Limping 2-Week Old Lamb

[Josephine Parkinson]

Greetings @Josephine Parkinson and welcome to BYH. Glad you joined us! Sorry you're having a problem with your lamb I don't think the over feeding would lead to a limp. I hope it's nothing serious and that she's just a little sore from rough playing and heals up fine. Please let us know how it turns out.

Thanks for your feedback, Latestarter!

We called a vet clinic about an hour after I posted my problem on BYH. The vet said he could take a look at her as soon as we could get her to the clinic, so that was great.

Dr. Goodman palpated the limp leg very carefully and compared it to her good (left) leg. He found a minor amount of swelling in the lowest section of her leg, probably from edema because of her immobility. But he found more swelling in her shoulder, and she flinched whenever he palpated that area.

He did some x-rays, and thankfully, there was no evidence of skeletal damage. He concluded that she must have sustained an impact injury on her right shoulder--which he says is more commonly seen in horses when they accidentally run their shoulder into something hard, like a fence post. Perhaps she sustained the injury while enjoying some enthusiastic playtime with her week-old companion lamb in their pasture area.

Here is Tessa at the vet clinic this morning. She was standing, but not putting any weight on her front right leg. The swelling wasn't very obvious, was it?

Dr. Goodman gave her an antibiotic injection as well as an anti-inflammatory injection, and prescribed pen rest for her until she stops favouring the leg. That could be upwards of a week. He expects her to make a fairly good recovery in about 6 weeks' time. In the meantime, I am to orally ad minister a daily dose of anti-inflammatory (Metacam) for the next 10 days.

I didn't say this earlier, but this little lamb is my project animal for the 4-H Sheep Club. I will be showing her at a few agricultural fairs, so I'm praying she'll be well enough to do that. This problem with my lamb has been a great way to learn even more about sheep. And that's exactly what I wanted to do in 4-H, so I can take the best possible care of these darling animals. So, all in all, this experience has been a positive one with lots of takeaways!

You guys are teaching me some good stuff, too, for which I am very grateful. Thanks so much for sharing your invaluable knowledge with me, and for caring about other people's lambs too. Hopefully, some day I can take the knowledge I'm gaining and use it to help others, just like you're doing. Abundant blessings on all of you who helped me today!! Thanks for being there!!!

 

[Latestarter]

She's a gorgeous little gal! You can see just a bit of swelling there, but not terribly bad. Hope the meds help her, as I'm sure they will! Good luck with your 4H project!

 

[BlessedWithGoats]

How is she doing today?