Ewe with quads needs help

Richk2012

Howya lads ,
Iv a pure bred texel ewe scanned carrying 4 lambs . Lambing started at the beginning of the week so Im not quite sure when she is due but i would imagine within the next 10 days wit the colour of the raddle from the tupping still on her back .
She pushed out the lamb-bed about two weeks ago so i inserted a save-ewe into her which done the job up until Tuesday morning (3 days ago) . She then had to be stitched , but about a day before she pushed it out for the second time , Iv noticed her go off her nuts and get very stiff in her movement. Iv also checked her for mastitis.

This evening (Friday) she is in a shed on her own and cant really stand , so is sitting up the whole time . She wont look at hay or silage and only picking at a few nuts . Iv even cut down a few branches of ivy to try get her back eating but no joy.
Im giving her Liquid Lectade to try prevent twin lamb disease , and 6ml pen-strep for last couple of days incase the stifness is an infection.
What else can i dose her with that is protein rich to supplement her diet for next couple of days until she lambs ???? Or what can i give her that could stimulate her appitite
I really dont want to lose five sheep in the one go.. All suggestions very welcome .
Thanks Rich

Username John

Hi Richk,

We always give sheep like this a home made brew of milk + a beaten egg + treacle. We would give it maybe twice a day.
We used to use glucose, but I read somewhere recently that the energy in treacle is better or easier absorbed than treacle? I always warm it slightly, just to take the cold out of it more so... use a beer bottle to dose.

Re what else to give her - if she wont eat ivy, not sure what else she'll eat. You could try a few handfulls of nice grass, but I imagine she wont be interested. I fed some oats this year, and I found that sickly sheep were more likely to pick at oats than nuts...
Is she drinking water?

I had a sheep like this year like this. She was only carrying two lambs, but she stopped eating a few days before lambing, but as soon as she lambed, she started eating again, almost immediately. So I hope the same happens for you.

Hope all works out.

Richk2012

Username John wrote: »

Hi Richk,

We always give sheep like this a home made brew of milk + a beaten egg + treacle. We would give it maybe twice a day.
We used to use glucose, but I read somewhere recently that the energy in treacle is better or easier absorbed than treacle? I always warm it slightly, just to take the cold out of it more so... use a beer bottle to dose.

Re what else to give her - if she wont eat ivy, not sure what else she'll eat. You could try a few handfulls of nice grass, but I imagine she wont be interested. I fed some oats this year, and I found that sickly sheep were more likely to pick at oats than nuts...
Is she drinking water?

I had a sheep like this year like this. She was only carrying two lambs, but she stopped eating a few days before lambing, but as soon as she lambed, she started eating again, almost immediately. So I hope the same happens for you.

Hope all works out.

Hows things John ,
Yea she is drinking water thank god . This is great advice . much appreciated. Im off to buy some treacle now . Il let you how it works out .

Highland

Lamb creep works well. Put her in a pen of her own and keep her on the lectade to prevent twin lamb disease. If the lambs are pedigree it might be worth your while getting a C-section done once you are within a week of lambing.

razor8

120 ml of liquid lectade a day should keep her going without anything else. its just properly the shear weight of the lambs thats stopping her getting up. we had two triplet ewes do it this year

the combined weight of one ewes lambs was 17kg nearly the weight of a bag of meal. she was fine once she lambed and was put straight to grass. easy done this year with the weather so good

Richk2012

Thanks lads . She lambed yesterday evening. 3 alive lambs and 1 dead .
Its no wonder she was in such a bad way , huge fat lambs .
Got one fostered onto a single ewe that lambed a couple of hours ago . Might try get another one off onto the next single , as id say she'l be only fit to rear one with the state of her.

funkey_monkey

Glad you got three out of her. In regards to constant sitting for future reference, it might be a nerve. We had one the same and the vet told us that it was probably the lambs cramping on of her nerves. Once lambed, all was well again.