----start------ obtained final exam handout all answers are in the other handouts. more stuff about lambs don't warm up neonates until you give some dextrose when in doubt, give dextrose if lamb presented for primary hypoglycemia/hypothermia, complications include septicemia, enteritis if baby is really really cold (sometimes they are down in the 80s)` - necrotizing enteritis since so frigid that when you bring them around they can't handle it. failure of gluconeogenic pathways... some babies don't have well developed pathways, liver not making much glucose yet. esp pygmy goats. we often have to hospitalize and put them on IV dextrose drips for a few days, these baby goats. that's very common in these pygmy babies, presenting cold, hypoglycemic. will want to hospitalize b/c will recover with tx then relapse a few hours later. they just need some extra help in the early days. birth injury- occurs when ewes and does get nervous and trample baby, or if there are triplets in small pen ewe may lie down on baby. prevention of hypothermia, hypoglycemia: what can you do? provide shelter for lambing ewes (birthing season jan-feb) provide heat source make sure they nurse right away can use baby monitors in barn with goats to pick up the noise of the does giving birth. sheep are quiet so you won't hear so much, but can hear lambs making noise after they are born, so can go in and make sure they nurse. avoid drafts. lamb losses in US - mortality about 15-20% of annual lamb crop; most losses are in first week of life, 70% due to mismanagement, not to disease. if people are conscious of what's going on at lambing, you can save a lot of lambs. something about them catching themselves on fire by standing right underneath the heat lamps? the heat lamps have to be at least 4 feet off the ground - ewes sometimes catch their wool on fire! it takes them a minute or two to realize it too. also if you tell a client to use heat lamps, you should talk about how they hang them. ours are fixed to a board, which is hung by a chain from the ceiling. it can't fall and the cords are up out of the way. if people are not careful, the heat lamps are placed casually, can fall and catch the barn on fire. another issue - have people build their barn as close to their house as possible so they don't have to run across the whole damn farm to check on baby lambs in the middle of the night! with kids, it's not as much of an issue. we don't lose as many; plus, the kids aren't the economic driving force - money is made on milk, not kids. plus, the does aren't nursing their kids, the kids are generally hand raised, so there is more attention paid to kids. these pygmy goat babies rae small, like a good sized puppy.part of the problem with them is that they are so small. Ewe with newborn lamb- note the water bucket in there. lambs can drown in water buckets. or can fall in and get soaking wet and become hypothermic. tie the buckets up, high enough that ewe can drink but lambs can't get in. warming babies - can float in sink of warm water to warm up, but then you have to dry them. nubian baby - very easy to treat. keep warm, give dextrose. specklefaced lambs - cute, crossbred. things that predispose to hypoglycemia - congenital defects, not usually seen. this lamb had a bad scoliosis - these animals can't ambulate well. atresia ani is sometimes seen - lives longer than lamb with atresia coli. double scrotum case: 5 day old cheviot ram lamb - born in elbow lock dystocia - tube fed for first few hours - whole tongue/nose swollen at birth and prevented nursing. after swelling went down, he nursed. was less active day before owner called. that day lying down more, still nursing, owner started PCN. temp normal. TPR WNL, no abdominal distension, passing mucoid yellow feces, urinating, possibly stiff neck, difficulty posturing normally, stands stiffly, sawhorse rigid stance. jumps up when approached. prefers to lie down. acts like wants to nurse, then lies down. ddx tetanus (ewe vax 1 mo prior to birth), white muscle disease, trauma to c-spine, ... what do you do? -blood glucose (normal) -tx w/vitamin E & selenium - look at the product. equine concentration and bovine concentrations are different so be careful. -tetanus is generally a diagnosis of exclusion -give antitoxin if strongly suspect tetanus, tx w/high doses PCN SQ or IV @ 30-40,000 u/kg BID -muscle biopsy? very invasive -blood selenium - can take 24-72 hrs depending on if your lab does it. -CPK - if this is very high, probably has a muscle problem - white muscle dz. responds to vit E/selenium injection pretty fast if hasn't had problem a long time. then add supplements to diet. they saved him twice. he became a national champion or something. you can cause fatal vit E/selenium overdose, so be careful. supplies for lambing and kidding season: frozen colostrum (bovine is ok for lamb and kid but should be johne's free) (freeze in ice cube tray then put into baggies - 2-4 cubes per lamb bottles and nipples - lambs like long nipples - lamb nipples fit on the end of a beer bottle. towels heat lamps soap (betadine/nolvasan) 2% iodine or 7% iodine tube feeding kit: 2 oz dose syringe with catheter tip; red rubber catheters clipboard with paper and pen veterinarians phone number thread to tie off umbilicus 1 inch from abdomen.clip/strip/dip. if umbilicus is long, cut it off. leave 2-3 inches on there, but no more. dip it in iodine. strip teats of ewe, make sure colostrum is flowing - sometimes there are waxy plugs and lambs can't suck hard enough to get it going. looking at - handout has a lot of other diseases in it we won't go over. baby lamb diseases most commonly seen are hypothermia and hypoglycemia, sometimes sepsis but not often. we do see less and less today a starvation syndrome - older animals, 1-2 weeks up to 6-7 weeks. very emaciated, pot-bellied, rough haircoat, low PCV, partial/total anorexia, not nursing, teeth grinding, GI ulcers, secondary infections like pneumonias. not so common today. but we've seen lambs come in at 3 weeks weighing their birthweight (about 8 lbs). lambs aren't nursing and no one is feeding them. or they are feeding them leaves or lettus. very sick. people who have these starving lambs tend to be on the stupid side. normal lambs are very round and plump. one lamb at 7 weeks came in with a glucose of 10. he'd had nothing to eat but lettuce, grass, and leaves since weaning at 3 weeks. whoa. slide: baby goat on TPN - not too expensive since tiny baby. small animals more often have sepsis as complication of TPN; baby sheep and goats rarely get septic from it so it's used a lot more. diarrhea - often we don't see this in baby lambs but if you do, most common reason in lamb under 1 week is E.coli. occurs in dirty areas with poor hygiene. lambs can also get salmonella but this isn't as common; e.coli most common cause in lambs under 2 wks of age. vaccination programs: CD&T pregnant ewes one month before lambing (multivalent vax for clostridia C and D and tetanus) pregnant does one month prior to kidding then repeat in 6 mos because vaccine doesn't give goats the same level of immunity as sheep.. lambs/kids from naive dams: vax at 2,6,12 wks and give 200-500 units antitoxin at birth or at tail docking/disbudding. if moms were vaccinated, slightly different schedule. another word of caution. a ewe on a farm dropped dead - got very stiff, fell over, and died within 24 hrs. looked like tetanus. no injuries anywhere. couldn't find any problem. she had been vaccinated. why tetanus? well, lambs at 1 and 2 mos and ewes yearly one month prior to lambing. why did ewe die of tetanus? well - what vaccine are you using? CD&T 2 mL subcutaneously, kept in fridge. however - when you look at it, turns out it's antitoxin, not toxoid product. there is no CD&T antitoxin product. this person ordered this product from a catalog and thought she was supposed to be getting the CD&T toxiod vaccine but that's not what she got and she used it and her sheep weren't protected. ----end-----