# Sick lamb- please help!!!!



## hfarnsworth (Jul 8, 2019)

Hi- I am new here and a new Shepard! I have a katadin lamb about 3 months old who is very sick. His poop is white snotty looking stuff when he does poop. He lays down a lot and eats very little. I have a call into a vet but probably won’t hear anything back till tomorrow. He looks a little bloated. I have dewormed him with valbazen, given him corid, baking soda and pepto bismol just trying to keep him going till the vet responds. Has anyone ever seen lamb poop like this?????? Please help! My other 5 sheep are all doing great.


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## AmberLops (Jul 8, 2019)

I'm sorry about your baby!
I will tag some sheep people for you...
@Ridgetop @Baymule @Sheepshape  help!

And welcome to BYH by the way


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## Ridgetop (Jul 8, 2019)

How long have you had the lamb?  Where did you get him?  Did you buy him or breed him?  Is he the only one that is having symptoms or seems off? 

 I would not worm him any more since wormer can be hard on sick animals.  Pepto Bismol is fine for stomach upsets, but I have usually used it for runny poop.  Never seen or heard of white poop unless you are referring to mucous. 

Since he is only 3 months old can you put him in the car and drive him to the vet?  Cheaper than a farm call and faster if the vet is not even going to call you back till tomorrow.


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## Ridgetop (Jul 8, 2019)

Has he been vaccinated for Clostridium (overeaters)?  Is he nursing or weaned?  What are you feeding him?  Is he getting hay only or grain?  What sort of grain?  Does he have pasture where he might have picked up some toxic weeds?  Need more information.


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## Baymule (Jul 8, 2019)

Ridgetop said:


> Since he is only 3 months old can you put him in the car and drive him to the vet?  Cheaper than a farm call and faster if the vet is not even going to call you back till tomorrow.


x2 I would load him up and take him to the vet. Have some one drive and you wrap him in a towel and hold him in the back seat.


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## Sheepshape (Jul 8, 2019)

Never seen white poop.....He isn't jaundiced is he? (pull down his eyelid to take a look at the sclera around the pupil which should be white but will be yellow in the case of jaundice). Is his urine a normal colour.?

I agree with the others....a baby diaper with a hole cut for the tail is ideal for taking lambs in the car.....take him to a vet. 

Here's hoping that he pulls through....


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## AmberLops (Jul 9, 2019)

How is he this morning?


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## hfarnsworth (Jul 9, 2019)

Took him to the vets, blood work and stool sample, they are keeping him for the day to give him fluids, penicillin and try to get his gut ph balanced. I’ll let you know how it turns out- fingers crossed! I think this is totally operator error, I gave him too much grain, a lesson I will not repeat!!!


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## AmberLops (Jul 9, 2019)

I hope he pulls through


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## Ridgetop (Jul 9, 2019)

Again is this a lamb you produced?  Is he still nursing?  Is he on hay?  Was he purchased?  If so, where and what was he being fed before?  Were you trying to fatten him up for slaughter?  Or is he being raised to be a breeding ram?

Feeding too much grain to young lambs is very dangerous.  Vaccinating for Clostridium is imperative.  We vaccinate lambs at 3 days when we dock tails.  We give 2cc CDT (Clostridium Perfringens & Tetanus) and a dose of Tetanus Antitoxin that is effective until the CDT takes effect.  If you don't dock tails, you only need the CDT vaccination.  Depending on what other diseases you might have in your soil or that your flock has been exposed to in your area, there are other vaccines you can give.  We prefer to give the least amount of vaccines possible if we don't have the disease on our property or in the area.  Since some vaccines are live, once you start giving that vaccine you have to continue forever since the disease gets into the flock and ground.  If you don't have it, only the CDT is necessary.  The lambs need a second dose of CDT 30 days later, and then the sheep can be vaccinated annually after that.

