# bottle lambs scouring...



## littlekatzz (Dec 27, 2012)

So I got some bottle lambs about 10 day's ago. Wasn't told ages but I'd guess between a few days to maybe up to a week or two. I started them on kid replacer because that's all I had until I could get to the feed store this week. My ram lamb has been bloating about every other day, my other two not nearly as much. I weaned them over to lamb replacer starting this past thus. Slowly making the mix more and more lamb and less kid replacer. I noticed scours and figured it was from the change in food. It was yellowish and more soft then watery and normally if one misses a bottle they would be fine by the next bottle. We'll now the poo is more like a dark brown and more liquidy. :/ so this evening I treated them with some corid drench. I mixed a oz of powder with a cup of water and gave all three a full 3ML syringe full. With plans to do so for the next five days. I have successfully raised bottle goats but I swear these lambs are a million times more fragile. This is my first time ever having sheep and I think they are determined to give me grey hair. Also their poo has a God awful stench to it...which drove my husband out of the Livingroom. I'm not sure if I should try giving them penicillin orally (I'm out of syringes now) or what I should try. I do have them on probios. (I'm also currently trying to nurse back a pair of nubians with lungworm. : ( have them quarantined separate)


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Do you know if they had any Colostrum?

Scours (diarrhea)
Baby lamb scours are due to one of several bacteria: e. coli, salmonella, or clostridium perfringins type C. Adequate intake of colostrum is the best protection against scours. Strict sanitation is also important. Sloppy lambing conditions predispose lambs to many potential health problems.

Bacterial scours can be treated with antibiotics and fluid therapy. Spectinomycin oral pig pump is a preferred treatment for baby lamb scours. Its extra-label use requires veterinary approval. 

http://www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/scours.html

There are some good recipes for lamb formula at the top of the sheep forum. 

Lambs are not any more fragile than goats. But they really do need a different type of formula than other ruminants.


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## MDKatie (Dec 13, 2010)

I'd try the Spectinomycin to make sure it's not something bacterial. 

With the replacer, are you weighing out the powder with a scale? I definitely recommend doing that, because it's often hard to be exact when you're mixing without a scale. Also, make sure you're using a high quality milk-based (not soy) replacer. The cheap stuff is worthless. Don't feed it too warm...you want it room temp ideally, and don't feed them all they can eat. Slowly work up to larger amounts.


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## lexierowsell (Dec 10, 2013)

Using real milk, even store bought pasteurized milk, seems to be making huge differences in everyone's babies this year. 

I know of two farms feeding store bought milk (formula in the stickies) and myself and one other feeding raw milk (just raw milk). 

Our babies are the healthiest bummers I've ever seen of any species, and the store bought milk vs the powdered are a notable improvement too.


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## littlekatzz (Dec 27, 2012)

Adding antibiotics to the replacer seems to have cleared up the bloating and scours problem. And now one has sore mouth lol oh well if it isn't one thing it's another. I'm just glad they no longer seemed determined to die on me.


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## Ruff Times (Feb 6, 2013)

"Using real milk, even store bought pasteurized milk, seems to be making huge differences in everyone's babies this year.

I know of two farms feeding store bought milk (formula in the stickies) and myself and one other feeding raw milk (just raw milk).

Our babies are the healthiest bummers I've ever seen of any species, and the store bought milk vs the powdered are a notable improvement too. "


Along these lines, we just finished bottle feeding two that had this early on. We found that buying a replacer that did not have soy got rid of it in no time.


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## angelspeeper (Sep 6, 2012)

I had a bottle baby this year who I know got momma's colostrum. (We milked momma). But...Momma had other ideas. She had given us twin but decided she really only wanted ONE baby. Anyway. We ended up giving the bottle ewe a milk replacer. BIG MISTAKE!!! She had a horrible case of scours that stunk to high heaven!!!! Started milking momma again. (much to her dismay) scours cleared right up! AFter a week of this momma decided that she would rather nurse BOTH than have us milk her. LUckily for us she took the little one back!!!! I know this is rare!


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