The Older Poddy Lamb

Last weekend we mustered the sheep we brought home from "Deeban", they  needed a drench and sort up. We found two sets of twins at the end of the mob, they were a few weeks old and had the pinched and starved look of lambs in trouble,( possibly the lambs of old broken mouth ewes doing it tough through the winter). We decided to pick them up and bring them home, for  ewe lambs early nutrition is vital for life long fertility, and their very survival was doubtful. So began the challenge of the older poddy. Within the first thirty six hours one lamb from each set of twins had died. Time to get out the books and see what could be learnt to improve the chances of the remaining two.

The old "you might get this past my lips, but I'm not going to swallow" approach of the older lamb.

After a week or so a lamb is very much bonded to its mother, and when its mother dies or becomes sick, it is very difficult to get the lamb to take a bottle,  they only seem to bond once and are resistant to change. We found an injection of Multi B vitamins, helps stimulate the appetite, reduce stress and helps them metabolise the energy in the feed they will take. Restrict it to a small warm space, and ad-lib feed lucerne chaff, soy meal and a slowly increasing amount of lamb pellets (you don't want to kill them with kindness). Occasionally they will take a bottle but it is hard work and requires great patience. We like to try the bottle as the lambs that will take it have a much better chance of survival.

As for the two lambs we took home, they are both doing OK they have started to eat the ration we provided and the smaller one is taking a bottle. We can see them getting stronger each day. Next time we pick up an older lamb we will give the vitamin B straight away as it seemed to make a significant difference, and just maybe we will improve their survival rate.