CDT (Clostridium and Tetanus) protects the lambs and sheep from "overeaters disease" - which results from an overload of rich food like grain resulting in a toxic imbalance in the rumen.  It can cause death.  heep are stupid - I make no apologies for this statement since sheep can be sweet and still stupid - and delight in getting into feed storage areas or other trouble.  After gorging themselves on grain, they can develop a toxic imbalance in the rumen and bingo!  Clostridia and dead lambs and sheep.  Tetanus needs no explanation.

Keeping your sheep healthy means keeping them on a steady diet of roughage, protein, etc. without too much in the way of concentrates or grain.  Since you have Katahdin which were developed to subsist on poor quality pasture and roughage, they do not need a high grain diet.  I have White Dorpers who were developed to subsist on the poor desert pastures of South Africa and the same diet applies.  Both breeds are considered "easy keepers" meaning that they will maintain good condition (muscle and fat covering) on less feed and poorer quality feed than most wool breeds.

In other words, you don't want to give much grain to this breed, especially when they are young.  Depending on whether you are raising him for slaughter or for breeding stock, will also affect your feeding program.

You want your slaughter animals to gain weight quickly, so they can go to the butcher on as little feed as possible.  More feed than necessary just wastes $$$ out of your pocket.  You want to feed the right mixture of forage or hay, and a minor amount of grain.  Slaughter animals are with their mothers nursing, and easily gain 1 lb. daily until 2 months at which time they gradually decrease their daily weight gain.  This s normal as they switch from nursing to a complete diet of forage, grazing, or hay.  The trick is to keep them gaining but you don't want to try to push them by overfeeding grain.  Instead you have to understand that the normal daily weight gain will continue to decrease as they age.  Optimal slaughter time is 4-6 months for a 100 lb. lamb, less if you are selling to ethnic buyers who want a smaller carcass.

You want your replacement breeding stock to gain slower.  You do not want breeding stock to gain excess weight or put on fat, so a lower daily rate of gain is preferable.  Overweight (fat) rams do not breed as well.  Overweight (fat) ewes don't reproduce well either, since they tend to build up fat around their reproductive organs resulting in problems conceiving.  Breeding stock should carry a condition score of 3.0 to 3.5 for optimum potential at breeding time.

Hope the little ram lamb makes it.  Make sure you give him a CDT vaccination.  If you are not sure if he has had any, give him 2cc CDT and the another 2cc 30 days later.   Do your entire flock if you are not sure if they have been vaccinated.

Good Luck!


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## hfarnsworth (Jul 9, 2019)

We bought him from a sheep farm 3 weeks ago. We intend to have him breed 2 ewes we have. Thank you all for your help and we will talk to the vet about vaccinations. Right now he is doing much better!!


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## AmberLops (Jul 9, 2019)

I'm glad he's doing better!


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## Baymule (Jul 9, 2019)

I am so glad that he is doing better!


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## B&B Happy goats (Jul 9, 2019)

good news


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## Ridgetop (Jul 9, 2019)

*Xlt news!  so glad to hear he is going to make it!  *

Keep him away from any grain for the next month and only feed pasture or hay.  You can also use some natural yogurt or probiotic paste to help restore his natural rumen functions and keep them healthy.  You can get the probiotic in paste form at the local feed store.  It comes in a dispenser like horse wormer and can be dispensed in doses by weight.  Don't use more than one or 2 doses since you don't want to overload his gut.  Keep the rest of the dispenser in the fridge. 

