Lamb showing signs of severe discomfort...

[D and L Meadows]

Ok, so this morning out of the blue we have a 7 weeks old part bottle part dam raised wethered lamb showing signs of severe discomfort. Lays down a lot, seems a bit bloated, doesn't move around a whole lot, stays by himself, color is perfect, breathing a bit odd, but it is super hot today, eats fine, drank his bottle, temp is fine, but the strangest thing is he pushes. He’ll be walking around a bit, then plunk down, half roll on his side and start pushing. He's not constipated, we've seen him go. We've put him on antibiotic and mid morning gave him dex. Would've given banamine, but we had several lambs have a horrible reaction to it, so we stay away from that. Any suggestions/thoughts?

 

[Mike CHS]

I haven't ran across that. The link is about a possible cause but it doesn't offer much in the way of help.

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[D and L Meadows]

Thanks. He seems better this afternoon. Drinking plenty of water.
He’s vaccinated with CD&T and is getting medicated pelleted feed for coccidia. The milk replacer is medicated as well and specifically for lambs.

 

[Sheepshape]

Sounds as though he has been getting colic. How much milk is he drinking and in what quantity each feed?

Assuming he's a good sized lamb, then at 7 weeks his rumen should be functioning pretty well. I would try to get him weaned if he is a good size. make sure he has access to fresh water all the time and get him onto solids.

At about 7-9 weeks if a lamb is getting too much milk, he is on too high a protein diet. This can cause bacterial invasion of the gut wall (usually E. coli) with bloating, a condition known as 'red gut' and it can be fatal. Don't panic....this is FAR from inevitable.

Ignore his plaintive begging for the bottle. Whatever milk he gets (or not) can come from mum.

Hopefully he'll be just fine.

 

[D and L Meadows]

Sounds as though he has been getting colic. How much milk is he drinking and in what quantity each feed?

Assuming he's a good sized lamb, then at 7 weeks his rumen should be functioning pretty well. I would try to get him weaned if he is a good size. make sure he has access to fresh water all the time and get him onto solids.

At about 7-9 weeks if a lamb is getting too much milk, he is on too high a protein diet. This can cause bacterial invasion of the gut wall (usually E. coli) with bloating, a condition known as 'red gut' and it can be fatal. Don't panic....this is FAR from inevitable.

Ignore his plaintive begging for the bottle. Whatever milk he gets (or not) can come from mum.

Hopefully he'll be just fine.

Sorry, just seeing this now. Have no idea why I didnt get a notification. He was getting 2 cups twice a day. Free choice feed and eating quite a bit.

We took him to the vet. He was packed with stones. Had to put him down. 😩😥 We feed medicated feed for rams, ammonium chloride in the water. Vet said it was just a freak thing. I don’t know. We have five other ram and wether lambs and they seem fine. Anything else we could do to prevent it?