I had a lamb born weak 4 days ago. The first night she had problems holding her head up, like she couldnt control it. If we stood her up she would walk, but as soon as she would lay down she would lay lifeless. Now she will get up and walk and seems to have more energy, but after she sucks she sounds raspy and she still stumbles at times when she tries to walk. She also acts like she has something in her ears. And her ears never lay down, they are always straight out.We have had 40 lambs born so far this year and she seems to be the only one with this problem. Any suggestions on what it could be? Thank you
A long birthing can cause some oxygen deprivation and make a lamb seen weak, when its really coping with some nerve damage. Was she covered in darlish yellow birthing fluids? Some other things you can check besides that, cleft palete, a high temperature, (sheep are 102.5 but look for over 103.5), a swollen neck, or anemia (look for blood vessels in her eye whites) Do your lambs get a vitamin AD and E Selenium injection at birth? Have you checked the ewe for adequate milk supplies and is the udder free of wool? Sorry for the kind of shotgun questions and suggestions but its a very general description of a lot of different problems. Gotta narrow it down some.
After the ewe was pushing for almost 3 hours I pulled the lamb, and yes she was covered in the birthing fluids. The water bag was beside the lambs head when I pulled, this was the ewes first delivery and she is kind of small in that area and was having trouble getting the lamb out. Yes they get the injections and the ewe has enough milk. I noticed there was something wrong as soon as it was born.This is only my second year to do this, but have seen over 80 lambs born in the last two years and I have never seen one so lifeless after it was born for so long. After an hour she still wasnt trying to get up..Once she did, she "crawled" she got her back legs up but couldnt stand on the front ones. I will say when I checked her today she seems to be getting enough to eat, she had a full tummy. But she still acts like to me it could be something with her ears. Is it possible that the water bag could have burst when I pulled and got fluid in her ears and would that cause her to have those kind of problems? Her eyes seem more alert now, the first night I thought she might be blind, her eyes were wild looking..But that seems to be getting better too..I might be worrying too much over this, it might be minor. I talked to my vet and he just said to keep an eye on her. I know I am not doing a very good job of explaining the problem, it's just kind of hard to figure out exactly what the problem is.Thank you for the response.
As a guess it sounds like he may be a little challenged. With nerve damage or brain damage things like sounds may be making his reactions look like an ear problem however certainly he could have something physically wrong there too. I can't say I've ever encountered ear problems with any sheep. Thinking about it a B complex injection wouldn't hurt and might just help. Keeping more than a dozen or so sheep sure teaches you a lot fast dosen't it! It'd be pretty easy to have zero problems for years on end if you only kept a few! Keeping a couple of hundred taxes your skill and humbles your opinion of what works and doesn't. Lots of times watching for something more definative is all you can do, and describing odd behavior is the hardest thing of all!
I have tried sending this 3 times but not sure it's going through. If it did, I apologize for sending it more than once.. Thank you again!! Thought I would tell you how she was tonight when I checked on her..I let her play with some of the other lambs and she tried to hop around with them. Her first try ended up with her face down in the dirt..But after mommy (that would be me :haha: ) had a talk with her and told her to try again that I knew she could do it, she got up and started running and finally got the "hop" going. :yeeha: Tomorrow she gets to spend the day with the "hyper" triplets we had born a few days ago. I am so happy to see her doing a little better, I must admit though, I am gonna miss rocking her to sleep at 3 in the morning She still has some problems, but is making a little more progress each day!! She might even be ready to show by October :dance: If not, she will be my baby!!
