advice and reassurance.     

[Treud na Mara]

Pet lamb now has a name, Crackers, and follows OH everywhere. Mum would not have anything to do with him and butted him away very roughly when he went to investigate her while OH was doing something else. He's still not a Greedy Guzzler but is doing well and just needs a friend. Sod's law there's been no suitable candidate for fostering. We have not ringed him as, if he survives, he might make a good easy to manage teaser, providing he's vasectomised. OH not impressed at prolonged lambing (3 weeks already and only 6 out of 12 have done the business) he loves it really though.