# Bottle fed newborn lamb seizure



## ashley carro (May 10, 2020)

We had a lamb born on Monday 6 days ago. Mother rejected, so we decided to bottle feeding him. He is very small about 3 pounds. He is eating well(1-2 ounces per hour) voiding fine, and stool is normal.
Last night I noticed he had an episode where he was laying down seemed to not be able
To get up but he head was kind of twisting...
Today we were outside to let him
Get exercise walking in grass and he fell to ground and looked like he had a seizure, it last not even a minute. I picked him up and he snapped out of it... trying to read online to see if he has a deficiency or a possible seizure disorder. I am going to call a vet in am to see
If I can get him seen... any suggestions


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## purplequeenvt (May 11, 2020)

Have you taken his temperature? Normal temp would be around 101-102. 

What breed is he? A 3lb Suffolk lamb would be concerning, but not a 3lb Shetland. 

Did he get any colostrum from mom? 

Is he only taking 1-2oz at a time or is that all you are offering? When I have a new bottle lamb that is not doing so well, I let them take as much milk as they want whenever they seem hungry for the first 2-3 days. They usually drink 3-4oz. After that, they are fed at least 3 times a day as much as they want up to 16oz a feeding. That is for the Border Leicesters (med-large breed, lambs usually in the 8-10lb range). I’ve never had a Shetland bottle lamb so I don’t know how much they’d eat at a feeding. 

I would worry that he has a deficiency, possibly selenium or thiamine. Thiamine causes neurological symptoms, but I’m not sure if seizures are common. 

Is he lethargic at all? What’s his heart rate/respiratory rate?


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## ashley carro (May 11, 2020)

He’s a NM DAHL 
He’s about 1/2 the size if not 1/3 size of my other lambs. Though he is growing. 
He’s eating every hour about 1-2 ounces. He doesn’t like to take too much at a time.
I gave him some sheep nutri-drench this am, and that definitely gave him a pick me up.
He hasn’t had an episode today but I spoke with another breeder of NM Dahl and he seems to think maybe there’s something genetic going on and that’s why he had an episode and that’s why the mother refused him. We thought she possibly refused him bc she’s a first time mom and a younger mom only a little over a year old. 
I bought him a milk feeder so he can start to feed himself. 
I guess we will take it day by day if he survives he survives.
Any suggestions would be appreciated, I know I shouldn’t but I am getting a little attached to him with all the time spent with him. 
I appreciate it. Thank you for responding !!! 

QUOTE="purplequeenvt, post: 649655, member: 4453"]
Have you taken his temperature? Normal temp would be around 101-102.

What breed is he? A 3lb Suffolk lamb would be concerning, but not a 3lb Shetland.

Did he get any colostrum from mom?

Is he only taking 1-2oz at a time or is that all you are offering? When I have a new bottle lamb that is not doing so well, I let them take as much milk as they want whenever they seem hungry for the first 2-3 days. They usually drink 3-4oz. After that, they are fed at least 3 times a day as much as they want up to 16oz a feeding. That is for the Border Leicesters (med-large breed, lambs usually in the 8-10lb range). I’ve never had a Shetland bottle lamb so I don’t know how much they’d eat at a feeding.

I would worry that he has a deficiency, possibly selenium or thiamine. Thiamine causes neurological symptoms, but I’m not sure if seizures are common.

Is he lethargic at all? What’s his heart rate/respiratory rate?
[/QUOTE]


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## ashley carro (May 11, 2020)

ashley carro said:


> He’s a NM DAHL
> He’s about 1/2 the size if not 1/3 size of my other lambs. Though he is growing.
> He’s eating every hour about 1-2 ounces. He doesn’t like to take too much at a time.
> I gave him some sheep nutri-drench this am, and that definitely gave him a pick me up.
> ...


[/QUOTE]

His heart rate has been normal respiratory rate normal and temp normal. Everything normal other than past two days a little more fatigue and then the episode yesterday in yard. 
no episode today.


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## Sheepshape (May 13, 2020)

I'd definitely feed him myself for now.....just to make sure that he gets his milk. Allow him to take as much as he can manage.

Repeat the Nutri-drench once a day for the next 2 days.

I've had a sheep which had seizures.....he had a very short neck and so probably had a lower brain deformity. He survived and actually thrived with his occasional collapses and twitches.

Ewes do reject lambs which they detect to be abnormal, but with a young first-timer inexperience is highest on the list. 

Even tiny scraps can do very well. My Avatar is LLeila....one half of twins, where the brother was 14 lbs+. LLeila weighed under a pound (she is a mule Blue Faced Leicester X Beulah....normally a large animal). She wasn't rejected by mum, but was too weak to stand  and  suckle, so became a bottle lamb. She is now a huge ewe with one of my biggest set of twin lambs.

