# HELP! newborn baby lamb



## bnbfarm (Mar 16, 2012)

My ewe had her first lamb yesterday and she did not have any milk so i had to keep it in the house and give it cloustrum and it did good all night long and this morning and now it is very weak and i dont know what do do please if any one knows what i can give it or what to do please let me know thanks so much!


----------



## 20kidsonhill (Mar 16, 2012)

how many ounces has it ate since it was born? How often were you feeding it?   Was it standing well and looking healthy after it was born?


----------



## bnbfarm (Mar 16, 2012)

it was only wanting to eat about 1 1/2 at a time and that is every 2 hours and it was up and walking fine when it was born


----------



## aggieterpkatie (Mar 16, 2012)

Is it warm?  If you put your finger in its mouth is the tongue warm or cool?  If it's warm, then give the lamb some milk (try milking out the ewe again, or get a good milk replacer).  If the lamb is cold, it needs to be warmed up before it is fed anything.  You can warm them by using a heating pad, putting the lamb in a bucket of warm water, etc.  Did you dip the navel in iodine? If not, do that too.


----------



## bnbfarm (Mar 16, 2012)

its warm and i already gave it milk but still not doing good


----------



## 20kidsonhill (Mar 16, 2012)

with goats there is something called floppy kid syndrome and we would give a kid baking soda, 1 teaspoon as a drench.  then repeat in 3  hours if there is no improvement.  Baking soda wont hurt anything so that may be worth a try. It tastes awful, so I mix it with Corn syrup or molasses and a little bit of water to make a drench. THe kid starts out doing well, but then gets weak and floppy. 

Ask aggieterpkatie if there is such a thing with lambs.


----------



## aggieterpkatie (Mar 16, 2012)

There's not really a floppy kid syndrome for lambs.  I cant' think of anything that would hit a lamb that soon.  Does it have a fever?  Will it drink? If not, you may need to tube it and give it several ounces of milk. Definitely keep it warm and try to prop it so it's sternal (not laying flat out).


----------



## 20kidsonhill (Mar 16, 2012)

aggieterpkatie said:
			
		

> There's not really a floppy kid syndrome for lambs.  I cant' think of anything that would hit a lamb that soon.  Does it have a fever?  Will it drink? If not, you may need to tube it and give it several ounces of milk. Definitely keep it warm and try to prop it so it's sternal (not laying flat out).


edited: oops, sorry. Hit the wrong button.


----------



## bnbfarm (Mar 16, 2012)

well i had just gave it some nutri drench for sheep and then about 20 min's later he died i still dont know what was wrong with him


----------



## bonbean01 (Mar 16, 2012)

awwww...I'm so sorry    I have no idea what else you could have done and if this little one just was not going to make it no matter what you did.  It happens, and it's so sad.


----------



## SheepGirl (Mar 16, 2012)

I've had that happen before...the vet thought it was white muscle disease, however, we never had a necropsy done, so it was just a toss in the air.

They start out normal, then by the next day, they are found flat out on the ground, and they're moving their limbs--it looks as though they're swimming--and their head would move up and down across the ground. When you tried to hold them up to stand, they were completely limp and their head fell to the ground and their pasterns went out. I know I took the first lamb's temp, but I can't remember what it was.

The first lamb this happened to, he was accepted by his mother, but his mother didn't particularly like him. She's an experienced ewe and she still let him nurse a lot, but she did like to stay away from him (whereas the other lamb she would let sleep near her). The second lamb was claimed by two ewes, and even those two ewes didn't want to be too close to him. They both let him nurse.

Sorry about the loss of your lamb. Hopefully you have some more ewes that will give you all healthy lambs.


----------



## nomad (Mar 16, 2012)

Sorry to hear about the loss of your lamb.  We went through a lot of loss in the early years of our farming operation - we raised several hundred boer goats, dairy goats and hair sheep.  We have learned through research and personal experience that the health of the mother is absolutely key to the vitality of the lamb, kid, calf, etc.  When a newborn goes downhill quickly after birth, it is showing a deeper problem.  The mother was the complete support system for the lamb during gestation and kept it alive, however, her health was most  likely lacking something that was vital to the lambs survival when decoupled from her sustenance.  The fact that she did not drop milk in a timely matter also indicates a problem - possibly hormonal.   Is she fed grain (in large amounts)?   Because grain is not a natural food for a ruminant, it will cause problems down the road.  Grains contain high levels of polyunsaturated fats which have an adverse effect on the thyroid causing it to slow down metabolism and also throwing hormones out of balance.  This is actually the key reason why grains are fed to animals - it quickly fattens them up by suppressing their thyroids, but it also causes a host of other problems.  Polyunsaturated fats are estrogenic (stressing) to the body.

Did the lamb pass its first bowel movement?  This is a black tar-like substance which it will pass shortly after taking its first drink of colustrum.  The next bowel movement will be light brown to yellow and very soft.  If the back end isn't working properly, the lamb will stop eating and die shortly.  We have given kids and lambs that have not expelled their first bowel movement in a timely manner a warm water enema to start the bowels in motion.  Usually this does the trick and the lamb or kid goes on its merry way and has a hearty appetite.


----------

