Acidosis in lambs
Acidosis is a term that is used to describe grain overload. Sheep are ruminants which means they are designed to utilize roughage. The bacteria that live in the rumen are very capable of converting roughage into useable energy. Modern lamb production has producers feeding more concentrates such as corn which are highly ferment-able in the rumen. A lamb that is placed on a high concentrate ration to rapidly will become acidic. The rumen bacteria requires time to change approximately 3-4 weeks.
Ration changes need to be made gradually. Start the lambs on a diet that contains a mixture of roughage and concentrate. Every 1-2 weeks the ration can be stepped up to include more concentrates.
Lambs that are acidic are weak, depressed, refuse to eat or move normally. Lambs may scour if they live long enough before becoming comatose. Many will die in two to three days if not treated. Lambs that survive have a high chance of having founder (laminitis) due to the effects of histamine on the growth area of the hoof. Also liver abscesses are common in lambs that survive the acidosis.
Treatment;
1. Must be early and aggressive. First 12-24 hours after the overload.
2. Oral or intravenous sodium bicarbonate.
3. Penicillin orally to reduce acid producing bacteria in rumen.
4. Mineral oil orally. Usually one quart.
5. Activated charcoal orally.
6. Injectable antihistamine and Banamine (Flunixin) given subcutaneously.
Lambs will need to be restarted very slowly after treatment. Start them on roughage for 1-2 weeks and slowly add the concentrates. Lambs that have become acidic are often hard to finish. Keeping hay in the ration at ¼ to ½ pound helps or the adding of free choice bicarbonate may be an adequate preventative. If you notice the lambs backing off of feed this is the first warning. Lambs that are borderline acidic for long periods have a greater tendency for developing polio. Polio is a lack of Vitamin B1 being produced in their rumen.
Acidosis is very common in lambs on high concentrate rations; keep an eye on the management of ration changes.
Straight Talk
It is about time farmers stood up and became proactive before animal rights advocates and self appointed animal welfare experts put us all out of business. They are after the chicken and pig people now but our time will come as well. In the pig business they are after the individual maternity pens. They want group pens where animals determine by dominance as to how much one should eat, they can fight, chew on vulvas, tails and cripple each other in the process. I really don't need to have some university guy study this to find out what's happen-ing, I have lived it. I have practiced with management schemes including A huts, outside pigs, the whole evolution, until we are where we are today. At no time were the animals better cared for than they are today.
Most people today think their food comes from the grocery store and have little concern about farming and farmers. Huge corporations yield to pressure groups like HSUS. They agree to do something ten years down the road to get appeasement. They kick the can knowing they probably them-selves won't be around when it is to take effect. In the EU when the ban finally went in to effect they were killing something like 40,000 illegal pigs per hour because the farmers were unable to make changes. You have to won-der why the executives in a great company like Hormel would bow to pressure of HSUS, an organization that is federal court answering racketeering charges at the expense of their providers. These people for the most part don't want anyone to eat meat. Farmers must make a stand before it is too late.
I will take this opportunity to share my early lambing experience with you. Initially I had placed a Ram with the ewes that were to lamb in the fall so that he could breed any that were open for January lambs. We ended up with 26 in that group that have 49 Jan. born lambs. We pulled the Ram and at that point I decided to introduce our Ram that was to go to Louisville that ended up as Champion Ram at that show. He was put on pasture with approximately 150 ewes for 21 days. In a 23 day period 134 ewes lambed and have 260 lambs at side and an additional 8 on the milk machine two of which were born to a ewe that had a non functioning udder and two more that the ewe died at birth. So basically we had four lambs we had to pull from the group. The remaining January group with a different ram. Fifteen more of those lambed with 32 lambs. Needless to say instead of lambing in one barn we lambed in three. In the first nine days 81 ewes lambed to the Louisville ram. In all 33 sets of triplets and two sets of quads. A testimonial to what a fertile ram can do.
I continue to post almost daily on my blog site http://askavetsheep.wordpress.com/. I started the blog site early January and there was over 12,000 views by mid March. I post thoughts and discussion around current health problems in sheep and goats. Also using You Tube to demonstrate various procedures and will continue to add as they become available. You can find me on facebook as well, 2,500 friends, Pipestone Vet Sheep-Goats. That is not a chat box for me. I don't answer questions on facebook but do post current questions and answers that I feel are the most timely and interesting. Questions are answered by E-mailing me direct gkennedy@pipevet.com 24/7. If your question is not answered within 24 hours e-mail me back because somehow the message got lost.
