[devonlad]

Hi all. we've had a right old time with one of our ewes since lambing 2 months ago. she had twin rams and despite us worming and fluking as usual after lambing she has not had a good time of it. eventually after much samples to the vet and abs/drench on his recommendations she is at last beginning to look a bit more like it- HOWEVER we have just realised that she is not feeding the boys anymore. and we cant get a drop out of her-  sounds daft to have only just noticed as we have spent so much time around them. our dilemma is do we try to offer replacement milk not knowing for sure how long they've been off her. both have been scouring on and off and we did drench for cocci a few weeks ago on vets recommendations. we don't want to force milk on them if they've already got used to not having it. we did offer some earlier and one did take about 8 oz without too much forcing, the other was having none of it. should we persevere with milk, offer creep ?, currently it seems they're only living on grass at 2 months which prob explains the loose bowels ?

[SallyintNorth]

I would certainly try to get them eating creep to replace the protein in the milk they're not getting.

If they eat cake they'll be fine without milk at 2 months. 

If they are well-fleshed and will eat creep, it may be better to let them get on with it now.

However, if one will take milk and you don't mind bottle feeding, then personally I would offer milk for a few weeks, especially if there is any lack of condition there.  I'd offer the bottle to the refuser first each time, then feed the one that wants some.  Not too much at a time - maybe 250ml three times a day, or up to 300ml twice -  not anything like as much as a litre a day, so that he does get on and eat creep.  You may find the refuser does decide to like milk after a few days . 

I expect others will give you different advice, but that's what I'd do. 

[devonlad]

I hoped/thought you'd be one who'd comment sally as you usually talk sense. We have since offered a bit of creep and perhaps not surprisingly the one who refused milk was pretty keen on a bit of it and the other wasn't. initially we were going to take them off mum but have decided to reduce the stress for them and as they aren't getting anything off her it doesn't really matter for now. we have taken the 3 of them away from the rest for now as its easier to manage and have rigged up our version of a creep feeder with some hurdles to keep mum out. plan is to take a bottle and some creep a couple of times a day for now and see how we get on. the problem this spring we think has stemmed from us just outgrowing the space and not being able to rotate enough to keep the pasture clean. they've all been a bit runnier than usual- (that's an understatement) its just that this one is by far the worst. current thoughts are to give them all the year off ( and us  )next year to give the ground a chance to not have lambs on it and instead do more pigs next year. any probs with missing a year as regards fertility etc. ?

[SallyintNorth]

The biggest issue with girls having a year geld is getting overweight and getting cast.  So if you do decide to do that, try to keep their condition score down to 2.5ish.

[Tim W]

Biggest problem with not lambing for a year is you still have to keep them somewhere! And they will still cost you

If you want to give the land a rest it needs to be free of all sheep for a year to make much difference to worm burdens etc 

[devonlad]

hard to argue against your logic Tim. Several of the older ewes will see out there natural life with us- that's just how it is, provided of course we can ensure a good environment. having less sheep by missing a lambing enables us to rest ground for much longer and possibly to leave some ground alone till the following year. although we're very attached to our sheep we would love to do pigs again. there was far more demand for the meat and we've run out of pork. having to separate at various times never leaves us enough room to do pigs - so next year we can

[Hellybee]

What's they're form like are they in good nick?   After experiencing trying to get a we lamb back to milke when she had been I with another flock and un retrievable for a week, she scoured like no tomorrow, so I would go conservatively, try them, but it may be just too long...


I know it's different but I got our mollies down to one bottle a day now, they have three rationed nut feeds per day, constant soft dry haylage, more like hay actually, and they have little water buckets that they are drinking up well.  I call this last bottle they're comfort bottle. x

[Hellybee]

After taking Sallys lead, I don't give them too much of anything bar hay and water of course and all grass, creep, milk is basically very well spaced throughouT the day x

[plt102]

I think I have the same problem and have two 4 week old lambs. What is the earliest age they can start on just grass and a bit of hard feed/ I am going to get them onto a bottle later on but don't want to do it longer than I need to.

[devonlad]

as an update, we started offering a bit of creep and gave the ewe a bit of cake at the same time to keep her quiet. it seems that may have been what she needed as a couple of days ago the boys had latched back on again. I guess she'd got so run down that she'd put all her energy into self preservation. having started with a bit of creep we'll keep it going now.  although we don't usually wean until 15 weeks I know that big commercial set ups can wean as young as a fortnight provided creep hay etc is done right. clearly our 8 weekers couldn't cope on just grass- fountains !!!!!!!!!!!

[SallyintNorth]

I know that big commercial set ups can wean as young as a fortnight provided creep hay etc is done right.

I think that's pigs.

In sheep, as I understand it the rumen is not fully developed until around 6 weeks, so they need milk until then.