# Anyone ever have a lamb born without?



## Goatsandsheep (Jun 7, 2006)

Anyone ever have a lamb born without an anus opening?
If so did you open it up? 
If you did open it up was the rectum form right?
Did the lamb live?
Have any problems because of the this?
G&S


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## mawalla (Oct 28, 2002)

Thankfully I have not had that happen on my farm. However, at work, one of our clients had an alpaca cria born that way. It was put to sleep and sent for necropsy. I haven't had the chance to read through the resulting report to find out what other problems that it had internally. 

I'm afraid that the return on a single lamb would not be such that I would even think about surgery to correct such a defect. I would have the animal put down. Also, I would not repeat that particular cross again unless the pairing had been done in previous seasons and resulted in healthy offspring.


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## Ronney (Nov 26, 2004)

Not with lambs but twice with pigs. In both cases they were destroyed. I did have a talk to the vet about this and his view was, that aside from the cost factor, there was no knowing how far the defect went until they got in there. In some cases all or part of the bowel has not developed, in others it is just the anal opening. His advice was to always humanely destroy them and I think he was right.

Cheers,
Ronnie


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

We've seen it few times and your vet might be able to open it up, or the intestines might not be fully formed. Fortunately both had complete intestines and the vet simplely slit and stitched it open. Too much muscle, and there's a chance of tearing the intestinal walls to make it a DIY job. Both did well after though


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## flannelberry (Jul 14, 2005)

You definitely need a vet asap - for all of the reasons that have been stated.

Good luck with it - I hope it's a simple skin flap and not something major. You'll definitely want to watch both the male and female lines to see if this is something they throw regularly and consider a cull if so.


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## Goatsandsheep (Jun 7, 2006)

This lamb was born on easter. He was opened up on Monday morning everything looks normal he is pooping. This is moms 4 pregnancy only time she single, she had three set of twins last years weighted 19 & 18 lbs no problem with deliver. No I will not be breeding her to the same ram again. 
This is the first time I've had to deal with this. I have read about this and when it happen I called and got lots of advice which was pretty much to put him down he is only a market lamb/4-h project. It much easier to say yes put down a lamb or an animal born this way, then to do it. My lamb was up eating, walking around basically being a normal cute baby lamb. 

Ross- how long did you keep your lamb born this way? Any advice I may need? 

G&S


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Oddly they were both male, so they were shipped before two. Neither gave us any trouble while they were here.


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## RandB (Aug 13, 2002)

We had a ewe lamb born that way. Our vet tried to open her up, but there was nothing below the skin, parts were missing, so he had to put her down. It was one of our first lambs ever, it was very heartbreaking. They don't seem to know what causes it. The mother has since produced other lambs that were normal.


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