Semi rejected lamb help

[bocephus]

First time mom had her first lamb come out tonight. She got to cleaning it pretty quickly. A little while later a small stillborn came out. I saw it wasn't moving so I went in, checked it and pulled it out so she wouldn't waste her time cleaning it off. After that she didn't seem to bother too much with her first one and her first one wasn't doing a good job of standing up and trying to feed. It's 23f in the barn and it was shivering pretty bad with the mom doing nothing.

So it's in my bathroom right now, done shivering and eating off a bottle. Should I try and reunite the two at some point? I was thinking maybe when it starts to stand on its own better and can bug her more. Or am I stuck bottle raising this one?

 

[Sheepshape]

I'd try to get lamb back to mum ASAP. Get someone to hold mum and try to get the lamb onto the teats (check the milk is coming down first). You may need to do this a few times until mum can smell her milk coming through the lamb.

We use the old shepherd's trick of bringing in the dog to sit by the lambing jug. The ewe is so pre-occupied with the dog that the lamb can feed off the ewe without trouble.

We also put baby sweaters on any lambs who have poor fleeces and are cold.

Good Luck

 

[bocephus]

Ive got the mom tied off but it seems like this lamb cant find the target. Doesnt seem to have much drive to eat. It will butt its head in there and wag its tail but I don't think its finding the target.

 

[purplequeenvt]

You may have to stick the teat in the lambs mouth yourself. I usually sit on the ground, put one leg out behind the lamb so it can't back up, one hand goes on the back of the head to direct the lamb and the other hand reaching in from behind the ewe's udder. When the lamb gets close to the teat, I stick one finger in the side of the lambs mouth to open it and then I push (sometimes it's squish) the teat into the mouth. I hold everything together like that until the lamb seems like it is sucking. To encourage the sucking reflex you can try tickling right between the lambs back legs or blowing on its rear. Keep trying until the lamb seems like it has figure things out.

 

[bocephus]

Yeah I tried that route and it didn't seem to help much. I'm keeping an eye on it for now just hoping it will stay warm enough and get hungry enough to make a better attempt.

It looked like the mom made one try to push the lamb to her udder. Would it help the bonding if I put on a glove, rubbed it over the stillborn lamb and then rub the glove over the live lambs hind quarters? The stillborn lamb is still covered in birth fluids.

Update: They were calling to each and rubbing noses. The mom was walking circles around it as they did this. The lamb made one attempt at latching, not sure if it was able to.

 

[bocephus]

I think we're good, it's been trying and appears to be successful in eating all day. She circles around it, always left turns so, so far it always seems to eat off the left side and that side of the bag is noticeably smaller.

It's now about 20 hours old and I just saw it poop. Very dark poop, about the size of a grape.

The only thing I'm worried about at this point is a low of 12 forecasted for tomorrow morning.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I'd use heat lamps and sweaters!

 

[SheepGirl]

As long as the lamb is eating and has a way to get out of drafts/wind, then he should be fine in the cold weather tomorrow.

 

[bocephus]

I wish I had a sweater but as long as it makes it through this morning, this is the coldest forecasted for the next week. It's 5:30am and my thermometer is showing 9 degrees and it seems to be fine.

It's in a enclosed barn in plywood pens so we're good there. The normal pen door is a wood slat door but I leaned some pegboard I had laying around against the doors to cut down on any drafts.

The only thing I'm seeing so far is that mom and lamb aren't laying together. When I checked last night mom stood at a different part of the pen. She was just laying down but a few feet away.

I use heatlamps even though I'm not sure they do much. Just using my hand I can't tell much of a difference. I even tried a probe thermometer and near ground level I think it might have showed a 2 degree increase at most. The lamb is sitting under the lamp, I have to wonder if without the lamp if the lamb would try to be near mom all night. That being said, I've got a ewe who seems to be a pretty good mom who had twins about 3 days ago and that whole trio is curled up under their lamp together.

 

[Bridgemoof]

If the lamb isn't shivering it should be okay. If she was hungry and not getting milk from her mommy, she would be crying. A lot of my babies sit under the heat lamp and the mommy sits off to the side. If the mom has full fleece she probably is very warm and the lamp is hot to her. Sounds like things are going to be okay with that little one. If the mom totally rejected her she would not be letting her nurse at all, so it sounds encouraging.