Orpahned Baby Ram - Need Advice!

One of our ewes died while giving birth
to her second twin kid. So, that hubby
brought him INDOORS to live. We finally
got him to eat, but the little love
gifts he drops behind him are a HUGE
problem. I need advice on either how
house break the little bugger, or to
erect an indoor play pin. Can you
give a kid a bath like a dog? And just
how soon is right to put him outside
to live? We named him "Nibbler" like
the little monster who eats everything
on the cartoon Futureama, cause he
eats at everything. Can I break him
of this, or is penning him all I can
do? Everyone tells me sheep are stupid,
but when I talk to him like a child
in a stern corrective "NO Nibbler!" he
seems to understand somewhat that he
is doing wrong. PLEASE HELP ME!!! I
knwo I have asked a LOT of questions,
but this is my First indoor sheep
experience. My hubby just keeps them
all out in the field usually and we
are new to this sheep Mommying busi-
ness.
~~~~~I will appreciate all advice, tips
and help.><> Hurtin 4 Certain: Jewel ><>

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Patty,
He is 2 weeks old and has loose stool.
He is only on formula, we set out pellets
however he only wants ninny. The hubby said
he will bring in some straw, will that help?
And if he will not eat it, what then?
I am making the hubby build me a baby pin
for him for me tomorrow. I will line the
floor well with waterproof material and news-
paper. I am making him use wood to build it
and make the walls aprox. 3 ft. tall so he
can not jump out. I take him for walks when
it's not raining, but there is no outdoor
natal area we can put him in without risking
his health. I have resigned to the fact that
house breaking him is out of the question.
And I suppose the time I will put him in the
yard should be when he goes off the bottle. For
now it is also best to have him inside be-
cause like an infant he must be fed at all
hours on a schedule. And running outside
to feed him every time would be too much on
me with all I have to do.
Thank you for your advice, next time I will
post such threads under farm. But if you will
bear with me, I will leave this one here be-
cause it is too much on me to have to move
all of this information hon.
~~~<><~~~^~~Your Friend: Jewel

Hi, Jewel! You might e-mail Dave and ask him to move the thread....a lot of times he'll see when a thread should be moved and do it on his own, but if he's busy, he might not see this one.

I think Patty's right - you'll find a lot of advice on the farm forum. Good luck with the "baby"....you're braver than me (two dogs and a cat are my limit!)

HI Jewel,
I haven't raised any orphan lambs but a friend of mine has. She kept several inside her home (in the kitchen) during this early period of their lives. She used to put diapers on them and pin them to a sweater that the lamb would wear, that way the lamb would stay warm and the diaper wouldn't fall off. You just have to make sure, though, that with loose bowels, the stuff doesn't cake around the rectum and cause irritation. Good luck with the little guy :)
Trish

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Hi Texas_Jewel. We raise sheep (started lambing in January) and had quite a few bottle babies. We live in Nebr so weather was pretty cold. We start the lambs out under heat lamps but by a week old, we turn off the the heat lamp. Your lamb may have scours. Several of our bottle lambs had scours this year (but our weather has been terrible this year). I gave them 1/4 cc of LA 200 on the back of their tongue (orally) and gave them about a tbsp of pepto bismal. The next day they were great. And this may sound a little cruel, but with our hectic schedule and all of our sheep, we don't have time to keep giving bottles every few hours so by two weeks, they are trained to receive milk twice a day.

What breed of sheep is this? Are you going to dock him (make him into wether)? The only reason I ask this, is as this lamb gets bigger, he will still think he is a bottle lamb and they can get quite rambunctious. Patty has good suggestions!

I too hope I'm not giving obvious suggestions.

Good luck (Nebraska Jewel)

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Just remembered - we used Bio-Mycin 200 which the vet said is the same as LA 200. We heard about using this treatment for scours in calves from a cattle producer and we asked the vet about trying it with sheep. We had a calf with scours and we gave him a dose or oral LA 200 and an injection and it cleared him right up.