# Is my lamb sick? Bottle-fed Lamb Breathing Funny



## caitrinssheep (Mar 12, 2016)

Hi, I've been a lurker in the forums for a few years and finally have a question I can't quite find an answer to.

I am raising 2 Katahdin lambs on the bottle, since their mama rejected them. They are 2 of a set of triplets; the third is still on the ewe and doing very well. They are 3 1/2 weeks old now. I live in east TN.

The bottle babies did not get any colostrum from the ewe but did get cow's colostrum from a friend's freezer. I fed that for the first 30ish hours then switched to Dumor Blue Ribbon Lamb Milk Replacer. They both eat 1 1/2 cups of milk replacer every 8 hours.

The ewe bottle baby is doing fine. The little ram (well, now he's a whether; got neutered at 1 week and 1 day old) started breathing funny a couple of days ago. It's like he takes big breaths and sort of coughs/grunts on exhale. Like big breath in -- uh -- big breath in -- uh, and so on. He also gets a very full belly when he eats and always has a sloshy belly during and after eating. He does not have a sloshy belly when I come back for the next feeding, so I'm not thinking rattle belly.

I took his temp with a rectal thermometer last night and tonight and it's been 102.8 F each time. 

He still runs and plays with his sister, jumps in the air, on top of hay bales and on or over anything else he can find. He seems very lively, but after eating he sort of hangs his head and stands still for a little while. He loves snuggles and chewing on my clothes. 

I started offering a little bit of loose all stock mineral (safe for sheep according to the label) this morning; not free-choice yet. They get little tastes for now, before I turn them loose on it. I hope that's the right thing to do.

I'm concerned about worms. His eyes and gums look pretty pink to me but I'm afraid my eyesight isn't very trustworthy, plus barn lighting isn't very good. I have some Ivermectin sheep drench on hand to use if I need it, but I don't even know what dosage to give babies and at what age that's a good idea.

I let the babies walk pasture with me between sips of milk and they enjoy playing in the open field. They are not with the rest of my flock.

Key things I've noticed about my boy (Axl is his name; Rose is his sister. I like 80s rock) is that he acts like he's just eaten Thanksgiving dinner after every meal and his breathing seems not quite right. No fever so far, but I bought some soluble antibiotic from Tractor Supply to have on hand just in case. I gave him 5 grams of Pro-bios gel tonight, since Rose got 5 grams to help out with some watery poop a week or so ago. I should mention both babies are urinating and pooping just fine and their sides are hollowed again when I return for each feeding. They just get really really full. I think Axl maybe swallows air when he eats, so I try to make him go slow and started feeding cooler milk (room temp) yesterday to slow him down.

I'm very attached to these babies and want to make sure I do everything I can to make sure they stay healthy and grow up to be healthy, happy adult sheep. Maybe I'm overreacting, but I thought I would post here and see what you all with more knowledge than me might be able to offer as advice. I have bottle raised a boer goat before but that was almost 8 years ago and I don't remember hardly anything about what is normal.

Thank you in advance for any advice you might be able to offer me. I'm a nervous sheep mama.


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## tree-farmer (Jul 5, 2015)

We had a pair of ewes that was born a bit premature and they both had raspy breathing. Concered it was pneumonia we gave them some antibiotics, but I suspect they never had it and it cleared up on its own.
Definitely watch for signs of pneumonia though just in case.

And be careful when they get to 3 weeks. We lost one of our bottle babies to bloat. The bottle babies are real prone to it. It unfortunately happened overnight and by morning it was too late. Your mention of his full belly makes me worry about it.


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