Lamb reviver/ boost/ jump start

Kingcustard

Member
Lambing a few weeks away and wanting to know everyone's views on the lamb revive, boost and jump start products.

Do they work?

Are they worth the money?

I was giving any lamb that hadn't sooked a shot of the Osmonds one and can't decide if it worked or not. It's was a third of the price of some of the others I have seen advertised (£14 for 250m v £19 for 100ml)

Anything that saves turning a ewe to get a lamb sooking is a god send but the costs soon mount up over 1000 lambs.

Cheers

Kenny
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Lambing a few weeks away and wanting to know everyone's views on the lamb revive, boost and jump start products.

Do they work?

Are they worth the money?

I was giving any lamb that hadn't sooked a shot of the Osmonds one and can't decide if it worked or not. It's was a third of the price of some of the others I have seen advertised (£14 for 250m v £19 for 100ml)

Anything that saves turning a ewe to get a lamb sooking is a god send but the costs soon mount up over 1000 lambs.

Cheers

Kenny

How many aren’t sucking if the costs are mounting over 1000 ewes?😲

I’ve never been at all convinced that they work any better than a cheap dose of propylene glycol would (Ketosaid is about £8 for a litre), to give a rapidly absorbed energy boost. I guess they might boost trace elements too, but still unconvinced they’d do any more than a cheap TE propylene glycol based drench would do (4p/ml?).

If you have a lot that don’t suck on their own though, I’d suggest looking at genetics and/or trace elements in the ewes. It should be ‘normal’ that all lambs get on a teat and suck themselves, otherwise sheep would hav3 become extinct a long time before farmers got to mess them up.

In case you can’t tell, I lack the patience to be showing lots of lambs how to do what nature should have told them. That’s also the main reason black headed sheep haven’t featured here for 30 years.🤐
 

Kingcustard

Member
How many aren’t sucking if the costs are mounting over 1000 ewes?😲

I’ve never been at all convinced that they work any better than a cheap dose of propylene glycol would (Ketosaid is about £8 for a litre), to give a rapidly absorbed energy boost. I guess they might boost trace elements too, but still unconvinced they’d do any more than a cheap TE propylene glycol based drench would do (4p/ml?).

If you have a lot that don’t suck on their own though, I’d suggest looking at genetics and/or trace elements in the ewes. It should be ‘normal’ that all lambs get on a teat and suck themselves, otherwise sheep would hav3 become extinct a long time before farmers got to mess them up.

In case you can’t tell, I lack the patience to be showing lots of lambs how to do what nature should have told them. That’s also the main reason black headed sheep haven’t featured here for 30 years.🤐
I must admit Suffolks are the main offenders but the only Suffolks on the place now are NZs from Easyram.

The easycare flock are coming up to their 3rd lambing and haven't spoked a lamb in the pure bred ones but had a few dozy lambs out if the NZ Suffolks over the easycare ewes, mainly hard lambing as I put the NZ Suffolks on some gimmers by mistake and the lambs were big.

Do you think the energy is the main factor in getting a lamb to sook rather than any of the vitamins, I used to just jag non sookers with Combi it and reckoned it worked but its not available now.

Last year on the mule flock lambing indoors I just gave anything I thought hadn't sooked in the first hour a squirt of Osmonds Insta life but then ran out and so didn't bother.

I always have gallons of Ketosaid around. Anything I catch to do feet or put a prolapse in gets a dose in the run up to lambing, I often fancy dosing myself when I'm in 1 hours sleep a day but have resisted so far haha.

I am always happy to spend money on sheep if I think it will be beneficial but it's hard to know what helps and what is a gimmick nowadays with actually speaking directly to people who have tried the products.
 

Kingcustard

Member
Got some free with some powdered colostrum(?? :scratchhead: ) years ago. Still got most of it in the lambing cupboard somewhere.

Better off squirting a bit out of the ewes tit down it's throat IMHO.
I have wondered if it's just the action of something entering the lambs stomach that stimulates the lamb to sook or of its some miracle vitamin in the drench that does the trick. Used to use combivit for lambs that refused to sook and thought it worked quite well but that's not to say the lambs just got the idea to sook after the ewe was turned 5 times and it finally got the idea.
 

Anymulewilldo

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cheshire
Can’t say that lambs refusing too suck is a problem I see much of here? Anything a bit dozy gets tubed with colostrum.
I do carry around a stimulant spray for when they come out and won’t set off. Only use it on 15/20 lambs a year that look as if they want a bit of convincing too keep going.
Had a Hogg tried suffocating on the wagon a couple of years ago, that got 5 squirts of stimulant up its nose, a thump in the ribs and it got up and toddled off! 😰

after that I’m a firm believer in it. Think it’s 3 little squirts bottles for a tenner
 

Kingcustard

Member
Can’t say that lambs refusing too suck is a problem I see much of here? Anything a bit dozy gets tubed with colostrum.
I do carry around a stimulant spray for when they come out and won’t set off. Only use it on 15/20 lambs a year that look as if they want a bit of convincing too keep going.
Had a Hogg tried suffocating on the wagon a couple of years ago, that got 5 squirts of stimulant up its nose, a thump in the ribs and it got up and toddled off! 😰

after that I’m a firm believer in it. Think it’s 3 little squirts bottles for a tenner
What is the stimulant spray called??

