Wobbly lamb..

mcgiggles

Hi all,
Sorry in advance for the long post.. Only barely a year in the game.. Have a lamb that was born last March, she seemed fine when she was born, but when we put her out to the field with the rest we noticed she looked slightly retarded. Excuse my terminology but that's the only way i can think to describe it. When she runs her head goes more to one side and she looks quite wobbly. We didn't know whether to put her out of her misery when we noticed this. But she was taking milk fine from her mum and eating away at the grass and meal. She's actually a sturdy wee lamb just a bit sideways.. She is one of the 2 last lambs born and the other one is fine, just small, both of them are as small as each other so she grew as much as the other. We know her and her mother were in with one of our rougher ewes for a day or so after being born. The rough ewe would seek her out and dunt her, when we noticed this we took them out and mixed them with the rest of our ewes/ lambs so we put it down to her getting a bad hit from the bitch she was in with.. So the last mart of the year was on today and we brought what lambs we had left bar wobbly and the other small one. We may keep the small one for our own freezer. We just don't know what to do with the wobbly one. I know it's probably bad to have kept her this long the way she is but soft and all as it sounds we felt bad for her, we wanted to give her the best chance.. if she wasn't eating/ thriving we would have put her down but when she was keeping up with the rest.. I don't know what I'm asking really.. has anyone come across this before, would it be down to a bad hit or could it be a disease I heard mentioned here before but can't remember the name of?
Thanks in advance!

IH784man

You should have put it in with the other lambs your selling,or thrown it and the other small one on its own.I don't know what's wrong with it to be honest I've never seen it before.Some of the more experienced posters might know

kk.man

Sounds like swayback...its no harm to either lamb or human.

Green farmer

She'll be grand. Not suitable for breeding but if it was me I'd just fatten her along with the other one. Come next March she'll bring good money at the factory or butcher. You'll always have a few characters each year. Last year I had a lamb with a wonky leg. Year before had a hunchback lamb. All went same way in end.

IH784man

Thought it would be long dead if it had swayback,is it not usually the rear legs

Username John

Not sure what's up with your lamb, but we had a lamb a few years ago that I would have said was simple...
He was as slow as be damned, he had absolutely no reflexes, you could walk up to him in the field and he wouldn't walk away... it wasn't that he wasn't able to, he just didn't seem to realise anything, he had no reaction to anything...

Grew into a fine lamb and went to the factory with the rest.

I had the vet out one time and asked him, and he said lambs can be born with the most ailments as people can...

ganmo

And a plenty of their own.

Inchilad

mcgiggles wrote:

Hi all, Sorry in advance for the long post.. Only barely a year in the game.. Have a lamb that was born last March, she seemed fine when she was born, but when we put her out to the field with the rest we noticed she looked slightly retarded. Excuse my terminology but that's the only way i can think to describe it. When she runs her head goes more to one side and she looks quite wobbly. We didn't know whether to put her out of her misery when we noticed this. But she was taking milk fine from her mum and eating away at the grass and meal. She's actually a sturdy wee lamb just a bit sideways.. She is one of the 2 last lambs born and the other one is fine, just small, both of them are as small as each other so she grew as much as the other. We know her and her mother were in with one of our rougher ewes for a day or so after being born. The rough ewe would seek her out and dunt her, when we noticed this we took them out and mixed them with the rest of our ewes/ lambs so we put it down to her getting a bad hit from the bitch she was in with.. So the last mart of the year was on today and we brought what lambs we had left bar wobbly and the other small one. We may keep the small one for our own freezer. We just don't know what to do with the wobbly one. I know it's probably bad to have kept her this long the way she is but soft and all as it sounds we felt bad for her, we wanted to give her the best chance.. if she wasn't eating/ thriving we would have put her down but when she was keeping up with the rest.. I don't know what I'm asking really.. has anyone come across this before, would it be down to a bad hit or could it be a disease I heard mentioned here before but can't remember the name of? Thanks in advance!

Had/have one the same here .same story walking around in circles with head cocked.vet gave him shot of antibiotics and he was OK ish.was some sort of ear infection I think.kept him as company for the ram but he will be heading off in the spring hopefully.

Green farmer

Amazing how it works really. You bring out your best lambs in August and get €90 - €100 for them. Then dispute your best efforts the runts and ones your embarrassed to show in public, hang around until the following April, suddenly turn inside out and bring you €130.

Inchilad

Green farmer wrote:

Amazing how it works really. You bring out your best lambs in August and get €90 - €100 for them. Then dispute your best efforts the runts and ones your embarrassed to show in public, hang around until the following April, suddenly turn inside out and bring you €130.

True that.

arctictree

Username John wrote: »

Not sure what's up with your lamb, but we had a lamb a few years ago that I would have said was simple...
He was as slow as be damned, he had absolutely no reflexes, you could walk up to him in the field and he wouldn't walk away... it wasn't that he wasn't able to, he just didn't seem to realise anything, he had no reaction to anything...

Grew into a fine lamb and went to the factory with the rest.

I had the vet out one time and asked him, and he said lambs can be born with the most ailments as people can...

We have one like that at the moment. Big strong single pet lamb. His mother abandoned him at birth and wouldn't take him. Now he stands in the field on his own with the rest of the flock 2 fields away. He's really slow and has no fear of humans, dogs etc. Only 30kg when I weighed him a few weeks ago but was the biggest lamb when born.

mcgiggles

Thanks for that everyone, put my mind at ease, she does seem simple, but shes got her wits about her aswell, shes a bit slower than the others but wary as anything, we will hold on to her till next year and see how she fattens up. Was so worried I was going to come back to a barrage of "you should have put her down"..