You can buy CDT and disposable syringes from catalogs.  It will be cheaper than having the vet do it since he will charge you either an office call plus the vaccinations, or a farm call plus the vaccinations, and it needs to be done every year.  You should vaccinate your ewes before breeding, and the lambs too after they arrive.  It is an intramuscular injection.  Look up in your sheep handbook how to give it.  If you don't know whether the ewes have been vaccinated, you should figure on 2 doses for each of the 2 ewes and 1 ram.  Then 2 doses each for any lambs about 3 days to a week after they are born.  Each dose is 2cc whether the animal is a lamb or an adult.  You give the first dose, then 30 days later give the second dose.  After the first year one dose is enough every year.  The smallest bottle comes in 50cc (25 doses) which will be enough for about 2 years.  Keep the vaccine refrigerated and it will last a couple years - the expiration date will be on the bottle.  You will need to order 2 sets of needles for each animal since you will give the first shot, then a month later give a second booster shot to make sure immunity is conferred.  So your order would be one 50cc bottle of CDT vaccine, and 10-12 disposable syringes and attached  needles.  I prefer the 3 cc Luer lock syringe (the needle twists on the syringe so a jumping sheep does not rip the needle off the syringe) with a 22 gauge 3/4" length needle.  I find this size and length needle is good for newborn lambs that have less muscle and prevents being so long that it hits bone.  If you want to order a couple extra needles for next year's boosters for your adult sheep, that will save you an additional shipping charge.  (A lot of us with larger flocks order the 100 count box of syringes in our preferred needle and syringe size to use from one year to the next.)  Some of the on-line livestock suppliers offer free shipping on orders over a certain amount but they won't ship vaccines needing refrigeration or cold packs in that order so you might as well just pay the shipping.  I always pay the extra couple dollars for the cold pack delivery where they stick a couple of frozen packs in with the vaccines.  Since are in the middle of summer now it would be smart to do that.

Lots of sheep people on this BYH site will be able to give you help in what to order for an emergency kit, and for necessary lambing supplies once your ewes are bred and you are waiting for the happy event.  Yu will be like the rest of us, chewing our nails and posting stories of breathless false alarms!  . 
Welcome to the whacky and fun world of sheep!


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## hfarnsworth (Jul 11, 2019)

Thanks for the info. We bought him from a sheep farm about 3 weeks ago in hopes to use him for breeding. He is getting thiamine shots, probios and antibiotics. I drench him with electrolytes and plain water throughout the day. Vet couldn’t give us any guarantees but we are trying everything for him we can. He gets good quality hay and nothing else at this point. I call the vet with any concerns. I’m hoping he pulls through but I won’t let him suffer long either. I’m new to sheep and take full responsibility for this as I gave him grain daily when I first got him and it was too much too fast. Lesson learned, all new lambs will be separated and eased into it. I feel awful as I know I caused this with plain old stupidity!


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## Ridgetop (Jul 11, 2019)

Sounds like you are doing everything right.  We learn fast when catastrophe strikes.  I remember the year we lost 10 bottle calves due to e. Coli.  Expensive lesson - we learned - and spent the rest of the summer making ice cream with the goat milk.  LOL  DS3 was ecstatic - he separated the milk and turned it into the best ice cream we ever ate!


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## Baymule (Jul 11, 2019)

hfarnsworth said:


> Thanks for the info. We bought him from a sheep farm about 3 weeks ago in hopes to use him for breeding. He is getting thiamine shots, probios and antibiotics. I drench him with electrolytes and plain water throughout the day. Vet couldn’t give us any guarantees but we are trying everything for him we can. He gets good quality hay and nothing else at this point. I call the vet with any concerns. I’m hoping he pulls through but I won’t let him suffer long either. I’m new to sheep and take full responsibility for this as I gave him grain daily when I first got him and it was too much too fast. Lesson learned, all new lambs will be separated and eased into it. I feel awful as I know I caused this with plain old stupidity!


Don't beat up on yourself too bad, we've all made mistakes. I admire you for standing up and taking responsibility. It is what it is and you can't back up, you can only go forward. You will make more mistakes, but you won't make THIS one ever again.


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## hailehysen (Sep 19, 2019)

hfarnsworth said:


> Hi- I am new here and a new Shepard! I have a katadin lamb about 3 months old who is very sick. His poop is white snotty looking stuff when he does poop. He lays down crossword solver sip calculator epfo a lot and eats very little. I have a call into a vet but probably won’t hear anything back till tomorrow. He looks a little bloated. I have dewormed him with valbazen, given him corid, baking soda and pepto bismol just trying to keep him going till the vet responds. Has anyone ever seen lamb poop like this?????? Please help! My other 5 sheep are all doing great.


Does he have pasture where he might have picked up some toxic weeds? Need more information.


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## Mike CHS (Sep 19, 2019)

This is an old post.


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