we had twin lambs born the other day and one of the lambs seems to be missing a front shoulder. or maybe it is out of joint? can stand on his own but walking is a bit of a problem. he really wants to live so we are bottle feeding him. can't tell if he is in pain. anything else i should do? thanks, lauren

-- lauren c. (ltlctl@yahoo.com), February 04, 2000

Answers

lauren, This has really got me, I'd think missing a shoulder and having a dislocated shoulder would be two very different things. What worries me is that this could be stiffness and potentially represents a deadly problem.

I suggest you need to introduce your lamb to the vet NOW. To save money, make an office appointment, and take the lamb in instead of having a farm call. The lamb can be put in an airline carrier, or wrapped and held by a passenger or just left on the seat. You'll probably find that the car ride puts it to sleep-something to remember if a sick and noisy lamb is driving you nuts.

There are any number of things that could be wrong with the lamb. But what first came to my mind was tetanus. There are also a lot of things, including tetanus, grouped under navel ill, which the vet would need to sort out for you. The lamb could also have any number of infections and diseases. It could be starving on the bottle. It could have a missing or deformed shoulder bone. It could simply have a dislocated shoulder.

But the list of possibilities is longer than I can try to explain in this forum. Please get the lamb to the vet. Call and make an appointment. Some vets won't know anything about sheep, but are willing to do their best for a suffering animal. If you can't find a vet willing to help, contact other sheep people. But get help. If this is tetanus, the outlook isn't good. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), February 04, 2000.

Have you felt around to see if he has a shoulder blade? Compare sides, moving the affected leg if you need to. If it is out of joint it will be there, but not where it should be, but I don't think I"ve ever heard of a shoulder blade being dislocated, the only joint that connects it to anything is to the rest of the leg, it is only held to the chest by muscles and ligaments. If it is truly missing, what is connecting the leg to the body? It is hard to guess without seeing the lamb and looking at it. I know this is going to sound very harsh, so please forgive me, but if the shoulder blade is actually missing, I would put the animal to sleep. The only two practical options for any male lamb are meat and breeding, and he is certainly not fit for breeding since this could be a genetic defect. I guess you could raise him on a bottle, but I for one would have a hard time nursing an animal along like that and then eating it, and it will not grow and develop the way a normal lamb would anyway. This is only for if the shoulder blade is actually missing. If he has tetanus, all his legs and joints should be affected, and it will be hard for him to swallow. If he can move all his other legs, it's probably not tetanus. If you know of anyone nearby that has sheep, see if they will come by and look at him for you. Your local feed store can tell you of other sheep raisers.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), February 04, 2000.

Are you sure it's not a lack of minerals (selenium)? Give it some Sheep Nutri-Drench (liquid) which contains glucose, high vitamins, trace minerals, amino acids. Follow the directions on the label. We always keep this on hand for weak lambs, off feed etc. Our feed store has it as do alot of the mail order catalogs. It really perks them up right away. Good luck and don't wait too long to see the vet!

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), February 04, 2000.

Lauren, I have seen this in a goat kid before. He was so large, 12 pounds, and I was delivering him out of a 3 year old LaMancha. With his nose through the vulva and his front feet out, their was still not enough room to deliver him with his legs and shoulders, so I deslocated a shoulder and slipped him out. He was perfectly fine, ate good (we bottle feed everything for health) and then I noticed that when he tried to walk he was lop-sided! Though I do alot of vet work for my customers and friends, it was my customers football player son who knew exactly how to pop the shoulder blade back in. And it was a pop, after he jerked the shoulder down and up again. A genetic predisposition for a missing joint would be a million to one. Good luck to you, Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), February 06, 2000.