Yesterday morning we went out to do chores and found our ram lamb down. He's about 3 months old and has been weaned for 3 weeks and on pasture with the adults. He had been bottle-raised on goat's milk (we don't own the ewe). We thought it was the cold at first and that he'd been chilled. But his mouth was warm and he isn't running a fever.
Drenched him with propylene glycol, gave him a dose of Panacure wormer, thinking maybe he didn't have any energy from an overload of worms? Gave him Probios and a sulfa anitbiotic (Di-Methox).
We babies him yesterday with all-day watching. He was taking bottles of electrolytes and water all day long with vigor and no problems at all - his sucking reflex sure didn't give out! By mid-afternoon he was eating grass. I could stand him up and he would walk for a bit before tripping and falling down. Once he was down he couldn't get up again. His poo turned to diarrhea around 2 or 3pm yesterday afternoon, but is back to normal today. Wondering if that's just the effect of the wormer? Last night around 9 I took him for a walk - we walked around for maybe fifteen minutes, with him following me, seemed to have a lot more energy and only tripped twice since it was getting dark and he couldn't see.
Spent the night in our diningroom (in a large dog crate!). Baa-d at us when we went in this morning. But today, while he shows the same energy in drinking from his bottle and took his antibiotic and Probios happily, is grazing on any grass he can reach in our yard, he still can't stand up. And this time he can't even stand after I help him up. He just falls back down - as if his legs simply don't work.
He seems happy otherwise. Obviously this is not good. I thought maybe he had white muscle disease and gave him a Bo-Se shot for selenium and vitamin E, even though we arne't considered selenium dificient here in Iowa, I thought maybe...
Any other ideas? I just don't get it. None of the other lambs or sheep seem to be having any problems at all - just our ONE RAM LAMB...we were going to keep him for the herd ram, but if he doens't survive, obviously this won't happen...
I'm taking this kind of personally - I feel guilty for whatever reason. Like I did something wrong, or didn't do something I should have. I'm out of ideas on how to get his legs working again.
Does he need a CDT shot? I have the Bar Vac stuff here...could that be it? I'm so clueless... Please help!
Sarah
Drenched him with propylene glycol, gave him a dose of Panacure wormer, thinking maybe he didn't have any energy from an overload of worms? Gave him Probios and a sulfa anitbiotic (Di-Methox).
We babies him yesterday with all-day watching. He was taking bottles of electrolytes and water all day long with vigor and no problems at all - his sucking reflex sure didn't give out! By mid-afternoon he was eating grass. I could stand him up and he would walk for a bit before tripping and falling down. Once he was down he couldn't get up again. His poo turned to diarrhea around 2 or 3pm yesterday afternoon, but is back to normal today. Wondering if that's just the effect of the wormer? Last night around 9 I took him for a walk - we walked around for maybe fifteen minutes, with him following me, seemed to have a lot more energy and only tripped twice since it was getting dark and he couldn't see.
Spent the night in our diningroom (in a large dog crate!). Baa-d at us when we went in this morning. But today, while he shows the same energy in drinking from his bottle and took his antibiotic and Probios happily, is grazing on any grass he can reach in our yard, he still can't stand up. And this time he can't even stand after I help him up. He just falls back down - as if his legs simply don't work.
He seems happy otherwise. Obviously this is not good. I thought maybe he had white muscle disease and gave him a Bo-Se shot for selenium and vitamin E, even though we arne't considered selenium dificient here in Iowa, I thought maybe...
Any other ideas? I just don't get it. None of the other lambs or sheep seem to be having any problems at all - just our ONE RAM LAMB...we were going to keep him for the herd ram, but if he doens't survive, obviously this won't happen...
I'm taking this kind of personally - I feel guilty for whatever reason. Like I did something wrong, or didn't do something I should have. I'm out of ideas on how to get his legs working again.
Does he need a CDT shot? I have the Bar Vac stuff here...could that be it? I'm so clueless... Please help!
Sarah