lambs with swollen belly's

[ford4000]

every year we have a couple of these lambs with swollen belly's when they are born,and I have allways thought it was caused by a heart defect. We started lambing today and 4 ewes gave birth but 3 lambs had died . We lamb outside so its hard to say if the lambs were born alive but they looked as if they had suckled the ewe. to check I opened them up and found the stomach contained nothing butfluid that looked like amniotic fluid. It's strange to have such a high proportion of the lambs with a heart defect so am looking to find out if there is another problem or disease that could cause this? (not easy posting on here with a android tab. roll on the app !!! )

 

[neilo]

Something starting with Schm.....?

Or just the sh*te at the start of lambing? The sh*te seemed to go on a bit longer than normal in our present batch, and someone I spoke to earlier this evening said the same of his.

 

[alltddubach]

could they have been born back to front?

 

[ford4000]

Hi Neilo, nice to "see" you again hope to god its not the "schm" word !!! problems have been remarkably few so far this year so something will bite us on the ass at some point 3 prolapses i texelx ewes , not single one in the mules!!!!! maybe because they are so thin and only 2 abortions! not normal at all.

 

[ford4000]

could they have been born back to front?

possible but not likely I would have though,they normally need pulling and then they don't have fluid in the stomach do they?

 

[sherg]

We always seem to get a few water bellies and they always tend to be good big lambs does anybody know what causes it or if there's anyway of preventing it

 

[Ysgythan]

Did you ever find out what it was?

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Did you ever find out what it was?

Bloody hell you are on a mission to resurrect every thread from 2013

 

[Woolless]

https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/water-belly-lambs.57280/page-2

Here's another thread on the topic. Genetic cause seems most likely from the little I have been able to find on the topic.