# Lamb born with distended stomach...ideas?



## ShadowfaxFarm (Jul 23, 2011)

I had a large ram lamb born with a very distended abdomen. His head and front feet were out when I found him but ewe looked distressed so I finished pulling him. He wasn't acting right so I "slung" him upside down and got him breathing. breathing was labored at first. It's been a little over an hour & his twins sister that came right after is good sized, normal, and fine. Dam is a large ewe that has given triplets the last 2 years. He hasn't stood up yet although he is finally making minor attempts. Does not seem to have any interest in colostrum which never happens with lambs in this flock. The distended stomach really has me confused/worried as I've had sheep most of my life and never saw a lamb born this way. Would that happen if he swallowed a ton of fluid before birth?

any and all ideas/advice welcome.


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## MARYDVM (Jun 7, 2004)

Something similar is seen in cattle when free fluid accumulates inside the developing calf's abdomen during gestation. Often this is due to a heart malformation, and the calf will not survive being born. If your lamb dies, and you cut into his abdomen, a gush of yellow fluid will pour out if this defect is present.


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## bknthesdle (Mar 27, 2011)

Not to sound gross or anything, but did you check to see if he had a rectum? A friend of mine had a lamb born last year with no rectum so no way to pass feces.


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## ShadowfaxFarm (Jul 23, 2011)

He expired about 30 mins ago. I'm going to preform a necropsy here in a bit. He did have a rectum. That was the first thing I checked because I have seen a lamb without one before.


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## bknthesdle (Mar 27, 2011)

Keep us posted if you don't mind. Hoping to learn from this.


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## ShadowfaxFarm (Jul 23, 2011)

Preformed the necropsy but not entirely sure what to make of the results. There was a small gush of yellow fluid when I first opened him up but not a large amount. His stomach and half of his small intestine was FULL of clear/yellowish fluid. At one point in his intestine it was like it was clamped off and there was no fluid beyond that so that makes me think he had a twisted bowel. At some point his intestines were working correctly though because there was meconium in his rectum. His heart did look strange to me so maybe he did have a heart defect. The top part of his heart seemed thin rather than thickly muscled like normal. His kidneys were functioning correctly as he had a full bladder. His lungs had blood pooled in them but I assume that is because his heart stopped. So those are my findings but nothing definitive.


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