[Jacob-list] rejected lamb . Copper deficiency

[gordon johnston]

Nick
Did you try to get the lamb back on its mother , using for example some of the tricks for getting a ewe to take an adopted lamb - spray her nose with furniture polish or perfume so she cannot smell well, cover the lamb with colostrum milked from the ewe, especially onto its head and rear end , tie the ewe and hold her in place with bales so she cannot butt the lamb but he can suckle until her milk has gone right through him and his back end smells of her?  It is worth trying all these things before committing yourself to bottle feeding a lamb.  It's fun at first but can become a real bind as he gets older and more pushy. Also, a lamb does better with a mother than as an orphan.
I wonder if there is something wrong with the lamb himself that she has rejected him - often animals are sensitive to such things before we would notice anything obvious.  Also, is the ewe's udder ok as she could reject a lamb if suckling causes her pain, from cracking or mastitis.
If there is no chance of getting him back onto her, you may be able to foster him onto another ewe, particularly if one has a stillbirth.  Skin the dead lamb and drape the skin over the older one you want her to take, also rub her colostrum all over his head (it stays sticky forever !) and rear end. The skin will slow him down enough that he will appear newborn and could be accepted.  Alternatively, you could try to twin him on to a ewe who has had a single.  Obviously you cannot use a dead lambs skin, but you could hobble the lamb a little at first so he lies down, and rub or drape the afterbirth all over his body, especially the head and rear end - if you do this while she is lambing she may be tricked into believing she just gave birth to two !
If you are stuck with bottle feeding, my feeling is that you need to do it for 8 weeks, but I know others only do it for only 4-6.  On the other hand do not go on for too long.  We had a triplet who was bottle fed, and the student we had here at the time took on the task.  Unfortunately she gave him far too much and continued to 16 weeks, at which point he dropped down dead !  I don't know if it was because there was something already wrong with him, for example a heart defect which his mother had picked up and was the cause of her rejection, or if it was purely overfeeding - he certainly was fat !
For when to put him out with the flock, I would say once the other lambs are playing, so he can join in with that.  You may find another ewe, even his mother, will let him sit beside her and her lambs, but just not feed.  If it turns suddenly cold, bring him in overnight.

Copper deficiency - the pale line through a fleece is caused by copper deficiency, but also the uptake of copper is prevented by too much molybdenum.  So sheep kept on pasture with high concentrations of molybdenum may have plenty of copper but be unable to metabolise it. If this is the case, then giving a copper supplement would be pointless and dangerous.  
The pale line may cause weakening of the fibre, but not necessarily, and if it does not then it adds a pleasing heathery effect to the yarn.  To check for soundness, take a lock of the fleece, hold it firmly by each end and snap it smartly near your ear. A weak fibre will make a dull sound and may break, a strong one will make a good firm sound.  But you knew that already !   Our Hebrideans, which are black, sometimes suffer from copper deficiency, which is a known problem in the south of Scotland, but some seem to be more susceptible to the pale stripe than others do, possibly it is an inherited tendency.  As well as causing greyness in the fleece, copper deficiency can also lead to lamb problems such as swayback, where the lamb dies.  We give our sheep a measured amount of copper (too much is lethal to sheep) in the form of a COSECURE bolus.  These come in lamb and adult sizes - we spend the next few months picking up the ones they have coughed up from all over the pastures, and of course you can't tell who coughed it up and you can't just give another one in case you have the wrong suspect !

Hope this helps
Juliet in Scotland UK
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