We provide service and products nationwide and sales of product make this service possible. MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS AND NEED IT TO CONTINUE THE SERVICES PROVIDED. We are attempting to fill a void where producers are unable to get veterinary advice and service. I had a polio lamb in my own flock this week for no apparent reason. He was star gazing, down on its side and thrashing as if death was imminent. I treated the lamb with fortified Vitamin B Complex and came back in half an hour for a You Tube video, and the lamb was standing. I had to wonder how many die because people either don't know or are unable to obtain veterinary service. There is a void and we are trying to fill it.
We have developed a number of products where we felt the need for sheep and goats. Our milk replacer is the best in the business with skim milk being the major ingredient that allows us to provide a product lower in lactose than the cheaper whey products. Reduced lactose results in less abomasal bloat which is always fatal.
We have also made an attempt to take the mystique out of mineral feeding and reduce the incidence of urinary calculi that quite frankly I can't fix over the phone. Our products added to salt work well and are cost effective.
I have received more "thanks" in a week helping to solve sheep producers problems than I did in any other species in a year. It is gratifying and gives one a sense of self satisfaction to be able to help. Thanks again for your patronage.
" SOME PEOPLE SPEND AN ENTIRE LIFETIME WONDERING IF THEY MADE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD. THE MARINES DON'T HAVE THAT PROBLEM."
-Ronald Reagan, President of the United States
Orphan Lambs
I continue to get questions from people attempting to raise bottle lambs. Well, folks, it doesn’t usually work out that well and when that cute buddy of yours gets in trouble and ends up dying it isn’t a lot of fun.Other than an Amish farmer that was raising lambs on cows milk I have never seen anyone be consistently successful unless they were feeding milk free choice cold or had them on a machine that is free choice as well.
Lambs need to be started with a bottle then transferred to a nipple bucket or machine. They need to be fed that way for thirty days and then weaned. Processing should wait until they are successfully on the bucket or machine. At that time they should be given their CDT and penicillin and CD should be repeated in two weeks and again at wean. Creep feed and good quality hay as well as water should always be available. I prefer a milk replacer designed for lambs and kids that has skim milk listed as it’s first ingredient. That reduces chances of abomasal bloat. In warm weather one option to keep milk cold is to freeze bags of milk and use them as coolants until they melt. The machine mixes small amounts as needed so temperature isn’t a problem. Heat lamp placed over bucket can prevent freezing in winter time. Navel sucking can be discouraged by spraying bitter apple on them and sometimes segregation is needed.
Check out Colostrum and Milk Replacer blog posts for more information. These questions are often asked. Our lambs are not doing well, or which one do I take and when. This decision becomes much easier once you have lambs on the bucket or machine. Often we tube lambs when there are multiple births or the ewe is one sided. This procedure certainly results in less lambs artificially raised. Occasionally we error in an evaluation, but not often. We are looking at a 40 dollar milk replacer cost on those we pull. This method requires ewes to be in jug longer, larger jugs and obviously more room and labor.
My wife Deb, likes to take the hungriest, and that being equal, prefers to take females if there’s a choice. There is less of a sucking problem with females.
Other producers automatically pull one triplet and one lamb from one sided ewes, or poor milkers. They generally pull the largest and strongest lamb because they are easier to start.
Creep Feed
Let’s talk about creep feeding in general. Unless lambs are on pasture creep feeding is essential. Lambs learn to eat with the ewes and want the security of their mom around so location of creep is important. Ideally it should be in the center of their area and well lighted. Back in a dark corner doesn’t work.
Rations can be a mini sized pellet or texturized ration of corn and soy bean meal. 18 to 20% protein is ideal. Some shepherds will mix cracked corn and soybean meal 50/50 to get lambs started.
Deccox needs to be added to aid in the control of coccidiosis. Two and one half pounds of 6.6% Deccox per ton is indicated. The Deccox can only work if you get consumption. Deccox works early in the coccidiosis life cycle and without consumption doesn’t work at all. That explains why some of the best lambs on heavy milking ewes are the first to show signs of the disease in an outbreak.
Clean fresh water is always to be provided along with the best quality hay available. Offer grain ration in small amounts to start with and keep it clean and fresh. A dirty stale creep feed isn’t palatable and lambs will refuse to eat it.
Discard old feed, feed it to the ewes.
