Anitbotics for Lambs

by T. I. Moran
(USA)

We raise cattle and our neighbor has sheep. We offered our help because of so many babies were being born and his fields we closer to our home and we had plenty of room for them. We had 4 lambs and 2 died.

We are having a problem with the larger one. It doesn't want to suck a lot and is getting weaker; it was given colostrum. Is there any type of antiobotics you can recommend and how much of a dosage can we give.

This is all new to us and in dire need of some information on what to do. Anything would be greatly appreciated, as we have fallen in love with these little gentle critters.

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Hi,

We are run this website based on natural methods of growing crops and raising animals. Antibiotics have their place, and they would be used only as a very last resort.

Raising any kind of farm animals will result in some deaths. This is inevitable. Some farm animals are more difficult to raise than others. Baby chickens, for example have a very high mortality rate, and unfortunately, so do lambs, especially orphan lambs.

If you have a lamb that won't suck, the first thing you need to do is to check the mouth for sores. This is one of the main reason for lambs not wanting to suck.

If there are sores in the mouth you need to give them lamb a topical injection of Vitamin B12. You may then have to resort to stomach feeding the lamb until the sores have gone or until the lamb will suck from a teat again.

Believe it or not, Asprin works very well with lambs that are feeling a little off-color. Never feed asprin to cats - you will kill them, but for lambs they are very safe. Give your lamb half and adult size tablet or 1 baby Aprin and you will be surprised how it perks up and starts eating after being dosed.

Also, put a little Manuka honey on the end of the teat when offering the bottle. This usually gets them going in no time at all. However, don't do this too many times.

Good luck with your lambs and please keep us up to date with their progress.

There is also some more information for other readers with the same problem:

Lamb won't suck on any teats.

Regards
Kathryn
Countryfarm Lifestyles