Could you take a pic. of him? Sometimes pictures give the game away.

Good Luck.


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## ashley carro (May 13, 2020)

Sheepshape said:


> I'd definitely feed him myself for now.....just to make sure that he gets his milk. Allow him to take as much as he can manage.
> 
> Repeat the Nutri-drench once a day for the next 2 days.
> 
> ...



I am going to do nutri drench again in am. Yesterday until this evening he was doing well. Now not eating well. I finally got an ounce in him in the past 4-5 hours... he just chews the bottle doesn’t want to drink which hasn’t been an issue until this evening....
do you think that I can use nutri drench every am for the next few days, it seemed to give him energy and appetite up until now.
I appreciate you answering the post. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 
tonight I am concerned he might not
Make it.


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## Sheepshape (May 13, 2020)

Yes use the Nutri-drench. If you have a drench gun or syringe you could also give him a drench with a non-caffeine containing energy drink. Choose the still type and the high sugar ones, not the reduced or no sugar.
You could try tube feeding if you have a stomach tube, but there has to be a reason that he has stopped taking his feeds. Is he in any other way ill (aside from the apparent seizures)?


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## ashley carro (May 13, 2020)

So I took his temp 102.2 this am respiratory rate is normal. He was fine until like 6 pm last night when he started not wanting to suckle the bottle... usually at night he drinks about an ounce every 2-3 hours... last night he woke up every 2-3 hours but would barely intake he had 2 ounces all night from 10:30 to 5:30. 
he also only voided once last night and had one normal stool. 
the only things I can think of is that either he aspirated during one of his feedings the other am when he had an “episode” or maybe the milk isn’t going into the stomach but rumen.... idk. 
i gave him 1 pump = 1cc of nutri-drench for sheep at 5:30 am thru a syringe then mixed another 1 cc in his milk to encourage him to drink since it has molasses... I’ll see how he does today. I have to work all day and I have my aunt coming over to feed him. 
I put creep into his enclosure which is a play pen in house, and Timothy grass hay, he really wants nothing to do with creep and I don’t know how he’d eat it since it’s small pellets and he really doesn’t have teeth yet. Should I grind up and mix with milk? The vet seemed to think that I needed to introduce the creep ASAP to get extra nutrients into him.


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## Sheepshape (May 13, 2020)

He's too young to get much of anything from creep or hay (the rumen is only properly developed at 8 weeks). Whilst not wanting to upset anyone, I'm guessing your vet is not a farm animal vet?

 Lambs go off their food whatever is wrong with them. Sometimes it is never apparent what is wrong. Sometimes, regrettably, mum was right.

You clearly have gone 'above and beyond' to try to help this lamb. Persist with trying to get him to take bottle/syringe in small amounts of milk,nuti-drench, energy drinks etc. If he's meant to live, he will. Try not to feel that you are to blame if he doesn't.....maybe he has some fatal genetic defect.

Good Luck.


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## ashley carro (May 13, 2020)

Sheepshape said:


> He's too young to get much of anything from creep or hay (the rumen is only properly developed at 8 weeks). Whilst not wanting to upset anyone, I'm guessing your vet is not a farm animal vet?
> 
> Lambs go off their food whatever is wrong with them. Sometimes it is never apparent what is wrong. Sometimes, regrettably, mum was right.
> 
> ...



she says she is and spent time on sheep farms while in school, but I honestly do not think she knows much. Told me all the info on raising lambs is on sheep and goats.com. 🙄
I won’t offer the creep since I think it’s a waste at this time.
Good news is he perked up and has eaten 4 ounces since giving him the drench.
Ill start to give drench every day (am) for the next few days to see how he does. We’ll see... if he doesn’t make it I guess I can say that I did everything I could to help him. Thanks for the assistance. I really appreciate it.


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## purplequeenvt (May 13, 2020)

Check your milk replacer. Are you mixing in the correct proportions, is it warm enough, is too hot, etc... Make sure that is milk protein based and not soy as that can cause stomach upset and they will sometimes not be eager to drink. Check the nipple to make sure the milk isn’t coming out too fast or is plugged. 

if you know someone with goats or a Jersey cow, you could try switching him to raw milk instead.

Some lambs just don’t like milk replacer. I had a bottle lamb a couple years ago whose mom and brother died from lambing complications. She lived in the house and slept in my bed for about 2 weeks and every day was a battle to get her to take enough milk. Then we had a ewe give birth to triplets where the only surviving lamb was itty bitty and so weak that she couldn’t walk for over a week. We pulled that tiny lamb from her mom and swapped in my bottle lamb who was thrilled to have a real booby to nurse off of. I had to keep the ewe tied/penned up for almost 2 weeks before she completely accepted her foster lamb, but eventually she did and they were inseparable until weaning time.


