# Lambs Grinding Teeth?



## Lamb Lover (May 15, 2015)

Hello! I recently picked a couple of lambs from a breeder and had some questions about their behavior. I've been around sheep a lot but never owned them, and I haven't been around lambs much. The two I picked are both bums and I plan to hopefully breed them for wool. They're about a month old now.

We were out to see them about two weeks ago, and we were playing with them and just letting them get used to us. I know that they grind their teeth when they are in pain, but there was nothing wrong with these two. They would stand there and grind, I had to pick them up a time or two and they'd do it, and it was really really loud. I was concerned about it and haven't found an answer yet. I hope we didn't hurt them, but I just don't understand why they were doing it. The female had a goopy eye but we took care of it, and she had a small sore on her lip from the bottle that bled a little, but other than that she was ok. The male is just fine, and he actually enjoys being held. I'm not sure what the deal is here.

Any ideas? We will being seeing them again in about two days and we'll bring them home in a few weeks. Thanks!


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## Ridgetop (May 15, 2015)

Grinding teeth in goats and lambs usually means they are in pain so I would look at their diets and make sure they had their CDT shots.  In the few instances I have had goats or sheep grinding their teeth they usually had belly pain.  Why would the lamb have a sore on its lip from a bottle?  Are you sure it isnt soremouth?  Is it kind of scabby looking and crusty?  Also check out the goopy eye because you don't want to get home with a couple of sick lambs. 
Good luck!


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## Lamb Lover (May 15, 2015)

Thank you @Ridgetop. They haven't had shots yet as far as I know, but it was getting close to their nursing time so I wonder if they were just really hungry? 

I don't know why it would have been from the bottle. The guys that take care of them told me because I was concerned and they said they were keeping it clean and checking on her. It was just a scab at that point on her lower lip/chin, and it opened up and bled a little. She had the goopy eye since I pulled her off another ewe. (Her mother had triplets and died, and the other ewe had my lamb and three others trying to get milk.) It was mostly all dried up stuff underneath the eye, no new discharge and she seems ok. They said they were watching that too.


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## Ridgetop (May 16, 2015)

Scabs on lips and chins can be soremouth which is a disease you dont want to bring home.  It gets into the soil and will infect the rest of your herd.  It is common in certain areas of the US.  Look up soremouth on line and compare the pix to what you remember.  If it looks like soremouth don't buy the sheep.  You will bring home a disease you won't be able to get rid of.  Ask if the breeders have ever had soremouth.  What did the ewe die of?  Have they been docked? 

With our sheep, we dock around a week old and give tetanus which gives immediate protection.  At the same time we give CDT which prefers long term protection.  30 days later we give the 2nd CDT which is good for a year.  if the breeder has docked without vaccinations I would be leery of him.  If he hasn't docked, I would worry about doing it now at 1 month.  Something isn;t right about this lamb.  Be careful.

I will be off line for a week - no computer access.  I hope someone can come on here and help you.


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## Lamb Lover (May 16, 2015)

Oh no I hope it's not sore mouth! It's not anywhere near as bad as those pictures, just the one little spot but I'll ask for sure. The foreman, (who's basically our uncle at this point) said he will dock ours and give their shots before we come and get them. The rest don't get weaned or anything until September because this when they ship the ones they don't want. The ewe died of mastitis the same day we came to mark them, she was the females mother. The male came off another ewe that didn't want him or something, and now his new ewe wants him and he's just fine. 

The ewe the female is on stomps her if she isn't tied up. Even if she's tied the lamb isn't getting enough milk which is where the bottle comes in. I've gone in the pen to tie her and she fought me, she's not a nice ewe. There is a very long story behind why they are waiting that long to do anything with them until September. The foreman and all the guys that work there are from Peru (they're so sweet we love them to death), the actual owners are not nice and are cheap. Anyone in the area that you talk to will turn their nose up. That should explain it pretty well if you can guess the rest.

Well thank you for everything. I'll give you an update when you get back if you want. Have a good week!


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## Ridgetop (May 21, 2015)

Hi Lamb Lover:  Back from my trip.  What is update on lambs?