We used to use something called Dallophylil gel, or something similar, can't ever find it now but as I don't remember exactly what it was called or how it was spelled. It was put under the tongue and seemed to work wonders on near dead lambs or calves.
 

Anymulewilldo

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cheshire
What is the stimulant spray called??

We used to use something called Dallophylil gel, or something similar, can't ever find it now but as I don't remember exactly what it was called or how it was spelled. It was put under the tongue and seemed to work wonders on near dead lambs or calves.
I’ll have a look tomorrow and get a photo. It bloody stinks, no wonder they cough!
 

Mc115reed

Member
Livestock Farmer
We had a local shepherdess who used to swear by RedBull for getting lambs going.... although I find sheep hard enough to catch and keep in the same field without the addition of WIIIIINGS!!!!!
Iv given ewes with twin lamb red bull in the past to give them a sugar rush but not had any cases twin lamb in a couple years
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Any luck on the name of the spray stuff you mentioned

Was it Dopram-V @Anymulewilldo ?

Back in the days when we seemed to fall for every snake oil remedy and ‘aid’ :rolleyes: , we always had some at hand. I’ve not seen any for years, and can’t say I’ve seen any difference in whether anything survives. A bit of straw up a nostril as a stimulant seems to work as well as anything, if anything will make a difference of course.
 

Anymulewilldo

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cheshire
Was it Dopram-V @Anymulewilldo ?

Back in the days when we seemed to fall for every snake oil remedy and ‘aid’ :rolleyes: , we always had some at hand. I’ve not seen any for years, and can’t say I’ve seen any difference in whether anything survives. A bit of straw up a nostril as a stimulant seems to work as well as anything, if anything will make a difference of course.
It wasn’t Dopram drops. Sorry I forgot too look when I was in there today. Cow dropped a calf fortnight before time and wasn’t ready for it at all! Made a balls of the day!!
 

Kingcustard

Member
Was it Dopram-V @Anymulewilldo ?

Back in the days when we seemed to fall for every snake oil remedy and ‘aid’ :rolleyes: , we always had some at hand. I’ve not seen any for years, and can’t say I’ve seen any difference in whether anything survives. A bit of straw up a nostril as a stimulant seems to work as well as anything, if anything will make a difference of course.
The Dallophylil Gel or what ever it was called was amazing stuff, and it was the Vets that used it but they used to give us a tube of it.

I have a funny feeling it would be some sort of steroid or class A drug that no doubt people starting using for purposes other than animals and so was withdrawn.

You put it under a calves tongue and you could see the heart go from faint to pounding quickly in about 10 seconds.

I don't see a massive difference with the Dopram drops in comparison to the gel we used to get.
 

MJT

Member
Best thing I’ve found is a squirt of iodine up the nose, yeah it sounds brutal but better than a dead lamb, certainly makes them cough/sneeze and try and breath.
 

Agrivator

Member
Iodine deficiency can have a marked effect on impaired viability of new-born lambs. It's an essential component of Thyroxine, and any deficiency has a marked effect on the ''get-up-and-go factor in lambs, and possibly reduces the ewes' willingness to get on and lamb once contractions start.

The banning of Fishmeal in diets for pregnant ewes was a disaster, because ( unlike Soya) it was a very good source of readily available Iodine. And that, rather than it's high content of bi-pass protein, was probably why shepherds valued it so highly.

Do any crofters in the Western Isles still give whole dried fish to their ewes????? (If I loos another two yoos, I'll haff a 200% lambin)
 
Was it Dopram-V @Anymulewilldo ?

Back in the days when we seemed to fall for every snake oil remedy and ‘aid’ :rolleyes: , we always had some at hand. I’ve not seen any for years, and can’t say I’ve seen any difference in whether anything survives. A bit of straw up a nostril as a stimulant seems to work as well as anything, if anything will make a difference of course.
A good shot of water in the ear or the lambs head into the water bowl also works very well.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
A good shot of water in the ear or the lambs head into the water bowl also works very well.

An old vet we had, long since departed, used to lamb ewes in an old stone outhouse behind the surgery. On extracting the lamb he’d sling them across the cold, wet stone floor of the shed into the gulley. The shock would make them gasp… if they were ever going to.
 

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