# diarrhea in newborn orphan



## kittyjo

I have 2 newborn dorper/X lambs one is having a watery diarrhea that is yellowish/green. I am feeding a formula of whole milk-canned evap milk-and buttermilk about 1 cup give or take some every 4 hours if they are hungry 
can I give it pepto-bismol for this or would something else do better


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## Somerhill

Did they get colostrum when they were born? 
I have no idea whether the diet you are feeding is appropriate, since we always used commercial lamb milk replacer. Hopefully someone else will be able to tell you if its OK. I've always been taught that cows milk is not good for lambs because of the risk of a reaction to the lactose, but I see that other people feed whole milk without a probelm, so......? 
If you can get something like Spectam for scours (like for baby pigs) that is more effective in stopping diarrhea. 
When we have this problem, I just feed an electrolyte solution instead of milk for one feeding, and then once the diarrhea stops, mix the formula with a little extra water and gradually work them back up to the full amount they need again. 
hope this helps
Lisa


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## Ross

Likewise I can't say much about the formula, but I do use Pepto Bismol with excellent results.


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## YuccaFlatsRanch

Pepto or kaopectate to dry up watery poop. I use about 6cc of kaopectate. Give water with electrolytes if runny poop continues. I use Walmart generic variety of pedialyte - it works and it is cheap. I seldom need more than two doses of the Kao - usually just one.

Don't fret - yellow runnies are the easiest to cure. White runnies mean a bacterial infection.

Kitchen chemistry is not the proper diet for a lamb.. Use the milk replacer.


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## zameluzza

I'm not sure but I thought when the poop is yellowish then they have to much milk, 
I heard that yogurt helps to.


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## eieiomom

Just curious as to why you are feeding the lambs that mixture ?
Pepto Bismol is used here for any diarrhea.
Bottle lambs that are too loose get their milk replacer diluted with extra water for a day or two, which always clears it up.


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## Ross

What you should see for poops is as follows. Very first poop should be a horrible black sticky mess, then an egg yolk yellow goo, then normal messy beige to brown. The black stuff is a tarry plug they are born with, the yellow simply from colostrum (its a good thing to see) and the beige to brown just normal.


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## veme

kittyjo said:


> I have 2 newborn dorper/X lambs one is having a watery diarrhea that is yellowish/green. I am feeding a formula of whole milk-canned evap milk-and buttermilk about 1 cup give or take some every 4 hours if they are hungry
> can I give it pepto-bismol for this or would something else do better


Give you lambs anything that will stop the diarrhea.
Do not over feed them.  

If it were me Iâd try to find raw goat milk to feed your lambs. 
Raw cowâs milk is the next best thing.

We never EVER use commercial calf or lamb milk replacer. 
A lamb or calf can STARVE to death on a full stomach with it. 

veme


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## luvrulz

I've had to bottle feed 2 different lambs and always gave them the commercial milk replacer. There is a measuring cup that comes with the powder and you need to use that. I was using a regular kitchen measuring cup and ended up overfeeding and the poor lamb had the scours for days.... When I realized my mistake and started giving him the proper dosage, it cleared up immediately. As long as he's had his colostrum, cut back on the amount you're feeding and do switch to the milk replacer - at least for the first 2 - 3 weeks. They are such fun to watch and enjoy!! Good luck with your young'un - what did you name it??


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## eieiomom

I have not had problems with commercial lamb milk replacer, but definitely prefer fresh ewe milk.
Maybe it depends on the manufacturer as the % of ingredients do vary among different products. :shrug:


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## mawalla

Over the past 10 years that I've been raising sheep I have raised probably 25 - 30 bottle lambs and have NEVER had one starve to death on a full stomach by using a commercial lamb milk replacer. I always use one that is specifically made for lambs because they contain no copper and they have higher fat and protien contents in them. 

As for diarrhea, it is a symptom, not a diagnosis. I do treat the symptom with Pepto but try to find out why they got it in the first place. On a very young bottle lamb I usually suspect that the milk was mixed too rich and I will water it down somewhat for 24 hours. Lamb will dehydrate rapidly so it is important to keep them hydrated and get the scours treated fast.

There are other things that can cause diarrhea, too. E coli and coccidia are two that immediatly come to mind.


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## Somerhill

mawalla said:


> Over the past 10 years that I've been raising sheep I have raised probably 25 - 30 bottle lambs and have NEVER had one starve to death on a full stomach by using a commercial lamb milk replacer. I always use one that is specifically made for lambs because they contain no copper and they have higher fat and protien contents in them.
> 
> As for diarrhea, it is a symptom, not a diagnosis. I do treat the symptom with Pepto but try to find out why they got it in the first place. On a very young bottle lamb I usually suspect that the milk was mixed too rich and I will water it down somewhat for 24 hours. Lamb will dehydrate rapidly so it is important to keep them hydrated and get the scours treated fast.
> 
> There are other things that can cause diarrhea, too. E coli and coccidia are two that immediatly come to mind.