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## Lamb Lover (May 28, 2015)

Oh hi Ridgetop,  sorry I didn't see this until now! Did you have a nice trip?

So the lambs, not good. Georgia does have soremouth and I cried because it upset me a lot. We are going to get another female bottle baby, and then try and find our male. If we can't we're going to get another new male. I won't see them for about three weeks at best as my mom and her professor who sets dates for us to go see them are currently in Peru. As soon as I hear something I'll let you know.


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## purplequeenvt (May 28, 2015)

Just a note on the sore mouth....usually it is no big deal. Most people who show have it in their flocks. It usually crops up during lambing season, infecting all the new lambs, but then they have immunities against that strain or strains and generally don't get it again (they can get a different strain)

We have/had it in our flock for years and it used to be that every single lamb got it, but over the last few years I've noticed fewer and fewer lambs getting it. There were only one or two that got it this year. I think that the virus we have is either losing strength or our flock has built up immunity to it. We have added some new sheep lately that have not contracted in though. 

I say that "usually" sore mouth is no big deal because that's generally the case. There are strains or cases of the virus that are particularly bad were some of the animals end up dying when they can't or won't eat due to pain or they get a secondary infection.


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## Lamb Lover (May 28, 2015)

So purplequeenvt, if we were to take her home once she's better would you say her quality of life would be ok? She wouldn't be in pain or anything? That's what we were worried about. She would be in pain and it wouldn't be worth keeping her going. If she's ok then I guess we take her home if not, she gets shipped out.


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## purplequeenvt (May 28, 2015)

Lamb Lover said:


> So purplequeenvt, if we were to take her home once she's better would you say her quality of life would be ok? She wouldn't be in pain or anything? That's what we were worried about. She would be in pain and it wouldn't be worth keeping her going. If she's ok then I guess we take her home if not, she gets shipped out.



In life-long pain from sore mouth?? They are in some pain (not sure how much, depends on the case) while they have an active infection, but once the virus runs its course, the sheep is fine. Most cases, you can never tell that they ever had it. We've never had to ship a sheep due to sore mouth. 

I wouldn't reject a sheep based on sore mouth. I wouldn't bring it home until after it was healed from an active case, but after that, I'd have no issues bringing it home.


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## Ridgetop (May 28, 2015)

Lamblover:  If you don't have it in your flock now, why bring it home?  You are just setting yourself and any future sheep to get it.  To be honest, buy something else somewhere else.  There is no point in buying disease and bringing it in.  It also gets into the soil. It is probably the reason the ewes refused to nurse the lambs.  Soremouth doesn't just get on the mouth, it can get on and inside the teats and udder, causing the ewe pain so that she will refuse to let the lambs nurse.  People who don't have soremouth in their flocks already are told not to vaccinate because the vaccine is live and will infect the entire flock.  Once you start vaccinating you have to keep on because the vaccine is caused the disease to now be in your animals.  Flocks that have animals with soremouth vaccinate because it is a way to control the disease.  It is also contagious to people.  Humans can get it from treating the sores without wearing gloves.  It is known as orf in humans.  I strongly recommend you look elsewhere for a bottle lamb. 

Purplequeenvt: Since LambLover doesn't have any sheep yet, why bother with one that already has soremouth.  This is not a winning show animal that should be kept because of its genetic heritage.


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## purplequeenvt (May 28, 2015)

Ridgetop said:


> Lamblover:  If you don't have it in your flock now, why bring it home?  You are just setting yourself and any future sheep to get it.  To be honest, buy something else somewhere else.  There is no point in buying disease and bringing it in.  It also gets into the soil. It is probably the reason the ewes refused to nurse the lambs.  Soremouth doesn't just get on the mouth, it can get on and inside the teats and udder, causing the ewe pain so that she will refuse to let the lambs nurse.  People who don't have soremouth in their flocks already are told not to vaccinate because the vaccine is live and will infect the entire flock.  Once you start vaccinating you have to keep on because the vaccine is caused the disease to now be in your animals.  Flocks that have animals with soremouth vaccinate because it is a way to control the disease.  It is also contagious to people.  Humans can get it from treating the sores without wearing gloves.  It is known as orf in humans.  I strongly recommend you look elsewhere for a bottle lamb.
> 
> Purplequeenvt: Since LambLover doesn't have any sheep yet, why bother with one that already has soremouth.  This is not a winning show animal that should be kept because of its genetic heritage.



