Help for a baby lamb!! need advice please!

[lettermom]

this is from a good friend, what should i advise her to do?


"We run a Bible camp, and in our petting zoo we have a sheep. We got her as an orphan lamb two years ago. We raised her with a bottle.
In January we took her to a friend's house to have her bred with his ram. Last night, around midnight, she gave birth to two ram lambs. Maybe we were around her too much. Maybe she was totally unprepared for being a mother, since she had been an orphan. Anyway, she seemed totally freaked out by the lambs. Shied away from them, didn't lick them, and when they stood up and we tried to get them to nurse, she wanted nothing to do with it. She butted them, and stepped on them.
Well, 18 hours later, they are still alive. We have milked her, and fed them her milk in a bottle. We have held her still so that they could nurse. However, the one lamb is active, nursing, and seems like he might be okay. The other lamb is less active. His mouth is cold. He can walk, but has low energy. When we put his mouth to the teat, he is not interested. Nor is he interested in drinking from a bottle. The only way we've been able to get nourishment into him is with a syringe.
The feed store is closed and we can't get milk replacer or a tube for tube feeding.
We have the ewe tied to a pole, next to a wall, so that she'll stay still for the lambs to nurse. I hope the stronger lamb will be okay.
If you have any experience with sheep, what would you do for the other lamb?"

thank you "sheep people"

[Ross]

I'm give it a warm soapy water enema. (real soap like from a bar of Ivory soap) I expect the lamb is constipated from the late start to eatng and hasn't passed the tarry fecal plug. If you have it you can give it vit B complex and a 30% glucose injection. Not uncomon or a really difficult one to fix but it must be done ASAP.

[Ronney]

I have to be honest and say that I've never come across the problem Ross refers to. However, I have come across the cold mouth and recognise it as the body starting to shut down.

My first action would be to float the lamb in a laundry tub of tepid water to get the overall body temperature back up. Dry it off thoroughly with old towels and put it in a prepared box with preferably a heat pad but if that isn't available, a hot water bottle with old towels on top of it will do the job just as well. Pop the lot into the hot water cupboard where the temperature is likely to remain static. Then think about how and what your going to feed it. Given that the feed store is closed your best bet is to continue by syringe but be very careful that it doesn't go down the wrong way and end up in the lungs. But continue to try with the bottle first - once it's temperature is up you may find that it has more interest.

There are no hard and fast rules for these situations and over the years I've tried all sorts of things depending on the state of the lamb. Some have made it, others have done well for a month or so then inexplicably died, others never got past the first hurdle. I'm not a pessimist, which is why I try and save them, but by the same token I know how hard it is for these little creatures that have no reserves to fall back on.

I wish your friend well but tell her to be prepared for it to fall over.

Cheers,
Ronnie

[Ross]

I have to be honest and say that I've never come across the problem Ross refers to.

Really?? Gotta be in the top 5 lamb complications I deal with. Dehydration from a lack of fluid intake causing constipation, lowered body temp and the related typical "hungry lamb" hunch back, stiff walking, depresion etc etc.