Poor or no suck in newborn lambs/cades

[steveR]

Madam has (again) been returning with the odd cade lamb from her Cousins place where she is helping out. The annual "never again" resolve has once more been forgotten....

Most lambs are easy enough to get going with the odd exception, but what really bugs me is when we get the odd one that will not suck... at all. Sometimes a feed or two via the tube will see them up and going and then suckling a bottle, but is there anything more frustrating than one that is healthy and lively, but will not suck.

Is there a solution other than a .22...?

THis time of year reminds me just why we don't keep sheep!!

 

[Devil's advocate]

Real sheep's milk works for me, The provision of which is of course is a problem. Lambs seem to have really good taste buds & some can be really hard to bottle train. If I can get the real stuff within two or three feeds they can be "weaned" to milk replacement

I often think with a milking goat or even better a friseland milksheep or two we could get cade losses to near zero.

Because we have early & late lambers, I sometimes have milked newly weaned ewes to save a four week old lamb that mother has had mastitis & refuses to drink, works every time.

 

[Al R]

I tubed 1 last year for 15 days, he wasn’t a strong lamb so all the better lambs that were available were getting adopted before him. He eventually got adopted onto a ewe

We try not to put anything near a bottle unless it’s been tubed for 2-3 days as they get to friendly after the bottle and are hard to adopt onto a real ewe again.

Stick with it, it may well come, try the bottle for 5 minutes and what it doesn’t drink, tube it.

 

[Devil's advocate]

I tubed 1 last year for 15 days, he wasn’t a strong lamb so all the better lambs that were available were getting adopted before him. He eventually got adopted onto a ewe

We try not to put anything near a bottle unless it’s been tubed for 2-3 days as they get to friendly after the bottle and are hard to adopt onto a real ewe again.

Stick with it, it may well come, try the bottle for 5 minutes and what it doesn’t drink, tube it.

That reminds me, when growing up 40 years ago, Dad used to rear lots of dairy bred calves for beef, we often got calves that no matter what we did would not take to the bucket. We used to put these on nurse ex dairy cows, often having to do emergency weaning of 5 week old calves to do so, always worked.

 

[Nithsdale]

What breed are the ewes?

Neighbor gets a lot of lambs like this every year... Dad also used to get a few. Common link Scotch Mule.

I hardly ever get any since switching breeds.

Only 'conclusions' I can draw is 1: diet - lacking a TE and or mineral... which I have somewhere changed/rectified (I do feed a much more tailored/complete feed)

Or 2: its something to do with the BFL.

 

[Paul E]

No BFL blood here, and still get quite a few brain donors every year.

 

[Downton_shep]

Black heads?

 

[chris wink]

I try them with some powdered glucose 2/3 minutes before u try them with the bottle

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Possibly lacking selenium/iodine?



Just a thought, as that what the 'calf not sooking' thread has thrown up.. you always get the odd one like that, I don't know at what point you do something about it though, sheep will be sheep at any age!

 

[Al R]

Possibly lacking selenium/iodine?



Just a thought, as that what the 'calf not sooking' thread has thrown up.. you always get the odd one like that, I don't know at what point you do something about it though, sheep will be sheep at any age!

The difference is you can hold a ewe and help the lamb.....

 

[Kiwi Pete]

The difference is you can hold a ewe and help the lamb.....

Too right
I must admit, this year we were a LOT more selective about only keeping good drinkers, we had a couple of really flighty ones last year that weren't worth the bother tbh.
Had to corner them, and catch them with the crook and hold a bottle in their mouth, I don't see much joy in the job when they're like that.. one ended up a proper runt and hung around for months
I gave one fairly average lamb a shot of flexidine and away he went, a good lamb now and about ready to go

 

[steveR]

THanks all, no magic solution, but I didn't think there would be! Still tubing, but a modest suck got 100ml in it too

The lamb in question is out of BFL X ewe actually, and according to Janice, they are part of a group with "history" for being a PITA. Enough said.

 

[milkloss]

I try them with some powdered glucose 2/3 minutes before u try them with the bottle

We used to do this. I think they can get dopey through lack of energy so a quick kick with dextrose can get them motivated. Maybe

 

[onthehoof]

I posted this elsewhere but will put it up again as I think it makes interesting reading

https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2017/09/07/squeeze-save-foals-life/

 

[Nithsdale]

Possibly lacking selenium/iodine?



Just a thought, as that what the 'calf not sooking' thread has thrown up.. you always get the odd one like that, I don't know at what point you do something about it though, sheep will be sheep at any age!

Agree. There is always a reason behind the problem - breeding or TE/min... breed better, or supplement properly.

Once born and not sucking it is far too late, the work needs to be done the 8 months previous.

 

[chris wink]

We used to do this. I think they can get dopey through lack of energy so a quick kick with dextrose can get them motivated. Maybe

I think it works wonders with calves that won't sook also , I swear by it tbh

 

[Kingcustard]

Love the farming forum.

Have 9 triplets that I lifted of there mums and couldn't get them to sook the bottle. Read about the dextrose and so without having any of that gave them all some Ketosaid and 8 out of 9 are now on the bottle and sooking. Not full bottles but better than nothing.

 

[ShooTa]

I posted this elsewhere but will put it up again as I think it makes interesting reading

https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2017/09/07/squeeze-save-foals-life/

thats very novel. i like it - unsure of how one would do it on a lamb.. fear of cracking ribs.

 

[Mredowns]

Another 2022 question on this theme .... I have a 20 day old lamb which was drinking from a bottle until 4 days ago. It started refusing. Was advised to put it where it could not get grass or anything else. It continued to refuse to thepoint of being weak. I restarted tube fdeeding and it is more lively, bleates a lot, but won't accept a teat and in has to have the tube forced.
Any suggestions to help the lamb drink and me have peace?

 

[Woolless]

Another 2022 question on this theme .... I have a 20 day old lamb which was drinking from a bottle until 4 days ago. It started refusing. Was advised to put it where it could not get grass or anything else. It continued to refuse to thepoint of being weak. I restarted tube fdeeding and it is more lively, bleates a lot, but won't accept a teat and in has to have the tube forced.
Any suggestions to help the lamb drink and me have peace?

At four weeks you might get away with not bothering if it's taking creep?