# Very skinny lamb p



## ancient (Apr 28, 2021)

Oh brother, I feel so done with sheep this year. A neighbor brought me a ewe lamb that they are at the end of their rope with and didn't want to pay a vet. I really didn't want any more problems but I felt so bad for the little thing.  So according to them she did get colostrum and milk for a few weeks then she was just on her own with grass and a bit of grain but has been eating less and less. I myself have had too many sheep vet bills this year and really don't want to call for her as well.
 To the emergency, they said she's about 7 weeks old now and she weighs about the same as my 2 week old ram lamb. She's so boney it just makes me so sad. I wormed her, gave her nutri drench even some metacam. She kind of picks at hay(she wouldn't touch regular grass hay I had to mix it with alfalfa hay to get her to even try it). I tried sheep text, plain oats,plain cracked corn. She will have a few bites then walk away.  On pasture she kind of just looks around for blackberry leaves but won't eat much grass.  She just looks worse everyday.
 Now I know dog food is bad for sheep but she goes crazy for it if it's out for the dogs,. First thing being let out in the morning she goes running to look for it so I had to make sure it's out away before she's out . She's the same if I take a sandwich or something out with me when I'm watching the sheep for a while.
 I guess I'm so at a loss at how underweight she is that I'm wondering if I should be letting her eat some dog food, bread ect?  If she keeps not eating shes not going to live much longer.
 I guess that's my question, should I just give her what she actually wants to eat???


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## Baymule (Apr 28, 2021)

Bake her some cornbread? It would have corn in it.
Poor little lamb. I hope you can do something for her.


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 28, 2021)

Treat her for coccidia. She’s at a prime age for it.


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## secuono (Apr 28, 2021)

Is she really that old? 
Some of my sheep eat dog food, it's a lot of plants mixed with some meat. I don't see why she can't have some occasionally. Or feed some ground corn. 
Will she take a bottle if offered? 
If she won't eat, tube feed very watery grass/sheep creep 3× a day until eating decently on her own.
B vits help them want to eat.


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## purplequeenvt (Apr 29, 2021)

Ok, now that I’m a little more awake, I’ll try to offer more thorough advice.

I’m going to assume that this lamb is actually 7 weeks old like you were told. Did the neighbor have other sheep? It sounds like she hasn’t been around anyone to teach her how to eat properly. Do you know her breed?

I would pen her up so you can monitor her food intake. Do you have a lamb of a similar age you can put with her?

After that, I would treat for coccidia. I prefer sulfadimethoxine, but that requires a prescription now so Corid is easier to access. Dose her directly and not in the water.

Give her free choice grass and alfalfa hay, but in separate piles, not mixed together. I’d look for a nice creep feed, the pellets are usually smaller and smell sweet to entice lambs to taste them. If you can’t find that, get a 16% sheep pellet. Textured is fine too, she might like the molasses.  

You could try giving her a bottle, but if she’s really 7 weeks old, it may not due much beyond getting calories into her. I wouldn’t go out and buy milk replacer just to try.


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