New to hand rearing lambs

We were given 2 newborn (8hours) old lambs from our farmer neighbour and have managed to get both through scours, day and night feeds, lots of TLC and they are now 9 days old. They are having 350ml of Anlamb 4 times a day and were doing well. the little ram has now refused to drink his bottle and he was doing really well and loving his bottle. He will only take about 200ml at the most every 2nd feed and is not his normal "happy skippy" self. It has been 2 days and now sign of improvement. His sister is feeding well. He gets the sneezes after feeds but now also has a bit of a cough. Any suggestions as to what it might be?

350ml four times a day I think is a bit much I suggest that you make it 200mls per four feeds. They should be eating some grass by now.Over feeding is not good for them and 350 mls per feed is making him bloated cut the amount down and see if that helps.

Kalnetta, could he have a touch of pneumonia especially with the weather, we have had a couple that have been born in the wet,chilly and cold nights, and I have given them a wee dose of durapen and they have picked up well. The other thing that springs to mind is check that the teat hasn't had a hole chewed on the side of it, as the milk will come out really fast for the lamb, and they feel like they are drowing and will often refuse their bottle if this happens. Cheers & Good luck.

You might be onto something with the pneumonia, 4trees. We had one to the vet this year for that and the symptoms newfarm has described sound the same. He's doing okay now though.

Well done newfarm, it's a steep learning curve the first time! Hope he comes right.

As stated, get some antibiotic injection into him asap, as in now or sooner. You may have to take him to the vet to do that. Ours are permitted to miss one feed, but if they miss two then something is wrong
Always weigh both powder and water, and on the same scales. It is very important that the proportions are correct and they are the same each time.
Our 3 week old lamb, a small twin Suffolk, can only manage 250g water, 50g powder so 300g at one time, 4 times daily.

Hi
I had to take my lamb to the vet he had antibiotic/antinflamitory injections over a 2 week period, he survived. He wasn't his perky self on anlamb milk powder and had sniffles after each bottle so i put him on goats milk and a vitamin liquid suppliment from the local feed shop and he survived and is growing although small for his age and not eating grass yet. Hope this helps!

Sande

Thank you for that Sande I will suggest it to my neighbour. Cheers.