Bottle Lamb Update…

Get ready for pure cuteness!  We have been lambing nearly 10 days now and have plenty of cuties to show for it.

It started out with bottle lambs acquired from mom and dad’s farm.  They turned out to be a little more work than usual. 

We struggled with eye problems as a result of extremely high winds.

However, we couldn’t doctor their eyes immediately because they were on penicillin and it cancels out the effects of the medication for their eyes. 

These are what was once quadruplets and mama couldn’t handle and supply milk for all four so these guys were pulled.

This is my little buddy.  He likes to be picked up, climbs on you when you are in the pen with him, and likes to nibble on your pant legs or really anything he can get his chops on.  He is adorable, and I just love the little guy.

On the left is Tiny.  He was the smallest of the whole group…hence the name.  Last Friday Tiny got deathly ill.

I collected a stool sample and needed a quick place to put him while I ran to town to the vet.  The test results came back for coccidia.  We had moved all the lambs before a huge thunderstorm rolled through.  We had thunder, lightning, the works.  This stress, we feel, set the coccidia into motion and led to some sick little lambs.

The vet said since the lamb was already “down” he probably wouldn’t make it.  When I got home I really didn’t expect him to be alive.  Instead I found him standing in his “crib.”  I got his medicine to him quickly with a bottle of electrolytes and headed out the door to get the eight other bottle lambs doctored.

Saturday he seemed to be doing better, so I took him back out with the others.  By night he was not looking good again, so I scooped him and another lamb who was lame up and put them inside in a dog crate. 

Sunday Tiny got worse.  His legs started to get stiff, but his appetite never failed.  If he didn’t want milk I fixed him up with water which he chugged down.  The other lamb went back outside, but with cold, damp weather we decided to leave Tiny in.

Luckily I was home Monday because he was still inside in a crate and not in good shape.  Tuesday I was back to work and worried about him all day.  Tuesday evening we made a little racetrack of towels on our hard floors and let the little guy out to stretch his legs. 

With his little legs getting stiffer and stiffer I decided on Wednesday evening to get him back outside where he could stretch his legs and get them worked out.

We are now a week since he went down and the little guy, while still weak and a little stiff, is doing remarkably better.  He doesn’t have to battle for a spot at the bucket like the other kids.  I take him a nice warm bottle every 4-6 hours.

Last night I took a warm rag out to clean up his face.  His eyes were crusty from being sick and there was milk on his face.  The milk was mostly my fault from accidently flipping the nipple and spraying him with milk on several occasions.

He will probably never be part of the elite on our farm, but he is alive, he runs and plays with the other lambs, and eats like he knows he has some catching up to do. 

  The lambs with eye problems have since been doctored and improved dramatically. 

We may take two more lambs on from mom and dad that mom had taken home with her when they were all getting sick, and I was in a panic.  I started with 14, two of which were ill when I got them but was in hopes I could nurse them back to health.  We will see what the weekend brings, but with nicer weather in our future the sunshine will help everyone in their recovery.

Have a wonderful weekend!