[Jacob-list] Wobbly lamb

[Heather Hettick]

Jennifer Tucker wrote:  

He did not stand on all 4 feet for 2 weeks.  We were ready to put him down
when he stood up and began walking.. He had a wobble to his gait  see the
following videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWaXNV8s5Ks  and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2624D625Vdk

Jennifer,

I watched your videos and this is definitely like something I have seen in
some of my lambs.  We lost most of the lambs who were like that. We've had 3
who behaved like this and maybe another if I check my records.  The first
was only slightly wobbly at first but got worse over time and he had a funny
look.  He ended up getting left out in a cold rain over night and went
downhill after that.  We finally had him put down as he wasn't walking or
nursing on his own and I got tired of tubing him and cleaning him up without
seeing any improvement.  The second was a Jacob/Icelandic cross and she was
really uncoordinated at birth, but very determined to nurse and stay with
her mother and hung on for quite a while.  When she walked, her rear would
sway back and forth like she had very little control over it and she kept
her front end lower.  When she ran, she would often flop over.  She finally
started having trouble keeping up with her mother and twin and went downhill
largely because of not getting enough food.  I think she caught something
that finished her off.  She was spending a lot of time laying down and
wasn't staying clean and dry very well and I think that contributed to her
getting sick.

I had one last year that wasn't too bad to start with, but definitely had
the wobble and off look.  Because the main problem seemed to be them losing
strength and size in comparison to their healthy twin, I focused on keeping
this one well fed, healthy and clean right away.  I went with the premise
that it was some sort of deficiency like white muscle disease or something
and gave him almost daily doses of vitamins/minerals and whatever I had
handy and it seemed to help as he improved a lot, but maybe it was just
because his case was mild in the first place.  I bottle fed him or tubed him
if he seemed to need it, but not every day.  I had sent him and his mother
and sister along with a couple other ewes with twins to graze at another
farm with more and better quality grass when he was a bit over a month old
and at about 2 or 3 months old, I sold him cheap to a friend who knew he was
"defective" and he was fed out as a meat lamb with access to a lush pasture
and fed commercial sheep food, but he was already way better looking and
more coordinated by that time.  When I went to shear him before he went to
the butcher in October, I could not see any evidence of him looking off or
uncoordinated, although he was slightly smaller than his companion. 
 
The cases I had were all out of different ewes and sired by unrelated rams
so I didn't necessarily see a genetic pattern, although there were two lambs
last year sired by my ram at another farm who also acted this way.  I used
this ram again this year and so far he has 3 lambs on the ground who all
look great.  

I think it's possibly genetic, but I don't have the resources to check all
that out, so if it happens again, I would again give the lamb some special
nutrition treats and supplement with bottles if necessary to keep up their
strength, etc and hope they grow out of it.