[Tex]

Hi all!

This is my first post on the forum but I've read many threads over the last through days and they've really helped me. I'm a first year vet student and was on a lambing placement last week. There were a few cade lambs that I was responsible for feeding whilst there, and they were to be sold on Saturday after I left.

Guess who now has 3 lambs living in the back garden 

Obviously I'm not completely new to sheep, but I've never had my own before so wondered if anyone could just tell me where I might be going wrong and how to improve. It would be much appreciated!

The lambs are living in a large dog crate in the shed at night, for fear of foxes. They are out in a pen on grass during the day. Their straw is cleaned out every day and the base is cleaned with disinfectant. They have fresh water always available in a dog bowl so it's not too deep. They are fed about 200ml of lamlac each, 5 times a day at 7am, 11am, 3pm, 7pm and 11pm. Is this about right? Their tummies are rounded after feeding but don't look too full or hard. Next week we are looking to decrease it to 4 feeds which will be 5 hours apart.

All lambs have had 1ml of alamycin LA yesterday in an effort to prevent watery mouth and other infections. They are all very hungry at feeding and are quite active when not snoozing in the sunshine.

My main question is when to introduce hay and creep pellets. I have read around that this should be done at about a week old to start to develop the digestive system, but one of the lambs looks a bit younger than the others. Will it do her any harm to have access to hay and pellets?

Many thanks for your advice

[EP90]

As one novice to another,
I fed mine 4 times a day for the first week then down to 3.  Read the Lamlac feeding advice label, dont make it harder than it needs to be !  For me your cleaning regime is exceptional, I couldn't maintain that standard.  Fresh water as you have it.  Hay and creep now, they'll just nible and spit it out to start with, then eat a bit, then a bit more etc. in their own time.  Creep I will throw away after a couple of days and replace with fresh.  Keep quantities small until they start to feed on it, saves waste.
You'll enjoy it as much as I do..

[twizzel]

Firstly giving antibiotics as a preventative is the fastest way possible to resistance! Spectam at birth for watery mouth but even the use of that routinely is being questioned. 1ml of alamycin for a young lamb is quite a lot- the dosage is 1ml per 10kg. Give them creep after 7 days and don't give hay until they've started eating the creep, it will cause them to be full and not give enough protein. The lamlac bag gives advice on creep and hay, and your idea of reducing a feed every week is spot on- wean at 6 weeks or any longer on milk and they will be a ticking time bomb for bloat/redgut.

[Old Shep]

Our vets advise Alamycin LA for young lambs to be administered 1ml in the muscle 1 ml in the mouth so that's what we do at the first sign of watery mouth, but not as a precautionary measure.

[SallyintNorth]

Ruminants need grass and/or hay for proper ruminant development, and need it within the first week.

As they are going out on grass during the day, they should be fine, but I would be giving a few whisps of good fresh hay at night to let them learn about it.

I would also give them fresh creep at night, just a few pellets until they start to really eat it. Throw it away / feed it the birds in the morning. Leaving stale creep down will just make it take longer for them to learn to eat creep

[farmershort]

'Just in case' antibiotic use in lambs this young is just bonkers. Surely this is covered in vet education? The lambs will no doubt have had colostrum whilst you were on this farm?

Your 4 feeds a day need to be 6 hours apart, not 5... There's 24 hours in a day.

As others have said, read the lamlac guidance,  they should get to 2 feeds a day pretty swifly... and onto cool milk rather than warm. Apparently this helps avoid redgut.

[Tex]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I've given the lambs their first bit of creep today and they nibbled at a few bits, mostly spitting it out but I felt very proud! I'll get them some hay tomorrow and see what they think.

To clear up on the antibiotics, two of the lambs had wet chins on Sunday and I was very worried that it might be watery mouth. I rang up the farmer who said that he didn't know if they'd had spectam at birth, and couldn't guarantee they'd had colostrum either as they were cades. I don't think he could actually remember which ones I was talking about! Anyway, rang the on call vet who advised alamycin LA at 1ml which should clear it up if it is the beginning of watery mouth. He did say it's a bit of a high dose but that it won't do them any harm. They have all been fine since so fingers crossed it has worked.

Does dropping a feed each week sound about right? Or is it supposed to be quicker than that? Also, is it harmful in any way to go onto cold milk now, when they are around a week old?

Thanks again!

[Anke]

Unless you want to sell those as fat lambs as early as possible I wouldn't rush to wean them too early. What breed are they? I always feed milk warm, although once they are a few weeks old the temperature is not that important though. They will love it more if it is warm though... If they are on Lamlac you can also make it less concentrated later on. If they are on real milk, it shouldn't be diluted with water.

Also if they didn't have colostrum at birth you may want to vaccinate them against clostridial diseases earlier than lambs with good colostrum uptake (from vaccinated dams of course).

[EP90]

As stated, read and be advised by the feeding guide on the Lamlac packaging, it’s not an exact science and has leeway’s.  Personally I go with warm milk all the way through bottle feeding, it seems more natural and warms them on chilly nights.  Hopefully you’ll know all about Bloat or read the pinned topic at the top of the page.  Bottle fed lambs are prone to it, happens very quickly and a sad end can come quickly if you’re not prepared for it. 

[twizzel]

They will love it more if it is warm though... If they are on Lamlac you can also make it less concentrated later on.

Problem with diluting it is they are still filling their tummies with liquid but it's not got as much nutrition in it. It's best to keep it to full strength but reduce the amount of liquid fed.

[farmers wife]

Lamlac is made for cold ad-lib feeding.  Its lovely at first (pet lambs) but becomes a drain after a few weeks so the quicker you get them on the bucket the better - week is fine


I put hay in as soon as.


You can add a scoop of colostrum to the feed once a week and a portion of organic live yogurt as you want the gut to build up good bacteria.


We dont vaccinate here.  Any poor lambs boosted with Vit e and B injection.  Think after 5 weeks vit drench.


Keeping pet lambs is expensive and not at all profitable. The reason why farmers will give them away free.