My Ewe gave birth to twins, one strong and the other weak. The ewe had mastitis and we are hand rearing. We do not know if the lambs had colostrum and hee in Spain we could not get hold of any replacement. They are now three weeks old and both fed on bottles for the first week. The stronger one is fine and is strong and taking bottle goats milk and grazing. The weaker one is having to be fed by tube, had scours which we treated with electrolytes and Scour halt. Then it became bloated so tried disprin and oil which worked but now has had diarrea a little. Feeding only 120ml every 4 hours of goats milk although missed a feed due to diarrea and gave electrolytes again. He is now indoors and yet he is still shaking and standing with his head down. Suggestions have been a glucose injection but is this right?
Thank you for your question.Poor Jack, he has not had an easy time.I suspect if he has been having so many troubles and is so weak, he probably didn't get colostrum when he was born. It sounds you have done everything alright treating his scouring and bloating. With his constant loss of nutrients/electrolytes due the diarrhea and his missed feed it is highly likley that he is suffering from hypoglycemia. If he has his head down and is not responsive, then it is worth giving him an intraperitoneal (into the belly) injection of glucose.To prepare the glucose solution (for average 4.5kg lamb)- draw 20mls of 50% dextrose into the syringe- draw 30mls of freshly boiled water into the syringe (gently mix) This mixture should be an appropriate temperature for injecting (make sure it is not too warm).To give this injection (in case you haven't given an IP injection before)- hold lamb by forelegs with body hanging down against your legs.- injection site is 1” below and 1/2” to the side of the navel- clean the site before injecting.- insert needle pointing down (as if you are aiming through the lamb to his tail)- Give slow (10 - 15 sec) He should be kept somewhere warm, montiored and only stomach tubed once he is a aware enough (to avoid aspiration). If the diarrhea isn't settling with your current treatment, you may wish to consult your vet and see if they can offer additional antibiotic support.
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Thank you,
As Jack is taking feed by tube into his stomach, can I give him the liquid glucose via the tube instead? Is liquid glucose the same as dextrose? I have pure glucose syrup is that the same? If not where do I buy dextrose?
Liquid glucose via feeding tube is an acceptable alternative.It just sounds like he might be poorly responsive, so do take care that he doesn't aspirate while you are administering it. IP injections are usually the way to get glucose in when we have severe hypoglycemic or down lambs, but if he is rousable then you can try tubing him the glucose first.Dextrose is essentially the same thing, but it is the sterile injectable form of glucose. It is likely you can get this from your vet, but its hard to say whether they would require an exam before dispensing it. Without knowing what type of liquid glucose preparation you have, its hard for me to tell if it would be safe to give via injection (and a syrup formulation does make me a reluctant to have you try). Ideally, we need a sterile solution that is water soluble (where syrup likely won't be. If your feed store carries sterile glucose powder, this might be an alternative, as you can make it with boiled water (thus maintaining sterility) and use this for IP injections.So, I would advise if he is rousable and not collapsed to give it via stomach tube now. Give it warm and keep him warm as well. If he isn't improving, consider speaking to your vet regarding this little one.Dr. B.