Florence's Story: Stomach Tubing for Weak or Underweight Lambs

This lambing season, we ran into a case where one lamb, now named Florence, was a third of the weight and size of her twin. Weighing only about 4 pounds at birth, she lacked the strength to stand or feed on her own. As a shepherd it's important to know the proper procedure and care required in these scenarios.

Going into lambing there are a few absolutes: feeding tube, bottles, trays to freeze colostrum, iodine, clean towels, heat lamps, a scale, glass gallon jars and milk replacer should we need it and syringes.

Our best practice is always to let mama and babies lead. If they seem to be figuring it out on their own and doing fine we don't interfere beyond making good observations, making sure they can nurse and get their necessary colostrum, we weigh the lambs at birth and get iodine on the navels.

Syringes are used to collect and administer colostrum when needed – many lambs don't require our assistance. Florence did, and because we had extra, her sister got a little nip too. The syringe is a tool used only to administer colostrum. Because Florence was not able to stand or nurse on her own we continued to strip out colostrum and feed that via stomach tube every couple of hours for next 12-18 hours. After that we switched to milk replacer still using the stomach tube as she was still too weak to lift her head, stand or nurse. Because she couldn't lift her head, a bottle wasn't an option.

Stomach tubes are the safest, most effective way to get warmth, calories, and fluids into a weak lamb. Bottles in a hard case such as Florence’s can cause aspiration and run the risk of pneumonia. The small, flexible stomach tubes made for lambs are gentle and easy to use. They can sound scary, but the cartilages at the entrance to the windpipe are very reactive – in the extremely rare case that the tube starts down the windpipe the lamb would cough violently and you would know. No reaction means you've slipped safely into the esophagus. A stomach tube is easier on the lamb than it sounds, and it can be the difference between life and death. Florence would not have survived without it.

Low birthweight lambs need at minimum of twice their birthweight in ounces of milk replacer daily. A 4lb lamb like Florence needed at least 8oz a day as a starting point.

Every two hours for her first four days, we administered one to one-and-a-half ounces – two ounces maximum every two hours. No lamb's stomach can handle it all at once, and you always want to avoid the diarrhea that over-consumption of milk replacer causes. Slowly her strength grew, weight came on, and she found her legs. Now at two weeks old she has doubled her birthweight to 8lbs, feedings are more spread out, and she's receiving at least 16oz a day – a number that will only keep climbing. At about 6 days after she got strong enough we tried the bottle and she did great with it.

We are holding out hope that with encouragement she will eventually start nursing on her mom.

Florence wasn't born premature, but her slight birthweight and weakness meant we needed to stack every odd in her favor. There are guidelines to follow, but there's no single recipe – a lot of this comes down to years of experience and watching closely for the signs that tell you how they’re really doing.

We are so grateful Florence never had to come inside and has stayed with her mother and sister throughout the process. Her mama is a saint – pressing her muzzle to Ken's cheek while he feeds Florence, while little Florette nibbles on his back. Florence is vibrant, bright, playful, and getting stronger every single day.

NOTE: The information provided in this write-up is provided by Ken Leaman, veterinarian and shepherd with over 45 years of experience in his field. This insight is meant to serve as a happy story, and friendly advice to fellow breeders & shepherds, but should not take the place of official guidance from your personal vet or technician.