[ThomasR]

Ok so we have had the first lambs of the year born around an hours ago. The lambs are looking well and are up and looking for milk but they aren't able to latch on. They are only an hour old but I remember last year that I managed to get them suckling pretty much the moment I showed them the teat. I laid the ewe down and put the teat in the mouth of the lambs but they aren't sucking from it just sitting there with it in there mouths and then spitting it out.
The ewe has had plenty of milk and is looking after the lambs.
What is it I should be doing, leaving them for a while or milk the ewe and stomach tube them? I have a tub of coloustrum incase but really didn't want to be constantly stomach tubing the lambs this year.

[Marches Farmer]

I'd consider milking off the ewe and feeding them her colostrum from a bottle - you have only a six hour window where the colostrum is easily absorbed and starts to give the lamb protection from the diseases present and vaccinated for on your farm - after that absorption declines until you get to around 16 hours after birth.  I reserve stomach tubing for lambs which are very weak (although strong enough to lift their heads up).  It's time consuming and unpleasant for the lamb.  Are you sure they haven't suckled when you weren't around?

[ThomasR]

one of them which is the stronger ram lamb is constantly up and trying to suckle he just can't find it and is looking in wrong places and when I do put him on it he just spits it out so the lambs seem to be a bit stupid. the othere is just lying down Will put it in a bottle but in the past 2 years I have never managed to get a lamb onto the bottle

[Anke]

I would tube (milked off the ewe) as that would give them some time and energy to keep looking for the teat and you know they had a good 100ml of colostrum. Takes the worry out of it.

[ThomasR]

Thanks will go and do that now just too make sure that they have something in their bellies

[pharnorth]

Some seem to find it instantly and others take an hour or a bit longer. I had one this year that made us laugh slurping noisily and running straight onto the teat within minutes. Others seem to be a bit drowsy or stupid at birth and object if you try to put them on in a very cantankerous manner, other latch on happily if you help them. This time of day I would give them up to 2 hours to find it themselves.  Others more experienced then me are saying milk the ewe and use it now, but personally I wouldn't do that within 2 hours of birth unless it was late at night , very cold or the lamb looked very weak.

[twizzel]

I had one this year that wouldn't latch on, big ram lamb that came backwards. After an hour of persevering (at 4am!) I milked the ewe about 200ml and gave it to the lamb in a bottle- he took it straight away. I went to bed for a few hours and came back in the morning to find him sucking, sometimes the dopey ones just need help with that first feed.

[ThomasR]

Thanks so after a another 30 mins sitting with them I think in total we had 5 sucks between the two of them. They looked hungry so what I did was milk the ewe and stomach tubed them. I must say that the effect was almost instant and they are looking much brighter and perkier, sitting with heads up now and not bleating

[ThomasR]

So far I have spent almost 2 hours with the twins and they are refusing to suck when I'm assisting them. The infuriating thing is that as soon as I let them lambs go and get out the pen they go straight to try and suck again but they just go and look in the wrong places despite just been shown where to go.
Whenever I put the teat in their mouth they either just sit with it in their mouth and do nothing or they just spit it out and bleat, does anybody else ever get this problem to this extent with their lambs just being so stupid? Do they snap out of it? They have had one tube feeding so far but left them hungry so they would still look to get food from their mother.

[twizzel]

Are you sure they aren't sucking when you're not there? I also found if you mess around with lambs too much it made the situation worse... in fact bar the one time I milked the ewe and bottle fed the lamb, I left well alone. Do their tummies look full if you hold them by their front legs?

[SallyintNorth]

Are you squirting milk into their mouths when you get them on the teat?

If they are feeling pressured / constrained as you hold them to the teat, they sometimes won't suck.  It can be hard to get them in position without forcing them, though!  It helps to have one person hold the ewe so the other can concentrate on very gently getting the lamb into position.

Personally I don't tube a lamb which can suck, I use a bottle.  In general, once it's tasted milk from a teat, if you put a teat in its mouth and get a bit of milk in its mouth, it'll be away.

Other tips include tickling the top of the lamb's tail, giving it a cuddle before placing it at the teat, getting it on a bottle then bringing the bottle up underneath mum and gently transferring the lamb's mouth to mum, or just pull the bottle out from under so it quests about under mum and finds her teat.

I know how irritating it can be, but gentleness and patience will usually win out in the end.  Good luck!

[ThomasR]

Thanks
We will just keep trying, it is quite difficult to get them to the teat when the ewe are standing up as they are constantly fighting against you put if you lie the ewe on her side and let the lambs lie down and put them on the teat they don't fight you so much.
I'm milking it in their mouths but they are just sitting there not even drinking it and sitting there with it in there mouths.
Milking the ewe so she doesn't go dry but it isn't looking great, just had another set of twins born and when you put their mouths on the teat they will suck so hopefully all the rest will be like that

[SallyintNorth]

I do wonder if they're feeding when you're not there.  I would certainly not be tubing them, but rather milking her and feeding it to them by bottle.  If they won't take that either, they'll either look very empty and cry a lot, or are feeding on the sly! 

[ThomasR]

I have milked the ewe and put it into the lambs to get the antibodies into them however there isn't enough. The ewe seem to have quite a bit of milk for the first few hours and now she is running a bit dry when I go to milk her.
The ewe lamb is now sucking when we put her on however the ram lamb is still being dopy, I have tried bottles but they wont take that and fight it with everything they have despite taking a gentle and time consuming approach. Anyway we are now heading in the right direction at least and by monday, hopefully they will be ok to turn out.
I sponged them to lamb today but so far only 2 of the 12 have lambed, is this normal as I thought they would all come as one massive clump?

[Anke]

Well the usual gestation period is 154 days - but it can be a few days either side.... When I have sponged and the tup was done with his 12 ewes in about 3 days my lambing period was about a week, so it won't all happen within 24 hours. But a lot better than over three weeks...