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## ashley carro (May 13, 2020)

purplequeenvt said:


> Check your milk replacer. Are you mixing in the correct proportions, is it warm enough, is too hot, etc... Make sure that is milk protein based and not soy as that can cause stomach upset and they will sometimes not be eager to drink. Check the nipple to make sure the milk isn’t coming out too fast or is plugged.
> 
> if you know someone with goats or a Jersey cow, you could try switching him to raw milk instead.
> 
> Some lambs just don’t like milk replacer. I had a bottle lamb a couple years ago whose mom and brother died from lambing complications. She lived in the house and slept in my bed for about 2 weeks and every day was a battle to get her to take enough milk. Then we had a ewe give birth to triplets where the only surviving lamb was itty bitty and so weak that she couldn’t walk for over a week. We pulled that tiny lamb from her mom and swapped in my bottle lamb who was thrilled to have a real booby to nurse off of. I had to keep the ewe tied/penned up for almost 2 weeks before she completely accepted her foster lamb, but eventually she did and they were inseparable until weaning time.



Thank you for brining this up. I have been mixing the milk with Luke warm water not hot.. I’ll start this ASAP. I’ve been feeding him cold milk since day 3 but thinking I should warm it for him and if there’s any left over to throw out instead of putting back in fridge ( cold bottle)
I am attaching a pic of the lamb replacer milk.
After giving him another dose of nutri drench this am he is back to his normal self eating well running around fatigue is gone and appetite is great. So I am thinking vitamin deficiency since nutri drench has worked so well.. The bag of replacer says 8 oz per feeding 3-4 times per day. He’s getting about 16 ounces per day based on weight, from
What I calculated from need equation. Maybe the replacer isn’t enough vitamins / minerals/ sugars? Since he’s on a small quantity? 
tomorrow I plan on giving him half the nutri drench dose of 1 pump which I found is roughly 1 ml. Then maybe decrease to every otherday the bottle says can give –3 times per week once stable... any suggestions? 
I really really appreciate everyone’s input and help in this. I am determined to keep this little guy alive and well.


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## Sheepshape (May 15, 2020)

I use warm water up until the time that I'm weaning as warm is much more palatable to lambs.  I don't ever look to see how much ,ilk a lamb of a certain age is supposed to have as they vary so much in size, weight and appetite. Young lambs just get as much as they will take. Milk leftover from a feed can be placed in the fridge and microwaved to warm. Don't re-warm more than once, and never microwave colostrum as it will denature the immunoglobulins.

Lambs which are tiny or born early are much more likely to have vitamin deficiencies and have no 'body reserves'.

Sounds as though you are getting him through that difficult first week. After that it is usually 'plain sailing'.


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## purplequeenvt (May 15, 2020)

Most replacers need HOT water to dissolve the powder properly. If the water isn’t hot enough, it doesn’t mix up well and that could be a reason he doesn’t care for his milk. 

I like to mix all the powder for one serving with hot, hot water, but only half the volume of water. Once it’s thoroughly blended, then I add in the other half of the water at a much cooler temperature. 

Another common mistake is people will add the 4oz of powder to their measuring cup and then add in the water until it gets to the 2c mark. The result is overly concentrated milk. Make sure you are adding 4oz of powder to 2c of water. 

The measuring cups that come with the replacer are fairly accurate, but it is always better to weigh the powder out. 

I feed warm milk to lambs on a bottle, but cool milk to lambs on a free-feed bucket.


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## Sheepshape (May 15, 2020)

Thankfully most of our replacers mix with cold water.





But the 'lamb picture' is scary, very scary!


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## purplequeenvt (May 18, 2020)

Sheepshape said:


> Thankfully most of our replacers mix with cold water.
> 
> View attachment 73846
> 
> But the 'lamb picture' is scary, very scary!



They look like they're going to come off that bag and eat someone!


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## ashley carro (Jun 2, 2020)

Update. Our lamb is 4 weeks old. 
he is growing and eating great, his episodes which usually occur now when he’s sleeping seems to be less. We had a vet come out finally (finally found one locally), yesterday she said everything was normal except his heart rate at times was irregular. 
he has been getting milk replacer and then added supplement of nutridrench. The vet yesterday gave him an injection of thiamine, b12 and steroid. She thought his respiratory rate was a little up.
Last night he had several episodes of him waking up confused and stiff like previous episodes, he would calm when after about a minute or less he’d get his barrings and start walking around then he’d lied down to sleep, but only get about an hour until another episode. His respiratory rate is up this am 50s -60s. normally 30-40. When he has his “episodes” his heart is racing then calms down. 
I read online white muscle disease can cause irregular heart rate and elevated respiratory rate. 
going to see how he does, wondering if the steroid caused the increased “episodes”. 
I can’t post a video of the “episodes” on here it won’t let me... but essentially he gets stiff and shakes.


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