The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #145990   Message #3380303
Posted By: The Sandman
23-Jul-12 - 08:03 AM
Thread Name: song of the shepherd, dick miles
Subject: RE: song of the shepherd, dick miles
the above has only one word in common, which is hardly plagiarism, or even..
graft and scent and pin a new skin.
here is a description
Orphan lambs can often be found lying in frozen fields left out in the cold overnight and half to death. Unless you intervene your lamb will die. Bring the lamb into your kitchen and if you have a wood stove place it next to this in a cardboard box lined with woolen blankets. If you don't have a wood stove or fire going, place two hot-water bottles in the box with the lamb. Cover the hot-water bottles with towels so as not to burn the lamb. If it revives and shows signs of life, feed it with 120ml of colostrum immediately.

You may have to feed it using a stomach tube, as most lambs in this state don't suck readily. You can get special lamb reviving stomach tubes from some farm or veterinary outlets. If you cannot find a stomach tube, use 600 mm or 3 mm bore plastic tubing. Round the end in a flame and punch a few holes near the end with a leather punch. Hold the lamb's head up so that the neck is straight and gently push the tube down its gullet. Make sure that the tube doesn't end up in the lungs.

Hold up the funnel and fill it with colostrum. If using a plastic tube, a syringe may be easier to feed the lamb with, since a funnel with a neck thin enough may be hard to come by for some.
Raising Lambs: Hand-Rearing Lambs or Fostering Lambs?
Now when you find your lamb you have a dilemma. Are you going to be raising lambs through hand-rearing or are you going to foster the lamb out? Lamb fostering is by far the easiest method for you if a suitable ewe is available to be the surrogate mum, and is willing. However, even when this looks like an easier option, often the ewe won't readily accept the lamb, and then it becomes a battle of will and wits.

If the ewe's own lamb has just died, one can try and fool the ewe by tying the dead lamb's fleece on the orphan lamb until she accepts it. However, this doesn't always work and you will have to look for other devious methods, and other methods that just doesn't give the ewe much of an option! If she has a lamb of her own, having another to feed will not affect the milk production for her own lamb.

One devious method is to try and confuse the smell of the lamb. The ewe is always able to identify her own lamb out of a flock by smelling the lamb's head and rear end. To cause the confusion rub a strong-smelling liquid on the lamb's tail and head such as an antiseptic or even olive oil, and at the same time, also rub it on the ewe's muzzle. Another method, is to rub the foetal fluids of the dead lamb all over the lamb to be fostered, paying particular attention to the head and tail areas, which the ewe will sniff.

Another method is to put the ewe and the lamb together in a fairly dark, restricted area with food and water. Confine them in this area until they have bonded. This should happen over the next 2 days. If not you will then have to restrict the ewe by tying her up in such a way that the lamb has access to the milk and the ewe cannot reject or head-butt or hurt the lamb.
Raising Lambs: Bottle-Feeding your Orphan Lamb