Skin off my Lambs leg

[Gizma]

Yesterday we had a new born lamb , and we found it with about 25 cm of the skin off around the back thigh , we know it is a dog that had done it. unintentionally probably thinking it is cleaning it, because we have other lambs and they are alright. unfortunately I think if lost the use of its leg, we called the vet and he suggested will put the lamb down. I have not got the heart to do that . we disinfected the leg also bandaged it up. to stop the blood flowing. we milked it mother and fed it. this morning we took the bandage off and the blood seemed to of stopped. now we have left it with no bandage the lamb stands and walks on 3 legs. what we dont know is if we should listen to the vet and put the lamb to sleep or not. I do know that the vet told us to put animals down before and we managed to get them back to full recovery. Please can someone give us some advice on what we should be doing if we are going to keep it alive . thanks alot.

 

[Ruus]

Sheep can be very resiliant if they're given good care. A friend of mine has a sheep who had a huge portion of the big muscle in her back leg chewed off by a dog, and now you can't even see the scar.
If it's only the skin missing I don't think that will permanently damage the leg, I'd say he's favoring the leg because the missing skin hurts, not because he's lost the use of it.

 

[Mike CHS]

I don't have sheep but would think that you will know in a day or two if the lamb can regain the use of the leg. If it doesn't appear to be suffering, I wouldn't be in a hurry to pit it down.

 

[Gizma]

This is a picture of the lamb and also the damage. thank you for your replies. much appreciated.

 

[SheepGirl]

That's a lot of missing skin! I would keep it bandaged, I'm sure the cold air and maybe laying on it hurts the tissue. Keep it bandaged, clean it daily. Try to let it scab over so it can heal. You may want to pull the lamb from its dam just so you can watch it heal better and keep it cleaner (any way you can put it in a dog kennel in your home with old towels?). See if you can get some banamine from the vet to help alleviate some of the pain.

Obviously if it's looking like the skin isn't going to regrow/the lamb is suffering, go ahead and put it down.

 

[Gizma]

I keep it near me right here near the computer. , I am washing it with salt and pre boiled water. I brought in its dam in a room in the house where i have not finished renovating yet. , i let it see mother at times throughout the day , and see if it will drink from mother, sometimes it does other times it dont. but i milk it and use a bottle as well. right now i am letting her run a bit , i got a box and she is in there most of the time , I was told not to bandage it now, because the bleeding has stoped so it can scab quicker . it is not cold in the house ,. the lamb dont seem to be in pain. I notice because when we removed the bandages she cried out a little but now all she wants to do is run about and relax. i am not letting her run too much because she needs to rest. she seems to be feeding alright . I also was told by the pictures that although it looks nasty , the wound looks clean. I only know I dont want the little creature to suffer. but i know she is not outdoors and is kept clean .

 

[SheepGirl]

Sorry, didn't even notice the lamb was in the house already. I was too focused on it's leg!

But that's good, you're doing everything already that I would be doing.

Keep us updated on the healing process, maybe post a picture of it every day or every other day to document how it heals.

 

[Gizma]

Excellent I am glad you are taking interest. because you might spot something we dont. right now other sheep are lambing . this is out of the ordinary because the dogs dont normally do this. I think she got carried away. now i am putting the ewes in a different room and not letting any dogs go near them till they all give birth. not worth risking another casualty

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

If you can keep it clean, and I would think, moist, so it doesn't end up cracking, there may be a chance everything will be ok!!! I would be giving the lamb some antibiotics as a precautionary measure! It may need pain killers in order to get it to eat properly for the first bit. I imagine this is going to take some time to heal, months of cleaning and wrapping bandages!!
Good luck though!!!

 

[Support]

I think your lamb is on its way to recovery. Hope everything goes well!