Sunday, May 9, 2010

Stiff necked lamb-- help!

The little stiff necked girl is in front;  her brother, behind.  He's not as bad, and is likely just grazing.  She could/did lift her head level, often, but this posture was easiest:
Any ideas?  A finn twin (the other is smaller but seemed fine) cried, hunched, didn't lift her head, within the first 24 hours.  I started supplementing with milk replacer, reading "hypothermia due to malnutrition".  I figured she or Mom didn't "get" nursing well,  yet.  She got much stronger and started nursing.  She's 5 days old, but still runs around rather stiffly, with her head straight out, doesn't lift it often.  But can.

White muscle disease?  Any ideas?  I do believe she may do just fine, after a bad start, but if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear 'em.

We went to Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool festival in Lake Elmo, MN today.  Lovely event with all the usual wooly fun--
we were lucky and sold about 15 lbs of roving-- the best part of that is, do you know how much space 15 pounds of roving takes up in my basement?  Plus, we sent almost all fleeces off to Carol Wagner's Hidden Valley Woolen Mill for processing.  Nice to get the room back downstairs.

4 comments:

Nancy K. said...

WMD comes to my mind too, Gail. Do you have Bose on hand? I hope she recovers for you.

I missed SH again. One of these years I'll get back up there...

Becky Utecht said...

Kim had a lamb like that a couple years ago. Sometimes it's due to birth position and inflammation of the neck muscles. I would treat for WMD and if it doesn't help I would talk to a vet about giving her some dexamethisone to reduce inflammation.
Sorry I missed you as SH this weekend, it was so busy. I did see your roving though.

Gail V said...

Hi you two,
I did have BoSe and treated her and her twin this a.m. , and made them with mom and a small group of friends stay in the lambing barn yard today. I'll call the vet later. Becky, did you stop by the booth when I was out looking around?

Tammy said...

I would guess the selenium too, and hope that the BoSe works. Good luck!
Tammy