Ewes with Twin Lamb

[TrewithickFarm]

Hi all, looking for some other treatments to get a couple ewes back on there feet after a bad case of twin lamb over Christmas Day/Boxing Day.

They have had the usual calcium injections and glucose drench. But they are still off there feet.

I can’t get them to eat any hard feed or hay so I am currently drenching them with liquid feed and soaked sugar beet.

Anything else I can try?

They are due to lamb on the 7th of Jan

Thanks
Steve

 

[spin cycle]

ivy

 

[neilo]

Are you drenching them with glucose or propylene glycol? Most of the effective ‘twin lamb remedies’ are prop glycol based, rather than glucose, which can trigger acidosis apparently.
I used to get good results with the ‘Multi Lamb Rapide’ stuff, but find that Ketosaid works just as well (& much cheaper).

If they’re heavily pregnant and have been down/not eating for 4 days, you might struggle tbh. One option is to salvage the ewe by aborting the lambs (6ml Dexadreson?), but always seems like admitting defeat.

 

[Jerry]

ivy

Second that with prop glycol based liquid drench.

Ivy helps stimulate appetite I find. Roll the leaves up and push in side of the mouth.

 

[neilo]

It was always reckoned that if a ewe wouldn’t eat ivy, she was going to die anyway....

However, I don’t think it’s a cure for anything, just a very tasty snack which they will nibble on if they won’t eat anything else.

 

[TrewithickFarm]

Thanks @spin cycle and @Jerry
Just managed to get one of them to eat some ivy. And drink a good few litres of water.
I lost 3 ewes over that Christmas night and really done want to loose these two if I can help it.
Been drenching them with this

 

[Jerry]

It was always reckoned that if a ewe wouldn’t eat ivy, she was going to die anyway....

However, I don’t think it’s a cure for anything, just a very tasty snack which they will nibble on if they won’t eat anything else.

Yes agree. But it does seem to spark them up a bit and it’s worth a try. Had a ewe at deaths door in the snow a few days post lambing. I gave her ivy and a drench for 2 days and it worked but was a lot of effort.

 

[neilo]

Thanks @spin cycle and @Jerry
Just managed to get one of them to eat some ivy. And drink a good few litres of water.
I lost 3 ewes over that Christmas night and really done want to loose these two if I can help it.
Been drenching them with this

View attachment 751824

That’s prop glycol drench, so likely as good as any.

3 dead and 2 more down? Out of how many? So many would suggest a serious issue with their rationing imo, assuming worms, fluke p, etc have been ruled out. What CS are the rest at, or are those 5 massively poorer for whatever reason?

 

[wbow14]

Had a few cases of this with bad results. Vet advised if happens again to either use the twin lamb drench up to 4 times a day or even get them out to inject propelyne glycol direct to the vein.
Good luck. Let us know how you get on.

 

[TrewithickFarm]

That’s prop glycol drench, so likely as good as any.

3 dead and 2 more down? Out of how many? So many would suggest a serious issue with their rationing imo, assuming worms, fluke p, etc have been ruled out. What CS are the rest at, or are those 5 massively poorer for whatever reason?

We have lambed 45 over the week commencing the 18th which were all sponged and synchronised all lambed fine.

This second lot of 45 were sponges and synchronised to lamb from the week commencing the 7th of jan.
they are all older 4 or 5 year old ewes in average condition for there age all on good dairy ground but over the last week we have had missley old wet weather so I thing this lot have taken in a lot of wet grass and not enough dry matter. And with them being synchronised there symptoms all came on together. Does that make sense?
We probably should have started feeding ewe rolls out in the field a few days earlier. They had lifeline buckets out with them.

 

[FIL46]

Give here two bottles of lucazade sport, gets them hydrated and get some green leafy grass for here, it’s worked for me with a few

 

[neilo]

We have lambed 45 over the week commencing the 18th which were all sponged and synchronised all lambed fine.

This second lot of 45 were sponges and synchronised to lamb from the week commencing the 7th of jan.
they are all older 4 or 5 year old ewes in average condition for there age all on good dairy ground but over the last week we have had missley old wet weather so I thing this lot have taken in a lot of wet grass and not enough dry matter. And with them being synchronised there symptoms all came on together. Does that make sense?
We probably should have started feeding ewe rolls out in the field a few days earlier. They had lifeline buckets out with them.

What's 'average condition for their age' mean? I would expect 4 & 5 yr old ewes to be in CS3 easily enough, coming into lambing, they're not old. I'm not meaning to have a go, but it sounds like they have been underfed for a while, whatever they've been on. 5 out of 45 is pointing to a serious energy shortage, unless those 5 were ill of course. Too late to remedy now, other than tweaking up feed slightly. Too much now will give you thin ewes and big lambs getting hung. All you can do is tweak food up a bit (as you likely have anyway), try to salvage these, and learn for another year.

I've got to say that I consider I've royally fooked up if I have one out of 100 indoor lambers getting TLD, and I can't remember ever having one in the 'forage only' April lambing flock.

Have they been taking the Lifeline buckets at all? For the few years I used them, the ewes would hardly touch them at grass, so much so that they wouldn't have been having enough of the (claimed) magical ingredients to make any difference, much less provide any sort of nutrition.

 

[Agrivator]

https://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/...fr=yhs-bt-btyuser&hspart=bt&hsimp=yhs-btyuser

Who realised that all this went on after a dose of propylene glycol. It's a quick introduction to the Kreb's Cycle.