Cade lamb looking very uncomfortable

[scatterbrainedlass]

We've got a cade, about 3 weeks old who has been fine up until this evening. She is holding her tail up, kicking her legs out sideways and up towards her belly, her back end then starts collapsing, or she stops and just stands stretched out. No scour, no nasal discharge, doesn't look bloated. Can't see anything obviously wrong with her and the 3 other lambs are fine. One of them has been with her since day one and is normal. Any ideas?

 

[GrannyAching]

How is it this morning? Sounds like a bit of stomach pain which needs to work it's way through. Are they ad lib? I'd probably be massaging its stomach an rubbing its bum with a towel or some soft bedding to encourage movement.

 

[scatterbrainedlass]

I ended up drenching her with a bit of diluted bicarb and some oil last night, she's fine this morning. Bottle fed but I am constantly rethinking amounts and sudden weaning tbh. I was following that NZ plan that one of the members posted a week or two back but it's constantly changing amounts and pushing them up to 2 biggish feeds a day which really doesn't seem to be working.

 

[Man_in_black]

Is she going through the motions OK? (She shitting!!)

Edit just read other posts.

 

[GrannyAching]

I ended up drenching her with a bit of diluted bicarb and some oil last night, she's fine this morning. Bottle fed but I am constantly rethinking amounts and sudden weaning tbh. I was following that NZ plan that one of the members posted a week or two back but it's constantly changing amounts and pushing them up to 2 biggish feeds a day which really doesn't seem to be working.

I looked at that, having just gone on to ad- lib cold because I had 12 molly's and work off farm. I even went so far as to print it off but, as long as I get through weaning OK I will be sticking with cold-ad lib. (I've made yoghurt on and off over the years and it's a pita) The lambs look fantastic so far. I made my feeders from two old stock lick buckets a la @itsintheblood 's picture on this thread https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/the-flockeye-lamb-feeder.21185/page-2 with the hiko calf feeder fittings but with the lamb teats - white to bein with and then red.

I had one lamb who suddenly starting cr@pping almost milk but he wasn't scouring and was really healthy looking, so I put him in a pen on his own for 24 hours, put him back on the bottle with scour formula in the milk and he's been right as rain since.

Mine have gone bottle, lamb bar - building to 3/4 litre then onto the teats.

If you only have a few lambs (less than 5) I'd just feed them twice a day from a teated bucket and be prepared to let them go longer before weaning and do it gradually so they are weaned by 8 weeks, eating grass and creep.

Good luck.

 

[GrannyAching]

They are between 10 days and 4 weeks old - Lleyn or Lyen cross. two teats per bucket.

 

[scatterbrainedlass]

@GrannyAching
Only got 4 so bottle feeding's not too bad but this morning I was thinking about rigging up a home-made ad-lib system. I have worked on a dairy sheep farm where all the lambs are reared on ad-lib machines, so it's warm milk, indoors with creep and haylage/straw, seems to work well as there was never much bloat.

I have ours outside on grass with access to creep, but every time I attempt to increase morning and evening feeds in order to cut out midday feeds I end up with unhappy looking lambs. Really not too sure exactly where to go from here, was just going to keep them on 3 smaller feeds for a little while longer and see how they go.

@Man_in_black she's clean so def not scouring, but whether she's going at all I'm really not sure. Keeping a close eye, may pen her up alone for a few hours and see if I can find any evidence!!

 

[GrannyAching]

Maybe just cut out the middle of the day feed and let them increase their intake over the next few days. On the link thread I put up, people were pretty definite that if you let them have access to hay/grass they wouldn't eat enough creep to wean successfully at 5-6 weeks but you obviously have plenty of experience.

 

[scatterbrainedlass]

I don't have an option as we rent land and lamb outside so nowhere to keep them except on grass. Have read enough on here to think I may have to keep on milk for a bit longer and just be extra careful about redgut etc. Starting to think they're more trouble than they're worth!! Got them on coarse mix atm but was reading that thread you linked to about avoiding soya so might get some feed in specially for them. This is getting expensive