3 week old lamb can't stay warm

[Beccichka]

This is our first year with our Dorper/Katahdins and our first experience with newborn lambs. I have a Dorper/Katahdin male born 3 weeks ago. He is a twin among triplets. Initially we were not worried about him. It was the other twin that we needed to watch. He did fine for the first week/week and a half. Then we began to notice reduced activity level. We offered milk, but he didn't take it and we saw him nursing at times. Then a week ago last Friday, our weather temps dropped and we found him shivering in the corner by himself. We brought him inside and it took a couple hours before he warmed up. We also were force feeding him at this time. The next day he seemed better so we returned him outside and continued to check on him, etc. Sunday he seemed fine in the morning and early afternoon. When we returned that night, he was once again alone and this time twitching. It took more hours to warm him up again. We continued to force feed him. The next day he was doing better, but we decided to keep him in the house for the week and the extra cold and watch him. He learned to take a bottle very efficiently. The cold snap is over and it is back to just normal cold. All other sheep are and have been fine. Yesterday we took him outside for about an hour. Today, we put him outside from 9:30 until we checked on him now at 3:30. It was time to feed him again. When we went out, he didn't want to eat. He had been laying with the sheep, but when he heard us, he jumped up and came to us. He also appeared to be shivering some again. We brought him inside and he still does not want to eat.
I am wondering what his problem could be. Is it still that he has not gained enough weight? He's smaller than the other twin, but deffinitely bigger than last week. And of course, when they were born, they were all very small and they did fine. Is it possible he has some problem regulating his temperature? I don't know what to do for him. It's not possible to put a heating lamp in our barn as there is no electricity.

 

[Mini Horses]

Put a sweater on him...dog one works, or make one from sweat shirt sleeve, etc. Keep bottle feeding, he needs calories to keep warm. With trips often weakest gets shortchanged. Staying with family is best if you can keep him warm! Do not feed him if his mouth is cold, inside and warm him first....he'll suckle your finger so you can check if warm mouth.

Let us know how he's doing. We care.

Some sheepies will reply soon....

 

[Baymule]

The tiniest triplet oftentimes does not do well. Go ahead and pull him, make him a bottle baby. Sometimes I raise mine inside, in a large dog crate. I use incontinance adult pads in the crate. When I let them out to play, I put small size depends on them, roll the top and secure with 2 clothespins.

Never feed a cold lamb. Stick finger in their mouth, if cold, warm up first, then feed. If you feed a cold lamb, he cannot digest the milk and will die.

Know and understand that you do not keep a bottle raised ram. A bottle raised ram has no fear or respect for you and as he matures, he will try to be the dominant one. That means he will ram into you and can cause severe injury. So his future is auction barn, you eat him, or a wether to be a companion to your ram. I have an incredibly ugly, poor specimen of the breed, terrible conformation bottle raised whether that I guess I’m keeping as a companion. Sigh…,…

I don’t want bottle babies, as I get more money in milk than what they are worth. I sure don’t want a bottle ram or wether but sometimes that’s how it goes.

2024, 3 ewes, raised in the house, conspiring on how to terrorize the dog.

Rejected triplets from February 2021. I still have the white one, the ewe. Her name is Tiny but she grew out as big as her sisters.

How to resist so much cuteness?

 

[Ridgetop]

Make a sweater out of a sweatshirt sleeve. For tiny newborns I have used socks but for a 3 week old it will be too small. Make sweaters out of both sleeves so you can alternate and wash one when it gets dirty. Make him a bottle baby and sell him on as soon as he is large enough since like @Baymule said you don't want to keep a bottle baby as a ram.

BTW: Keep the sweaters for next lambing time with your bottle equipment. You never know when you might need them again.

 

[Beccichka]

The tiniest triplet oftentimes does not do well. Go ahead and pull him, make him a bottle baby. Sometimes I raise mine inside, in a large dog crate. I use incontinance adult pads in the crate. When I let them out to play, I put small size depends on them, roll the top and secure with 2 clothespins.

Never feed a cold lamb. Stick finger in their mouth, if cold, warm up first, then feed. If you feed a cold lamb, he cannot digest the milk and will die.

Know and understand that you do not keep a bottle raised ram. A bottle raised ram has no fear or respect for you and as he matures, he will try to be the dominant one. That means he will ram into you and can cause severe injury. So his future is auction barn, you eat him, or a wether to be a companion to your ram. I have an incredibly ugly, poor specimen of the breed, terrible conformation bottle raised whether that I guess I’m keeping as a companion. Sigh…,…

I don’t want bottle babies, as I get more money in milk than what they are worth. I sure don’t want a bottle ram or wether but sometimes that’s how it goes.

2024, 3 ewes, raised in the house, conspiring on how to terrorize the dog.

View attachment 115248

Rejected triplets from February 2021. I still have the white one, the ewe. Her name is Tiny but she grew out as big as her sisters.

View attachment 115249

How to resist so much cuteness?

View attachment 115250

View attachment 115251

How long did you have them in the house?

 

[Baymule]

How long did you have them in the house?

The 2021 lambs, 4 weeks and slowly transitioned them to full time outside. That’s the year that Texas got a blizzard that shut down the whole state.

The 2024 lambs, 3 weeks.

 

[Beccichka]

The 2021 lambs, 4 weeks and slowly transitioned them to full time outside. That’s the year that Texas got a blizzard that shut down the whole state.

The 2024 lambs, 3 weeks.

We brought him in at week 2. He will be 4 weeks this Friday. We made him a sweater and just put him back outside. We'll watch and see how he does. We did find one of our other ewes had birthed since this morning and had stillborn twins. I wonder if it is possible to get that ewe and this male lamb to bond?

 

[SageHill]

. We did find one of our other ewes had birthed since this morning and had stillborn twins. I wonder if it is possible to get that ewe and this male lamb to bond?

It's definitely worth a try.

 

[Baymule]

Put them both in a small pen. You may still have to bottle feed him, but she will be company for him and will teach him how to be a sheep.