The Lambs have been in a 10'x20' horse stall all their life. This weekend I let them out for the first time ever, and you can see how the bottle-feeding pays off:
http://web.me.com/mwsmith100/Site_2/LambsFirstOuting.html there's a coupla movies, be sure to check them out. BTW: they and the goats go back in at night and get locked up, to prevent predation of the little ones. news of Bam Bam: He still has diarrhea (for 3.5 days now), It's a mix of clear mucous and some solids, plus undigested alfalfa. Some of it is black, denoting the Pepto. He is now having about 4cc Pepto Bismol with every meal. (yes, we looked it up), and a coupla times a day, about 3cc guava juice. It has improved his appetite to the point he is voluntarily drinking today and also, punched under my face for a nipple this evening which he normally does not do when he's feeling crappy. Normally, we have to open his mouth and carefully squirt milk in, like meds--we got tired of tubing him and had one near-aspiration scare. Working dilgently to get a good 10oz in him for the last coupla days, after some frusttrating days where he would barely do 8oz, has paid off. Now 10oz was not difficult today. We know we need to get him up to more like 14oz for a 4.5 lb lamb. I also need to re-weigh him. He seems to be growing taller, his teeth are fully out of his gums now, but is still rail-thin. Since he's still excreting water, and not eating as well as he really should, I am giving him 20cc sub-Q and 1/2cc B-vit at night, until his scours stops. Other good news: his temp popped up above 100 today for the first time in a week or more. 101.7F !! This means he's taking in calories and also does not spend them trying to stay warm. It has been as low as 93.7, one morning, even under a heat lamp in his outdoor incubator. That is what scared me into listening to you folks and taking him inside. His indoor incubator is working well, and for the last two sunny days in Northern California, we have been letting him go out into the stall while the girls play in the pasture, so he can walk about, lay in the warm sun and talk with them thru the cage. We can't let him out with them, since they accidentally trample him and could seriously injure him. His strength and reflexes are not there, and when they suddenly get up or decide to run, they assume everyone can take care of themselves. Also, the goats would butt him. _MWS _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
