Lambs dying

[roly]

I wonder has anyone got a remedy to get stupid lambs to suck their mother? In the UK we had the problem probably the odd time. But never to the extent that we are having with these Ewes we bought in. You can get the lamb to open its mouth, put the teat in and it just stands there. We stomach tube them and keep doing it, hoping that the lamb when it gets strong enough will start itself. Its got me beat, any suggestions please.

[Smithy]

Are they chilled? If the inside of their mouths are cold and they won't suck I warm them up for half an hour or so and then try again. If they have a suck reflex but are too dumb to get on the ewe I milk out about 3 oz of her colostrum and bottle feed it. That much usually gets them going and they are still hungry enough to get them on mom. If they have no suck reflex I give them about 50 ccs of 25% dextrose IP and give that a little while to bring their blood sugar levels back up and that usually smartens them right up. If that doesn't work then I tube them as a last resort. I find that if they are too chilled or blood sugar levels are too low to have a suck reflex they usually don't do to well tubing either. You have my sympathy...nothing more frustrating than trying to get a dumb lamb on the bag when they aren't even trying...especially if you are in the middle of a bunch of lambs and short of sleep.

[jensend]

could be white muscle - ewes low on selenium and the lamb born the same.