# I don't think our ewe lamb born Wednesday night is going to make it.



## rockdoveranch (Apr 22, 2011)

This is the twin that was wandering around the pasture alone just after being born.

Yesterday she seemed to be nursing some when mom was eating pellets.  However, mom has a false nipple right next to one nipple and I think the baby may be latching on to the false nipple sometimes.  She did fairly well on colostrum yesterday. 

This morning we switched her over to milk replacer.  She has not nursed well at all today.  When I went to check on her an hour ago one eye had a discharge.  She refused the bottle so I ended up giving her 21 cc's of electrolytes from a syringe without the needle.  She seemed to like it.

I decided to give her an injection of penicillin.  We keep a bottle "just in case."  Have only used it 3 times since 2009.

We have had sheep since 2004 and never had any problems until 2009 when we began having long droughts.  We are in a bad drought now.  No good grasses on the 9 acres where the sheep are.  Hubby is putting field wire along a barbed wire fence so the sheep can graze another 12 acres.

I am feeling really sad after loosing yesterdays twins.


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## SDGsoap&dairy (Apr 22, 2011)

It's tough to lose them.  Sorry you're feeling down!


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## ksalvagno (Apr 22, 2011)

Sorry you are having a tough year. I know how you feel.


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## Royd Wood (Apr 22, 2011)

Hi Rockdoveranch - so sorry to hear your bad news and hope things pick up fast for you. We all know survival of the strongest is part of the plan when we take on animals but its still a bummer when death comes knocking.
I've been moaning on another post in the cow sec about the awful spring here and my family back in England say its the hottest / driest April on record there so I guess we have to deal with whatever is delt


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## rockdoveranch (Apr 23, 2011)

Thanks all for the kind words.

As I type I am looking through badly damaged chewed up lenses to my glasses.  I took a shower last night and heard our 2 Boxer/German Wirehaired Pointer mix puppies playing with something.  Turned out to be my glasses.  I am not a happy camper. 

The baby is still hanging in.  Mom is tossing it around more, but my greatest concern is that she does not have much a a suck reflex.  Her eye was clear with the exception of the corner that had a little gooky dried stuff in it. 

Letting go is really hard, but I suppose as humans we should pay more attention to and understand why mommas reject babies.  It is hard not to want to try to keep babies that would have died in the wild alive.  The fact that she was crying Wednesday night made us think she wanted to survive.  

At the moment I think it is worse trying to nurse a rejected baby back to health hoping it will survive than having to pull a dead baby out of the mom s birth canal. 

Our other 4 babies and the 1 White Dorper baby are all bouncing around.  Still have not been able to sex one of the Barbado.  It is a real runner.

Thanks again for all the support.


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## jhm47 (Apr 23, 2011)

You might want to check the eyes for entropion.  Lambs that are afflicted with it are often reluctant to suck.  Good luck!


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## rockdoveranch (Apr 23, 2011)

jhm47 said:
			
		

> You might want to check the eyes for entropion.  Lambs that are afflicted with it are often reluctant to suck.  Good luck!


I think I must be posting about this ewe lamb and our other new lambs in another thread.    

Since it is was soo hot today I decided to offer her milk replacer mixed with cold Pedialyte every 2 hours.  At 2pm she began sucking on the syringe I was using to feed her.  At 4pm she was sucking pretty hard.  So, at 6pm I offered her twice as much, 1/4th cup, in a baby bottle and she sucked it right down.  8pm she was still sucking really well, but did not drink as much.

I put neosporin in her eye at 8 pm.  

Thanks for suggesting netropion.  When a lamb has netropion, are both eyes usually affected?  She has only one eye that is ooky, and after popping her with penicillin that eye is only ooky in the corner, but that could be because I have been cleaning it. 

I just got through looking at pictures of inverted eyelids.  We have never had a lamb with netropion before, and I am thinking this is not the case now.  But tomorrow morning I will check it very closely and try to get some pictures so I can post them to see what you think.

Thanks!


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## rockdoveranch (Apr 24, 2011)

No pictures as yet.  

The barbado have "mascara" around their eyes so as I discovered it is pretty easy to check for inverted eye lids, and nothing looks inverted in this little gal.

I am ashamed to say that I did not go out until 8am this morning.  This ole body has not been sleeping well and I just could not drag myself out of bed any earlier.

The only place there is gook is in the corner of that right eye where tear ducts would be.  (I have looked all over the www and cannot find details about healthy sheep eyes) Other than that, both eyes look clear and healthy.  I guess at this point I would worry if the discharge was yellow or green, if the white of her eyes were pink or red, or if there was any swelling.

I cleaned her eye and at 10am the eye looked fine, although I did put some more neosporin in her eye.  

She drank 1/3rd cup milk replacer mixed with cold Pedialyte at 8:30am and 10:30am.  

I guess if things continue to go well she will take a trip to Houston in a couple of weeks for "show and tell" for my daughter's kindergarten class.  I did this with our first ever bottle baby in 2009 and had loads of fun.


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## TeamChaos (Apr 25, 2011)

How is it going?


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## rockdoveranch (Apr 25, 2011)

TeamChaos said:
			
		

> How is it going?


She seems to be doing well and is taking the bottle with ease.  Thank you for asking.

Her eye looks fine today.  We are under drought conditions with very windy weather here in our part of Texas and I am wondering now if she did not get an eye full of sand and dust from the wind or one of the times mom knocked her around.  

It appears there is little chance that mom will eventually accept her so I am considering bringing her up to the house and leaving her right outside the door in a dog run.

I would bring her in the house but we have 2 three month old puppies in the house now.

Both our other bottle babies, both born in 2009, were house lambs.  The ram lamb at 2 months was EAGER to be with the herd.  The ewe lamb was not.

Here is a picture of our second ever bottle baby, April, born April 2009.


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## TeamChaos (Jun 14, 2011)

That picture is too cute for words! I hope all is well with your flock!


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## rockdoveranch (Jun 15, 2011)

TeamChaos said:
			
		

> That picture is too cute for words! I hope all is well with your flock!


Thanks Team.

Wimberly, the little lamb in my OP is doing really well.  This is the first time we have left a bottle baby with the ewe herd and I think it is giving her a healthier start than having a lamb running around the house and only being taken outside several times a day to learn to graze.

After giving her her bottles we have to stand very quietly so that she will run back to the herd.  If we talk, sneeze or cough she thinks we are talking to her and she stays at our side.

I will try to get a picture of her later when the herd comes around to the back of the house.  She is VERY cute!


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## rockdoveranch (Jun 15, 2011)

Here's Wimberly, the subject of this thread  at almost 2 months.  She even has a bit of a "milk goiter".  







This is her twin brother, Flash.  I had hoped to get a picture of them together, but it did not happen and is is almost 98 degrees out there.  I had to go back in and cool down.


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