spectam....in a muddle

Frodo

Member
Location
Scotland (east)
Haven't used it for 5 years and had no cases of watery mouth.Perhaps we have just been lucky but we decided to only use it if we saw a problem.Other changes in the lambing shed was to stop cleaning out individual pens and spray disinfectant with fresh straw on top.
The shed is open ,newish with a concrete floor and is thoroughly cleaned out post lambing to become a machinery shed alongside temporary corn storage.
Why stop cleaning out pens? It would make life easier, but surely cleaning out is a good thing?
 

Boydvalley

Member
Location
Bath
1ml Betamox injection,
100ml drench of electrolyte with 5% ketosaid or similar added
Enema.

Dehydration a big contributor to wet mouth death, once they are ill they struggle to digest milk. Use that mix with lambs that need the hot box.
 

Jerry

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Devon

AftonShepherd

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Ayrshire
Bought one of these for this lambing after seeing @Jerry got one. Makes collecting collecting colostrum easy. Most ewes will stand still for it. Students got on really well with it. Becomes a couple of minute job and there was all ways spare colostrum around.
I see it comes with small and medium cups but large have to be purchased separately. What size are the medium? A lot of times I strip ewes out to.make the teats more manageable for their lambs so some can be quite big.

Could definitely do with one as I quickly get cramp when hand milking - not sure if it's down to old age or technique.
 

texelburger

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Herefordshire
Why stop cleaning out pens? It would make life easier, but surely cleaning out is a good thing?
We thought cleaning out pens would only be effective if the concrete had time to dry which rarely happened .In our own experience watery mouth disappeared with spraying disinfectant and then adding a thin layer of straw.When we used dry bedding powder and cleaned pens out we had some watery mouth and had to use special.Seems weird,I know,but for us it works.
 

texelburger

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Herefordshire
We thought cleaning out pens would only be effective if the concrete had time to dry which rarely happened .In our own experience watery mouth disappeared with spraying disinfectant and then adding a thin layer of straw.When we used dry bedding powder and cleaned pens out we had some watery mouth and had to use special.Seems weird,I know,but for us it works.
Also may I add,if we have time ewes are milked out and the colostrum is tubed to the lambs for the first feed.
 

Becs

Member
Location
Wiltshire
10 years ago, every lamb had a squirt of Spectam. Then just triplets and weak lambs only had it. In the last 5 years I’ve never used it and haven’t had any cases of watery mouth. Pens cleaned and cubical powdered between each ewe, colostrum given to all triplets or anything dodgy and a record sheet on each pen where I record if I’ve seen the lambs suckling and if in any doubt, they get extra colostrum. (I’ve probably just jinxed myself now!)
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
I see it comes with small and medium cups but large have to be purchased separately. What size are the medium? A lot of times I strip ewes out to.make the teats more manageable for their lambs so some can be quite big.

Could definitely do with one as I quickly get cramp when hand milking - not sure if it's down to old age or technique.

The ‘medium’ cup will struggle to fit on a teat that you need to strip out before a decent sized lamb can suck imo.

It is a highly heritable ime, which selection/culling can practically eliminate. Any here with teats like that certainly don’t see a ram again.

On the other hand, my mother always spoke fondly of our Colbred (a Milksheep cross) ewes years ago. You could (needed to!) milk a couple of pints of colostrum off each one and they would still have plenty for their lambs. :banghead:
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Does this work?

I brought one back a couple of days ago, but with Betamox LA. It had been a twin born to a ewe lamb outside, so perhaps had less colostrum? Slavery mouthed, cold and rattling in her belly, I followed a tip someone had posted on here sometime.
1ml of Betamox im and 1ml squirted down the throat*, put in the warmer and tubed with milk 30 minutes later. Right as rain now.👍 (Doesn’t often work once they get to that stage admittedly)

*for those worried about ‘off label’ use, I tried to inject it with 2ml but I missed and she happened to swallow it...
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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