But if she is only going to have a few pets, why does it matter? It's not like the sheep is going to get sore mouth over and over again. Yeah, maybe if she adds a new sheep, I could get sore mouth, but the virus will runs it's course.


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## Ridgetop (May 28, 2015)

with a lot of people it starts with just a few pets.  then you get interested in livestock or a certain breed and before you know it you have a nice flock of show sheep, or she is breeding some, and now her property is infected with soremouth, along with all future sheep. Before she gets it is the time to avoid it.  Why buy trouble?  there are enough nice healthy animals out there, don't bother bringing in sick ones.


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## mikiz (May 29, 2015)

Wow after a quick google/wiki search of orf, I'm with Ridgetop!! I wouldn't bother with an average animal that has that sort of defect, even if I only wanted a few pets. Especially if I only wanted a few pets! I wouldn't want the only few sheep I had to be contaminated like that, even if it is only a short period of time!


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## purplequeenvt (May 30, 2015)

Well, you all can have your opinion about sore mouth, but I'm not going to change my opinion about it nor my advice Lamblover. She may decide not to buy this lamb with sore mouth and she'll go buy another and won't realize that it too has sore mouth. 

Also, not completely positive on this aspect because I've never looked into, but I'm fairly certain that the orf virus lives in the soil. Which means that technically, if she waits to bring her lamb home until after all the scabs have fallen off and the lamb is better, she probably won't "contaminate" her property with anything. 

We've been raising sheep for 15 years now. We've had orf in the flock since the beginning and it has never been a big deal. The lambs get it in the spring and a couple weeks later are fine. Occasionally a ewe will develop sores on her udder from it and we have to deal with that, but again, not a big deal. The ewe was fine, the lambs were fine. 

Our orf seems to be dying out though. Only 2 out of the entire group got a very mild case. 

Almost everyone I know with sheep has sore mouth in the flock and no one is concerned about it unless the sheep come down with during show season.


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## Ridgetop (May 30, 2015)

Soremouth seems to be a bigger problem in certain parts of the country.  We have never had it and my thought is if you don't have it don't bring it in knowingly.  On the other hand if you get it, you have to deal with it then.  We have never had a problem with abcesses but this year when shearing we found our ram had a bunch of tiny ones on his side.  They were not in the sites associated with CL, and he was going to the auction anyway, since we replaced him this year.  None of the girls had any lumps at all.  Since he runs loose on the large field and we pen the ewes up at night, he probably got the abcesses from stickers in the brush working through his wool.  He hangs with the mule most of the time, and only visits his harem when breeding them!  Hopefully we will not have a problem next year but if we do, we will test and vaccinate.  I wouldn't buy an animal that had abcesses though, and this guy is currently quarantined until the sale next month.


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## Lamb Lover (Jun 14, 2015)

Well thank you all, it helps a lot. I haven't gone out to see them in almost a month now due to traveling but I plan to go out possibly this week. I don't even know if I'll be able to find either of them now! I'll probably end up finding a new set of bummers and I'll check for any abnormalities. As for bringing the sick one home if it's no longer active and she has healed, I won't be bringing any more sheep home after these two. I can have up to four where I live but we can only afford to have the two. If I get any more it will be sometime later when we have more property, so as of right now I'm not concerned with it. Thank you though.


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## Lamb Lover (Jun 16, 2015)

Hello all! I do have an update, not an exciting one though. I'm going out to hopefully find my lambs this weekend with the help of my cousins and younger brother. If I can't find them I might cry, and then I'll pick two new lambs. I'll be sure to send pictures. However, I am currently occupied by my two new baby bunnies. Long story....


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