# ewe ate lambs tail



## KimTN (Jan 16, 2007)

I just had a ewe deliver twins and she ate one of the lambs tails. The poor little guy was bleeding badly. I had to band him to stop the blood flow. He looks a little weak, so I gave him some lamb boost to get him up and going. Has anyone seen a ewe do this?


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

Have you gotten lambs out of her before? Sadly, things like this happen from time to time, especially with first-time moms. They just seem to get carried away with the clean-up. I'd be more concerned if she wasn't a first-timer...


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## KimTN (Jan 16, 2007)

She is very old. I was thinking she might have Alzheimers. She made a mess of the poor little guy. Didn't even chew it off even. Just mutilated the last half of the tail making him bleed.


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

If she's that old, I'd probably retire her. She may have bad eyesight and be relying on sense of smell alone to clean the little ones up, poor girl. 
Does she still have teeth or did she gum his tail off?


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## eieiomom (Jun 22, 2005)

I'd also give him a few days of Penicillin and CD&T(Tetanus prevention).
If she doesn't leave it alone, you can loosely wrap a piece of duct tap over gauze for a day.

Deb


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## KimTN (Jan 16, 2007)

She's going to be retired this year. My ewes are very old but have great teeth. They have been spoiled all their lives. It's going to be sad to let them go.


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Believe it or not, this is common and I would have at least one a year, sometimes more, and never by the same ewes and age has no bearing on it.

It's brought about by over-enthusiastic ewes encouraging their lambs to drink and will often happen to the weaker of twins, as in your case. While it doesn't look good, it doesn't have any adverse affect on the lamb.

If she's a good ewe and in good condition with good teeth, the last thing I would cull her for is because she ate a lambs tail.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

Ronney said:


> Believe it or not, this is common and I would have at least one a year, sometimes more, and never by the same ewes and age has no bearing on it.
> 
> It's brought about by over-enthusiastic ewes encouraging their lambs to drink and will often happen to the weaker of twins, as in your case. While it doesn't look good, it doesn't have any adverse affect on the lamb.
> 
> ...


Wow...that's common there? We've never had a ewe chew up a lamb's tail or any other part of the body. Now, granted, we've only got about 50 ewes, but still...
When I mentioned this thread to the neighbor sheep farmer (he has 100's of sheep) he said he's had maybe 2 ewes who did that in the last 5 years. He has a lot more ewes who lay on their babies, killing them outright or breaking bones. 
Not saying I don't believe you or anything. I just wonder if it's more common in certain breeds of sheep? I raise hair sheep, and their tails are somewhat shorter...Interesting...
I would agree too, that it has no real adverse affects since most of the time the tail gets docked anyway.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

I agree with Ronney not the most common thing here (hardly un-usual)but hardly something to cull over.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

If it's really mutilated, and you've already banded it, you might as well go ahead and amputate to prevent infection


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## J.T.M. (Mar 2, 2008)

Ronney said:


> Believe it or not, this is common and I would have at least one a year, sometimes more, and never by the same ewes and age has no bearing on it.
> 
> It's brought about by over-enthusiastic ewes encouraging their lambs to drink and will often happen to the weaker of twins, as in your case. While it doesn't look good, it doesn't have any adverse affect on the lamb.
> 
> ...


Seen it before as well ,although not offten.Its really a non issue for me as well.Also not trait thats passed along .


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## KimTN (Jan 16, 2007)

Well, the little guy is doing fine. I've seen rabbits chew off baby parts but never sheep. Guess I've seen it now.


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## Laurie J (Mar 9, 2005)

We've had this happen a handful of times....most recently this year, in fact. Ours was also an older ewe. Usually not a problem, however, several years ago we had a ewe not stop at the tail; part of the lamb's back end was chomped up, and we had to put the poor little guy down. That ewe raised her other lamb and went bye bye. The year before she'd also ate off a tail, but that's as far as it went.

As for old ewes....we've got 3 we're going to have to (sadly) get rid of. We like to let ewes that have been of such great service just die here on the farm, but it's not practical anymore. I have an 11 year old who has milk on just one side and I'm having to bottle feed her smaller lamb. A few days later her twin sister went down trying to birth two lambs (only saved one of them), and she never could get up. After a week we had to put her down. So, another bottle lamb. We have a 10 year old, also milk on only one side, so we're supplementing them. Another old gal (9) laid on one of her lambs (probably couldn't even see him...she's always been so gentle and such an attentive mama). At any rate, enough is enough. Going to have to weed out the geriatric sheep, I'm afraid!


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## J.T.M. (Mar 2, 2008)

Its always hard culling out the buddies isnt it Laurie ...


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