Our MUCH anticipated baby arrived on Friday. We named her "Finally" because of the wait we endured! (We rarely have babies here, and to get an animal who was already expecting was a real treat for us.) Mama ewe has a beautiful udder, not engorged but nice and big and pink. She is an attentive, loving mama. Saturday, Finally seemed to be failing a bit. I dosed her with nutri-drench and bottle fed her some electrolyte solution, which she took readily. Called the vet and he said maybe she just wasn't getting enough milk. Hard to imagine, looking at that udder. Also, she wasn't acting like a frantic, hungry baby. But, she HAD become rather apathetic about nursing, and sure enough, when I squeezed a teat a few times, no milk came out of mama. So, I got the baby on milk replacer, and I think she'll be fine now. Question: how can a ewe that looks so "milky" not be producing milk? Also, although I am now bottle-feeding Finally, she still tugs at mama, and I wonder if this will keep the ewe from drying up. I am leaving the baby there for her & mama's emotional well-being, but I don't want mama to develop udder problems. (Haha, get it, "other problems" :) ) Anyway, serious troubles have been averted so far, but I'd still like to hear from sheep folk who might have ideas on this matter. (I'm sure you're dying to know more about our lammie...she is white with black speckles on her legs, face, and head, and a black muzzle. Surely, she is the cutest lamb born in all of Michigan this year!!)

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), May 07, 2001

Answers

ARe the teats open? There is a natural plug in the teat to protect the mild prior to birth and sometimes you have to remove it. I just squeeze the teat going towards the end, something like milking it, and concentrate the pressure on the end of the teat. You can usually see the plug, it is black. Maybe you already tried this too. The lamb sounds soooo cute. We had a ram lamb this year that looks like that. So cute, we call him Holstein. His mother's name is Cookie because she looked like an Oreo when she was a lamb. Unfortunately, we will be selling all our ram lambs this fall.

-- JoAnn in SD (jonehls@excite.com), May 07, 2001.

It sounds to me that the teats are plugged. You need to strip them until the colostrum flows. If mama won't stand for you give her a small amount of grain while you are stripping the teats. To do this grasp near the udder and run your hands down the teat. Use the regular milking technique (if you have milked before).IT is good the baby is still trying to nurse, hopefully you won't have to bottle feed too long. Good Luck. KIm

-- kim (fleece@eritter.net), May 07, 2001.

After the teats are open I would milk out a great deal of milk to relieve pressure on the udder; perhaps the baby is having trouble sucking from such a full udder?............ you could give the colostrom via bottle so as not to waste it. Unless there's some mastitis going on, the lamb should be able to take it from there I would hope.

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), May 07, 2001.

Good answers already. With any trouble milking the udder, a firm hard udder like this is a sign also of OPP, same nearly as the CAE firm udder in goats. The big pink udder you are seeing is actually a first sign of trouble. A milked out udder would be soft as a glove and saggy, you would also have a baby with a nice round tummy. Take some of the percautions we have been talking about earlier when using the milk replacer, unless you have had really good success with the brand before. Good luck with Finally! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), May 07, 2001.

One of my good ewes had a hard bag this year and of course had triplets! No milk and I tried everything. Finally, bottle fed babies, now the babies nursed and nursed and nursed like the others but ran for the bottle. We periodically check the udders and they were always large looking, with no milk whats so ever. Mastities usually will be some milk, hard bag no milk. We left her with the babies for a couple of weeks for protection then I culled the ewe. I was afraid if she had OPP it could infect my others (still don't know if it can). Good Luck, Sheep are work!!!

-- Debbie (bwolcott@cwis.net), May 08, 2001.