Bottle fed newborn lamb seizure

purplequeenvt

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Check your milk replacer. Are you mixing in the correct proportions, is it warm enough, is too hot, etc... Make sure that is milk protein based and not soy as that can cause stomach upset and they will sometimes not be eager to drink. Check the nipple to make sure the milk isn’t coming out too fast or is plugged.

if you know someone with goats or a Jersey cow, you could try switching him to raw milk instead.

Some lambs just don’t like milk replacer. I had a bottle lamb a couple years ago whose mom and brother died from lambing complications. She lived in the house and slept in my bed for about 2 weeks and every day was a battle to get her to take enough milk. Then we had a ewe give birth to triplets where the only surviving lamb was itty bitty and so weak that she couldn’t walk for over a week. We pulled that tiny lamb from her mom and swapped in my bottle lamb who was thrilled to have a real booby to nurse off of. I had to keep the ewe tied/penned up for almost 2 weeks before she completely accepted her foster lamb, but eventually she did and they were inseparable until weaning time.
 

ashley carro

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Check your milk replacer. Are you mixing in the correct proportions, is it warm enough, is too hot, etc... Make sure that is milk protein based and not soy as that can cause stomach upset and they will sometimes not be eager to drink. Check the nipple to make sure the milk isn’t coming out too fast or is plugged.

if you know someone with goats or a Jersey cow, you could try switching him to raw milk instead.

Some lambs just don’t like milk replacer. I had a bottle lamb a couple years ago whose mom and brother died from lambing complications. She lived in the house and slept in my bed for about 2 weeks and every day was a battle to get her to take enough milk. Then we had a ewe give birth to triplets where the only surviving lamb was itty bitty and so weak that she couldn’t walk for over a week. We pulled that tiny lamb from her mom and swapped in my bottle lamb who was thrilled to have a real booby to nurse off of. I had to keep the ewe tied/penned up for almost 2 weeks before she completely accepted her foster lamb, but eventually she did and they were inseparable until weaning time.

Thank you for brining this up. I have been mixing the milk with Luke warm water not hot.. I’ll start this ASAP. I’ve been feeding him cold milk since day 3 but thinking I should warm it for him and if there’s any left over to throw out instead of putting back in fridge ( cold bottle)
I am attaching a pic of the lamb replacer milk.
After giving him another dose of nutri drench this am he is back to his normal self eating well running around fatigue is gone and appetite is great. So I am thinking vitamin deficiency since nutri drench has worked so well.. The bag of replacer says 8 oz per feeding 3-4 times per day. He’s getting about 16 ounces per day based on weight, from
What I calculated from need equation. Maybe the replacer isn’t enough vitamins / minerals/ sugars? Since he’s on a small quantity?
tomorrow I plan on giving him half the nutri drench dose of 1 pump which I found is roughly 1 ml. Then maybe decrease to every otherday the bottle says can give –3 times per week once stable... any suggestions?
I really really appreciate everyone’s input and help in this. I am determined to keep this little guy alive and well.
 

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Sheepshape

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I use warm water up until the time that I'm weaning as warm is much more palatable to lambs. I don't ever look to see how much ,ilk a lamb of a certain age is supposed to have as they vary so much in size, weight and appetite. Young lambs just get as much as they will take. Milk leftover from a feed can be placed in the fridge and microwaved to warm. Don't re-warm more than once, and never microwave colostrum as it will denature the immunoglobulins.

Lambs which are tiny or born early are much more likely to have vitamin deficiencies and have no 'body reserves'.

Sounds as though you are getting him through that difficult first week. After that it is usually 'plain sailing'.
 

purplequeenvt

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Most replacers need HOT water to dissolve the powder properly. If the water isn’t hot enough, it doesn’t mix up well and that could be a reason he doesn’t care for his milk.

I like to mix all the powder for one serving with hot, hot water, but only half the volume of water. Once it’s thoroughly blended, then I add in the other half of the water at a much cooler temperature.

Another common mistake is people will add the 4oz of powder to their measuring cup and then add in the water until it gets to the 2c mark. The result is overly concentrated milk. Make sure you are adding 4oz of powder to 2c of water.

The measuring cups that come with the replacer are fairly accurate, but it is always better to weigh the powder out.

I feed warm milk to lambs on a bottle, but cool milk to lambs on a free-feed bucket.
 

ashley carro

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Update. Our lamb is 4 weeks old.
he is growing and eating great, his episodes which usually occur now when he’s sleeping seems to be less. We had a vet come out finally (finally found one locally), yesterday she said everything was normal except his heart rate at times was irregular.
he has been getting milk replacer and then added supplement of nutridrench. The vet yesterday gave him an injection of thiamine, b12 and steroid. She thought his respiratory rate was a little up.
Last night he had several episodes of him waking up confused and stiff like previous episodes, he would calm when after about a minute or less he’d get his barrings and start walking around then he’d lied down to sleep, but only get about an hour until another episode. His respiratory rate is up this am 50s -60s. normally 30-40. When he has his “episodes” his heart is racing then calms down.
I read online white muscle disease can cause irregular heart rate and elevated respiratory rate.
going to see how he does, wondering if the steroid caused the increased “episodes”.
I can’t post a video of the “episodes” on here it won’t let me... but essentially he gets stiff and shakes.
 
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