Jump Starting a Lamb

Lambing is in full swing and I thought I'd share a trick we use now on all lambs. I milk out a bit of colostrum into a syringe case. Ken then uses his little finger to entice the lamb to nurse and squirts the milk into the side of the lambs' mouth. This does several things. It allows us to give the lamb a jump start so they do not use up all their brown fat trying to get up and nurse. We get a quick evaluation of the strength of the suck reflex and whether the lamb has sharp teeth and we know that the lamb got a good dose of colostrum. It's quick, simple and makes a big difference in the overall health of the new lambs.