Weak vocalization from 4 month old rams

[ThoughtfulFox]

Earlier in the week I took note of one of our young rams sounding very hoarse when he tried to vocalize (baa). Brought up the issue with the farm owner. She seemed to think that it wasn't a major issue. In the past day another of the three rams has begun vocalizing hoarsely as well. The first one seems to still be relatively healthy, responding to my presence, getting excited at food being brought out, but the latter seems to feel bad. (lethargic, disinterested, more skittish than usual)

I am not an experienced shepherd, so you may need to point out things or ask questions that you might consider to be "common sense". They won't insult me at all.

These are nearly purebred East Frisian sheep, and lately we've had extremely hot, humid weather with no rain. (105 Fahrenheit / 40.5 Celsius)
Naturally my concern is pneumonia, but I currently have little-to-no idea how to diagnose or treat pneumonia in sheep.
If there are other conditions that could cause a sheep to go hoarse, please let me know.
Any assistance you can provide will be appreciated.

~Fox

 

[SheepGirl]

Are they drinking? I've never had a sheep go hoarse, but when my cat was diagnosed with diabetes back in April, he wouldn't drink (we would have to give him water through a syringe) and his voice became all hoarse...it lasted for about a week but got better and now he's feeling a lot better, he's drinking and eating on his own and his voice is back to its normal obnoxious self lol.

But with this heat I would make sure they're drinking enough. If they're not drinking enough it could be because the water isn't clean or there's straw/poop floating on the top or another sheep may be guarding the water trough.

But that's the only reason I can think of why they're losing their voice.

 

[ThoughtfulFox]

I don't see them drinking nearly as often as I'd like to, but it's not for lack of clean water access.
They have two large water buckets that I empty and refill with fresh water twice a day. When the first ram began seeming sick I cleaned both of them thoroughly. The one ram in this particular paddock that gets pushed around by the other two is the one showing no signs of distress whatsoever. He's the black sheep....literally and metaphorically.

 

[ThoughtfulFox]

Guess I might as well update this thread.
After speaking with a vet about their temperatures, hoarse vocalizations, runny noses, weakness, etc. it was determined that our rams have respiratory infections.
For three days we gave subcutaneous injections of LA200 (oxytetracycline). They seemed to feel a good bit better after that, but seem to still be fighting the infections. I can only hope that this was enough to cure them.

 

[shawnfisher]

sounds to me like your ram lambs are hitting puberty.

 

[ThoughtfulFox]

sounds to me like your ram lambs are hitting puberty.

You may have been correct about their voices. They were indeed a bit sick, but their voices still haven't gone back to what they were before the illness.