Post by 2stormeyseas on Feb 19, 2017 15:12:08 GMT -5
We have a lamb born yesterday morning. He is a ram born twin to a ewe lamb. She seems to be fine. He is smaller than her. His eyes don't appear to have formed properly. the opening is just a slit, not as wide as normal. Don't know for sure, but he appears to be blind, or very limited vision. His hind legs seem to be bowed somewhat...look better today than yesterday. His mom is not the friendliest, but not totally wild either. 5th time lambing, 3rd for us. Her 3rd lamb (1st with us) had a problem of his lower eyelids rolling in...we had it surgically fixed. Last year she had triplets (1st time having multiples)...one still born, one large ram we sold at about 5 months old, and a ewe that we still have. The dad all 3 times with us has been Elliott...we sold him a couple of months ago.
For this little guy we have been milking another ewe that lambed about 16 hours before he was born and bottle feeding him. He is in the barn with his mom and sister. In the stall next to him are 2 other ewes (one is where we are getting the milk) and their single ram lambs. He does get around, but I think he follows my voice when I talk to him. I went out this afternoon to check on him and his sister was nursing, so I got him up and helped him find the teat to nurse. He seemed to do well, and Lunar (mom) was patient with us, but he was unable to find the teat on his own.
So, assuming he is blind, will he be able to get around well enough to do well. We plan to just raise him as meat if he survives. Not genetically something we want to pass on. Will eventually be able to figure out where to get the food? Or will we have to raise him as a bottle baby? (too easy to get attached if it can be avoided). Will he be able to be apart of the flock and not get trampled? Our flock consists of 7 ewes ranging in age from 1-5years and the 4 new lambs born last week +more expected (and the ram who is in a different pen till breeding season again). When the grass comes in in the spring we plan to move their pen around again wo clear more of the overgrown pasture... would that be too much for him? would it be better to put him in a more permanent pen with another lamb or 2 at weaning time?
Any advise on raising him welcomed. Once we move the lambs and ewes back outside it will be considerably more difficult to milk Sunny for bottles if he doesn't learn to nurse on his own.
I will try to get photos of his eyes...and figure out how to post them again.
For this little guy we have been milking another ewe that lambed about 16 hours before he was born and bottle feeding him. He is in the barn with his mom and sister. In the stall next to him are 2 other ewes (one is where we are getting the milk) and their single ram lambs. He does get around, but I think he follows my voice when I talk to him. I went out this afternoon to check on him and his sister was nursing, so I got him up and helped him find the teat to nurse. He seemed to do well, and Lunar (mom) was patient with us, but he was unable to find the teat on his own.
So, assuming he is blind, will he be able to get around well enough to do well. We plan to just raise him as meat if he survives. Not genetically something we want to pass on. Will eventually be able to figure out where to get the food? Or will we have to raise him as a bottle baby? (too easy to get attached if it can be avoided). Will he be able to be apart of the flock and not get trampled? Our flock consists of 7 ewes ranging in age from 1-5years and the 4 new lambs born last week +more expected (and the ram who is in a different pen till breeding season again). When the grass comes in in the spring we plan to move their pen around again wo clear more of the overgrown pasture... would that be too much for him? would it be better to put him in a more permanent pen with another lamb or 2 at weaning time?
Any advise on raising him welcomed. Once we move the lambs and ewes back outside it will be considerably more difficult to milk Sunny for bottles if he doesn't learn to nurse on his own.
I will try to get photos of his eyes...and figure out how to post them again.