Ditto, Mawalla. Excellent advice.
Dr Kennedy of Pipestone Vet Clinic talked about milk replacer at a recent shepherd's symposium. He drove the point home that commercial milk replacers are formulated to be fed free-choice, cold. Bottle feeding warm milk-replacer is what causes a lot of the digestive problems we see. Fed free-choice and cold, the lambs drink small amounts frequently, so they don't gorge themselves, causing bloating, diarrhea, stunted growth, etc. So that would explain why different people have such different experiences and opinions about using milk replacer. 
Like everything else, opinions are like belly-buttons; we all have them.  
Lisa


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## Patty0315

Also age was not mention. Could it be coccidia ?


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## veme

Somerhill said:


> Dr Kennedy of Pipestone Vet Clinic talked about milk replacer at a recent shepherd's symposium. He drove the point home that commercial milk replacers are formulated to be fed free-choice, cold. Bottle feeding warm milk-replacer is what causes a lot of the digestive problems we see. Fed free-choice and cold, the lambs drink small amounts frequently, so they don't gorge themselves, causing bloating, diarrhea, stunted growth, etc. So that would explain why different people have such different experiences and opinions about using milk replacer.


I disagree and have my own opinion  about milk replacers. 

I never use them and donât recommend them for a couple of different reasons.

And it doesnât matter whether theyâre served up warm or cold . 
They are just plain bad news. :hobbyhors 

Land O'Lakes, Purina , Save- A-Lamb and others do not have a 100% animal based lipid in the âformulaâ- itâs mostly vegetable based. 

Last I sniffed, Land Oâ Lakes was coconut oil. :nono: 
It is my experience that neonatal animals fed with plant based fats do not thrive as well as they would on animal fats. 
This is critical in cold weather.

Milk replacers are made cheap, but expensive to buy.

Right now in my area a #25 bag is $47.60. You will need at least a #25 to bring a medium to large breed lamb to weaning. 
When you use milk replacer, you have just lost any profit that you could have made from your ewe/lamb. 

If that isnât bad enough there are chemicals and additives in replacers that I donât want to drip onto my skin, much less to feed to an animal. 
Most replacers contain an antibiotic, with most of the plasma protein derived from porcine or bovine sources.

I always keep a goat that will come fresh 2 weeks before my lambs are due - just in case.

In 20 years Iâve had a few bottle lambs and calves and I have never lost one on REAL MILK. 
I canât say the same for replacers. 

Do the math. 
You can buy a papered dairy goat and keep her for 3 years for what it could cost to feed out 4 or 5 bummers/orphans or triplet runts in the same amount of time. That doesnât even take into account milk and cheese for the family table or for extra feed for pigs, dogs, cats or chickens.

I never buy into Big Agri Business :flame: if I can help it.

Large Ag Corporations of course promote the use of milk replacers, and many vetâs buy into the whole corporate farming/agriculture thing.

Never forget that the âresearchâ that comes out of big ag schools like Penn State, Cornell and OSU is funded by grant monies from those corporations. 

Sadly, sometimes âscienceâ is about money and not common sense.

veme


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## kittyjo

Thank you everyone so much for all your help babies are doing better now almost a week old switched to commercial lamb milk replacer and the poop looks more like it should. and they are growing very fast this that I get is $13.75 per 8lb. bucket that will make 4 gal of milk I am cutting it a little with water tho so it won't be too strong to start with will gradually get to full strength soon tho I do understand that goats milk or fresh ewe's milk is best but don't have either available right now so have to use the next best think I guess thanks again


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## kirsten

I disagree with veme concerning lamb milk replacer. I raised 11 bottle lambs last year on it and have 3 to start off this year already and they all did very well. They also sold very well- top price that day for fat lambs. I always heat mine up when I have just a few that go by bottles. This year, when it warms up, I will try feeding cold milk via a lamb bar when I have too many lambs. I did not recognize the replacers you were referring to but around here we have Super Lamb and the kent milk replacer which we use. It is about a dollar a pound here and I can raise 3 lambs per 25# bag, perhaps even less. We try to wean at about 32-35 days. It depends on the lamb, of course. Some will wean at 30 days and others, 2 of mine did not wean until 45 days- their rumens were slow to kick in. Fed properly, commercial lamb replacers work very well and about your comment about science rather than common sense... The persons who develop such replacers would be out of business so fast if the milk did not raise very healthy lambs with minimal trouble or if there were many losses at all. They are formulated to make the rancher succeed and the lamb succeed. We succeed here anyway. I don't find that milk replacer cuts into our profits badly at all, in fact, way cheaper than buying grown sheep to pay $20 a lamb and $9 to raise it.


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## kittyjo

the kind I could find is Advance lamb milk replacer 0 copper 23% protein 30% fat vit a c &e manufactured by Specialty Nutrition in Il. msspecialtynutrition.com
seems to work good for us and the babies love it have no problem getting them to take a bottle.


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## kirsten

Good. I am glad that you found some replacer that you like using. While it is sometimes nice to make your own, like I make my own electrolyte solution sometimes, I think it is important in cases where the nutrition has to be specific to take it from the people who have studied all of this in order to make up a complete lamb diet. Have fun with your lambs!


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