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dehydrated orphan lamb

	Member	Message
	CoyoteNightAcres	Posted 08/16/12 02:39PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
	CoyoteNightAcres	Posted 08/16/12 02:43PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		Sorry that didn't post right. Have a 4 day old orphan lamb that I bought because it's mom was old and had no milk. The baby only got packaged colostrum and we were starting her on fresh goat milk. She has scours which our vet has given us meds for, but she is now dehydrated and in critical condition. How often should I be giving her the electrolytes? We are not feeding milk because of her condition today, but I have nutri drench for her if she can have it. She is getting lixatonic (sp) with baytril in it from the vet we are giving her. Any suggestions for saving her?
	KO	Posted 08/16/12 05:38PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		Did the vet say to not feed the milk?
	EmsoffLambs	Posted 08/16/12 07:19PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		I would give her milk as well, just rotate it with the electrolytes, one then the other every couple of hours. I'll be honest, the prognosis for a four day old lamb with no colostrum, scours and dehydration is not good. If she is severely dehydrated, she will probably need IV fluids.
	CoyoteNightAcres	Posted 08/16/12 07:46PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		She is not doing good at all. No longer taking the bottle, not standing, eyes rolled up in her head. Somehow she is till holding on, but I don't expect her to make it. She is swallowing what I put into her mouth with a seringe so should I feed her milk like that as well as electrolytes? So I guess I'll keep giving the electrolytes. Some milk etc... and not expect much.
	EmsoffLambs	Posted 08/16/12 08:08PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		Unfortunately it probably isn't worth it at this point. Unless you get her on IV fluids she's not going to make it. And even then it would be unlikely. Raising bottle lambs is always a challenge and ones that don't get colostrum are really difficult.
	KO	Posted 08/16/12 08:23PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		If you can get IV fluids from your vet you can administer them. Just insert the needle under the skin on the top of back. squeeze the fluid bag until the lamb looks like it has a half of a grape fruit under the skin. Save the remaining fluid and repeat with a sterile needle in 6-8 hours. Also do like Crystal is saying and feed milk. Regulate the body heat to keep him warm with heat pad or warm towels etc. Good luck.
	DonD1	Posted 08/16/12 08:27PM  Changed 08/16/12 08:29PM
		Classic symptoms of a lamb not getting enough calories. I agree with your assessment of the probable outcome. Some chance to save the lamb if you can give it 20-25% dextrose solution. Our local farm supply store sells 50% dextrose. You dilute this 2:1 with water. Ideally you inject the solution into the stomach cavity at the rate of 1 cc per lb of lamb. If you don't want to inject into the stomach cavity you can do sub-q injections at about 2 cc's per site. Repeat in 1/2 hour. The lambs body temperature is probably currently under 98 degrees. Once you give the first treatment put the lamb in a box and warm it up with a air dryer. If this works the next trick is to get the lambs digestive system to start working. Add plenty of probiotics into the milk replacer.
	ewegogirl	Posted 08/18/12 02:30PM  Changed 00/00/00 12:00AM
		Have you tried tube feeding her? A lamb too weak to take a bottle can still be tubed. Have had to do this quite a few times. Once they are back on their feet again they can contunue with the bottle. Also I have found out the hard way that all milk replacers are not the same. We have had very good luck with Land O Lakes. Maybe switch to a replacement formula for lambs rather than the goats milk. Also for a little lamb that is having trouble staying warm we have cut off the sleeve of a wool sweater ( cheap at Goodwill ) and made a little sheep sock out of it but even doing that kept them under heat lamps.

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