Lambs being born with not much figure!!

[icanshootwell]

Just started lambing but not going very well, seem to have a lot of twin lamb this year, feeding nuts and good haylage, had a ewe have twins this morning, ewe did,t show signs of twin lamb, had the 1st one ok, left her half hour, when i came back she had just lambed the 2nd, cleaned air and swung lamb etc but lamb just lifeless even though it was an easy lambing. Anyway put lamb under the lamp and gave it some colostrum, 15 minutes later the lamb was dead. The other lamb seems fine.
Had a ewe have 3 yesterday, ring womb, got all 3 out alive, 2 are under lamp,they are ok but again low figure, neither of them are bleating yet. Not seen this for a long time here, same system, ewes look well.

 

[ladycrofter]

IMO you have a mineral problem. Poss calcium and iodine. They are coming out not firing on all cylinders. Were the ewes bolused in the last 6 months? Either way I'd pump some Vit/Min drench down them all ASAP. Can't hurt.

You can often get a poor lamb perked up with a tablespoon of very warm honey mixed with the colostrum. Gives them a good kick without causing a glucose crash like you can get from these "Lamb Start" sugar paste things. Honey make everyone happy

If ewes are deficient it may take more than a bolus. e.g. we are so Sel/E deficient we have to jag the ewes in late pregnancy AND jag the lambs. Cattle so copper deficient needed a general bolus AND a copper one at the same time.

Good luck hope things improve.

 

[Greythundercloudys]

Maybe just the normal start of lmbing problems, abit early etc etc.

 

[puppet]

Dead lamb, ring womb not unusual especially in the first week. If you have a lot of twin lamb then they are energy deficient and lambs will be weaker.
I would up the feed rather than look at minerals.
And things usually get better anyway

 

[Anymulewilldo]

Sounds like a bog standard start too lambing too me. The first 2/3 are always bad. Then the main lot get going any you’re away then.

 

[sticky]

I agree with the energy levels being a bit low if your having twin lamb problems and unthrifty lambs, can you get some liquid molasses and feed? Or if not those crystalix buckets.
Probably would put a mineral bucket in the yards for them as well.

 

[neilo]

Could just be the usual crappy start or, exactly what we had a couple of years back with Iodine deficiency.

In our case they had been bolused at tupping and scanning, which don’t supplement iodine effectively on this farm. Fastest, and most rapid, remedy was to drench everything with Potassium Iodide drench ASAP (c.2p/dose). Of course it might not be that, but boluses, buckets, etc don’t work for us.

 

[JockCroft]

I would suggest two things.
First for the Twin Lamb. If really bad, >5%. As previous suggestion -Both Liquid Molasses blend and a bucket of blended high energy, that is soluble fats with molasses. .Ewes wont be able to consume enough energy from standard molasses bucket. Need plenty of access points too. No more than 20 to 25 per feeder or tub for at least a week. If only a few cases and you can monitor stock regularly then one product may do.

To treat mineral deficiencies as lambing has started depends on if you are willing to put them through a race. Remember that minerals are in the main precursor's for the body producing the various chemicals and enzymes that make the body function.
Personally I would consider drenching ewes with a mineral/vitamin supplement if they handle easily and dont get stressed. At this stage I believe that the vitamins are more important than the mineral. Dosing ensures all are treated.

 

[icanshootwell]

I agree with the energy levels being a bit low if your having twin lamb problems and unthrifty lambs, can you get some liquid molasses and feed? Or if not those crystalix buckets.
Probably would put a mineral bucket in the yards for them as well.

They been on energy buckets for several weeks now, always found hard to get right, over feed and you get prolapse or worse.

 

[JockCroft]

What are you feeding? Concentrates? Hay? Silage?

 

[rancher]

They been on energy buckets for several weeks now, always found hard to get right, over feed and you get prolapse or worse.

Feed a pound per lamb, ie ewe carrying a double gets 2pound/day or a triplet gets 3pound a day and you shouldn't have any trouble with prolapse, twin lamb or big lambs. don't feed any more than a pound/ewe at each feed

 

[JockCroft]

Feed a pound per lamb, ie ewe carrying a double gets 2pound/day or a triplet gets 3pound a day and you shouldn't have any trouble with prolapse, twin lamb or big lambs. don't feed any more than a pound/ewe at each feed

That is sound advice, especially not more than 1lb per feed.
Only thing I would add is try to have the ration mainly oats plus protein/mins. Oats suit sheep digestion better than barley.
Maybe add a little course mix to Triplets and any twinners struggling a bit. Just to help their appetite.
Also Salt Licks. Helps digestion and fluid balance. In my opinion also helps mothering up.

 

[rancher]

That is sound advice, especially not more than 1lb per feed.
Only thing I would add is try to have the ration mainly oats plus protein/mins. Oats suit sheep digestion better than barley.
Maybe add a little course mix to Triplets and any twinners struggling a bit. Just to help their appetite.
Also Salt Licks. Helps digestion and fluid balance. In my opinion also helps mothering up.

Yea, I'd expect a ration to have enough oats, protein, and fibre, soya is a very good protein source for sheep.
My supplier does a very good ration for sheep, I don't add anything to it

 

[Cowabunga]

You probably mean ‘vigour’, even though their figure could be on the thin side?

 

[icanshootwell]

What are you feeding? Concentrates? Hay? Silage?

We used to do our own ration oats,beans,molasses etc but have switched to ewe nuts, straw and haylage, oats were a good feed for sheep.
Just to add, we did give the ewe,s a multi vit drench pre tupping.
Are ewe nuts ok or do we need to compensate? the halage is high quality red and white clover but i don,t adlib do to problems in the past when i had ewes over eating and heaving everything out.

 

[Estate fencing.]

I would definitely be as lib feeding haylage, surly all the strong ewes push out the weaker ones.

 

[icanshootwell]

I would definitely be as lib feeding haylage, surly all the strong ewes push out the weaker ones.

Not if most can feed at one time and i do push up several times a day and night, i just try to stop the gorging so they can,t over eat, after 40 years doing it i,m still learning.

 

[JockCroft]

Not if most can feed at one time and i do push up several times a day and night, i just try to stop the gorging so they can,t over eat, after 40 years doing it i,m still learning.

With over 50 years myself and always learning. How is lambing going has problems got less, sounds like you have taken them in, so changing diet. May settle off but would check you concentrate label for vitamin content. Good Luck. We are April lambing so getting ready for Fluke dose. Do a Min/vit drench then too.

 

[neilo]

We used to do our own ration oats,beans,molasses etc but have switched to ewe nuts, straw and haylage, oats were a good feed for sheep.
Just to add, we did give the ewe,s a multi vit drench pre tupping.
Are ewe nuts ok or do we need to compensate? the halage is high quality red and white clover but i don,t adlib do to problems in the past when i had ewes over eating and heaving everything out.

Any vit & min drench you give will last a couple of weeks at best. What you gave them at tupping time is an irrelevance really, apart from presumably you have identified a deficiency that needed addressing at that point?

As above, I would certainly be ad-lib with the forage. If they get too fat on that, cut the concs back according to the spec of the forage.

As long as the ewe nuts are of decent quality, then you won't better them by feeding cereals in a trough, you would save a bit of cost of course, and add some inconvenience. The minerals in the nuts (I'm assuming they are mineralised, and not a mega-cheap ration) should be covering any TE deficiencies at his stage, which would point towards a nutritional or disease problem, rather than minerals.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

I wouldn’t p!ss about drenching for vits and mins it won’t last 5 mins….a good quality bolus would be better