there’s a lamb in the kitchen..
30 March 2008 by colouritgreen
another exhausting day, following having only 1-2 hours sleep the night before. Himself has been making 3 hourly checks throughout the night.. on both the ewes that have not lambed, but also last night’s arrivals. At the 6am check, he found one of the triplets was not looking so good.
The weather had thankfully improved a lot by then, but Sharona had still kept her brood to the field shelter and the straw we provided.
The problem with triplets, though, is two teats vs three mouths. I have known of a ewe successfully raising trips unaided, but often one gets pushed out, and that seems to be what was happening to ours. The first born had had a head start, but also is at least half as big again as the other two. Ironically it was not the smallest either.. as I mentioned yesterday he has a big yell and a gobby attitude, and in fact seems always inclined to have a little feed. So the one left standing and waiting is the quiet one, who seems uninclined to fight his corner.
At 6, he was lying down, felt cool, and could not be made to stand. Sharona was near him and nosing him.. but he was not responding.
We took him back to the house and warmed him up, and tried to give him some kickstart, and then a bottle, but he just wouldn’t swallow. So then we tube fed him, tucked him in his box in front of the rayburn and left him to it.
A couple of hours later he was.. well not exactly perky, but a little bit more interested, and I was able to make him take a bottle. Another hour later and he was able to stand, bleated his quiet bleat and tried to suckle my jeans. and relieved himself, which I guess is also a good sign. He really seemed to be turning around. Whilst still being realistic about his chances, we decided to try and ‘believe in him’ a bit more, as that way we will try a bit harder. We decided unlike the other two (we named Rogan and Josh), he should have a big strong man name to help him through.. and called him Conan (the baaaahbarian?…sorry..)
Late afternoon, on the advice of sheep-keeping neighbour, we took him back outside to join his brothers and mum. Sharona recognised him straight away and he attempted to feed. He seemed to be doing ok, but the main problem is his lack of self preservation instinct.. Rogan will wake and rush over to mum, Josh will wake and bleat until she comes to him, but Conan will wander away…
We have brought him back in now, and I think, if he makes it at all, its handrearing from here on in, not only better for him, but better for the other two, without their mum’s attention and milk being further divided. I hope the other two continue ok.
It does sound like you may end up with a cade lamb there - but go with all the advice you can from your neighbour.
We ended up with three ram lambs being bottle reared…and all are doing well, except they destroy teats and milkbars quicker than a blink of the eye.
Yeah, think you are right. it was just so tempting that he might return to the ‘family’. still have hopes (if he makes it) that he will be accepted by the others, even if fed by us.
encouraging that you have done so well with yours.
Something that I sometimes do is to get the weakest one going on a bottle whilst still leaving the lamb with the dam. This way the lamb gets the nourishment and you don’t have the bother of a human bonded hand reared lamb.
Oh, silly, I hadn’t read you comment above - it’s what you were suggesting! It works quite well.
I hope he does ok, leaving him with his mum and giving him top-up bottles seems like a good idea and it does work
he’s looking pretty grim now, sadly, after looking pretty good last night, latching on and bouncy. now he is unresponsive…