# Lambs: One limping one panting



## Gorman Farm (Mar 30, 2017)

Well Joy has a strained back leg/or hip. Yesterday morning it was sorta cool out, well for us in Florida anyway, and my lamb Joy who is about 6 weeks old was bucking and jumping all around when I opened the barn door. Today I noticed she had a slight limp in her rear right leg, although following mom to graze all over pasture. 
It's very hot today about 90 degrees, and I noticed the new ram lamb (no name yet) was laying in the pasture near to where his mom was grazing and panting pretty heavily, they were in the direct sun in the middle of pasture.
Well I decided to call them all down to the barn early and put them in an open air stall where there is shade. I tried to check Joy's leg for heat but everything is just hot right now so I couldn't tell but it doesn't seem to be broken, probably strained when she was doing acrobatics. 
The newer ram lamb 3 days old laid right down in a corner and plopped, but he is still open mouth panting, I did watch til I saw him get up and nurse a bit, but then he was right back down he went panting. Should I do anything for him? Going back out to check and see now that he has been in the stall for a bit to see if he is still panting.


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## Gorman Farm (Mar 30, 2017)

Well the young ram lamb seems to be doing ok, I took a bottle out with me with colostrum, a pinch of salt and a 1/2 teaspoon of corn syrup just in case, he took about a 1/2 ounce of that, then he got up and I saw him take a couple sips of water out of the water bucket, did not realize he was already taking water. I am less worried about him dehydrating in the heat now. 
I am going to keep them in for the rest of the day and only let them out in the cooler morning, if it is this hot tomorrow I will put them back in the open air stall before it gets too hot. I will see tomorrow when i put them out if Joy is still limping.


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## Latestarter (Mar 30, 2017)

The rapid/constant/large changes in temp can cause pneumonia in babies... He could also have maybe aspirated some of the birthing fluids... Is there any nasal discharge at all (not that it's "required")? Can you get his temp? Maybe after sun down when his temp isn't affected by the sun? If elevated it would indicate he's fighting some sort of infection... If it is pneumonia, it can kill a baby animal very quickly...

Ah... OK, was about to hit post when you posted your 2nd entry...


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## Gorman Farm (Mar 30, 2017)

Latestarter said:


> The rapid/constant/large changes in temp can cause pneumonia in babies... He could also have maybe aspirated some of the birthing fluids... Is there any nasal discharge at all (not that it's "required")? Can you get his temp? Maybe after sun down when his temp isn't affected by the sun? If elevated it would indicate he's fighting some sort of infection... If it is pneumonia, it can kill a baby animal very quickly...
> 
> Ah... OK, was about to hit post when you posted your 2nd entry...



I doubt he aspirated on anything, he was fine the first 2 days. No nasal discharge, normal baby poop. It only happened after it got really hot today. He was fine after cooling off for a couple hours. I am still watching him though and hottest part of the day I am going to bring them in. We don't have a lot of shade in our pastures. I will get his temp in the AM before I let them out.


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## Gorman Farm (Mar 31, 2017)

Up-date:
Joy seems fine and isn't limping anymore thank goodness.
Baby boy seems fine no fever and it is a little cooler today with a light rain, but I am still keeping an eye out.


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## purplequeenvt (Mar 31, 2017)

Lambs are dumb. They will lay out in the sun until they roast and make themselves sick.


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