[Jacob-list] Sick lamb

[The Blacks]

We just lost a yearling ewe to tetnus.  When I found her I thought the same
thing that you did because she was on her side kind of down hill and she was
stiffening up and frothing at the mouth.  Our vet told me that we should
have given her a tetnus shot 1 month before and then a booster 3 wks later
before we did anything to her that would break the skin.
   We are use to a well managed flock I guess because we always band our
lambs tails before they are a week old - this ewe was over a year and still
had a very long tail - most of the yonger animals that we got did. While we
have the lambs for tail banding we also give them their tenus shots - its
just easier.  The vet said the reason that our yearling ewe came down with
tetnus and our lambs do not is because the lambs are still nursing and
getting the immunities from mom but you the shot we give really does no good
until about a month later and thats with a booster.
If I where you I would have my vet take another look at the situation -
maybe they weren't thinking about tenus?  One more thing that I learned from
this whole experience was that where there is or has been horse manure there
is tetnus and that is probably how we lost our girl.  I spent $100 trying to
save this ewe but the hardest part about losing her was that she had been
threw so much in her short life and it only took my ignorance to kill her.
I have learned my lesson the hard way and that will never happen again!
I hope everything turns out for the best - Good luck.
Tiar Black
Friday Harbor WA

----- Original Message -----
From: athome mom <athomemom36 at hotmail.com>
To: <jacob-list at jacobsheep.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2000 9:04 PM
Subject: [Jacob-list] Sick lamb


> We found one of our 2 month old lambs in the field almost dead friday.
> Evidently it had laid wrong and almost suffocated itself. It's legs were
> stiff and it was foaming at the mouth. We took it to the vet and he said
to
> watch it and check it's temperature. Yes I had to take it's temperature
and
> you know where. We are assuming that it had just rolled over too far and
> suffered the consequences. But I'm concerned about possible tetanus. Has
> anyone had a sheep to come down with tetanus. I've never seen one and I
> don't know the symptoms. I'm sure the vet would have caught something like
> that, but I'm just concerned. Also, we had to give it a dose of
antibiotics,
> I gave it the shot, never done it before, but I've seen the vet do it. I
> guess I did it right, the little thing is still kicking. I hate needles
> myself, but was able to do this with no problem. So, maybe I can start
> giving the maintenance shots and save the vet bill.
> I'd appreciated any advice in this subject.
>
> Another question for the listers. I have a 1 month old ram who had a
massive
> rack of horns forming, this is my first ram lamb. His head looks almost
> deformed because of the knot where the horns are coming from, can anyone
> suggest a site where I can see a ram lamb and compare the look to mine.
He's
> a four horned.
>
> Also, I have a 3 month old ewe lamb who had not developed any horns yet.
She
> is marked perfect and comes from four horned parents. She was a single
birth
> so I can't compare her to her twin. My other ewe lamb who is a bit older
> already has a great rack going. Is this a sign that maybe she is not full
> jacob. I think that maybe her mother was bred with something else besides
> jacob. Her mother is one of the ones that we rescued from the terrible man
> in west virginia.
>
> Thanks for the help,
>
> Tina Bowman
> Azalea Farms
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