I have a 5 day old blackbelly 2 1/2 to 3 lbs ewe lamb that I found wandering in the sheep lot last Monday night. It appeared to be less than 12 hours old. I have not been able to find its mother. I had at least 2 ewes have lambs that day. The one ewe that seemed to be the mother would not butt it away when it tried to suck, but had no milk available beyond the lamb it was nursing. I have been feeding this lamb with a pritchard teat on a bottle. It would only suck about 6cc when I tried to feed it about every 1 1/2 hours. I have been tube feeding it for the last 3 days. It is very alert and active, it will run the entire length of the house, and has good heart sounds. However, when I try to get it to suck the bottle, it seems to fight the nipple rather than suck. It exhibits all the necessary response to suck, and looks for a nipple, but it gets its tongue crossways in its mouth rather than longways to suck the nipple. After a short time of trying to nurse the bottle, it appears to be tired out. I have tried to get it to suck my litte finger, and I have to get my finger on the back of the tongue before it will suck. I have tried several other nipples with no results. I have pritchard nipples with large and small holes, but cannot get her to suck. The large hole nipple crestes a gagging response sometimes. I have tried the feeding tube on the back of the tongue and seem to get some vacuum on the end of the tube, but cannot get her to pull milk from a bottle with the tube attached. I think this lamb is possibly about 2 weeks premature. I have also tried to get her to drink from a bowl but have not had any success.
I have a good veterinarian friend that can find no problem with her so far, she just won't suck.... Does anyone have any experience or suggestions?? Helmut are you listening? I am sure you have had this problem before.. Cecil in OKla _______________________________________________ This message is from the blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
