Reduce Lamb Mortality: Saving Newborn Lambs in the First 72 Hours

Most newborn lamb deaths happen in the first three days, and the usual causes are starvation combined with cold or heat, difficult births, mismothering, and later scours and pneumonia. To reduce them: make sure every lamb gets colostrum in its first hours, disinfect the navel, keep lambing pens clean, dry, warm in winter and shaded in summer, feed ewes well in late pregnancy, and watch twins and weak lambs closely. Then record every death with its age and cause.

Many breeders accept a few dead lambs each season as "normal". But a lamb that dies on day two takes five months of its mother's feed and care with it, and it is one of the most preventable losses on the farm. This article does not repeat the lambing-season checklist; it focuses on one question: why do lambs die on your farm, and what do you do in the hours that make the difference?

Why newborn lambs die: causes by age

Risk is not spread evenly across the days. The age of a lamb when it dies usually points to the cause, and so to the fix:

On many farms the "day 1 to 3" row is the largest, and it is also the cheapest to fix: it needs attention more than medicine. For one of the main later causes, see pneumonia in lambs and kids.

The first 72 hours: a routine for every lamb

Make these steps a fixed routine that every worker on the farm knows:

1. Colostrum first. Check that the lamb has sucked colostrum within its first hours; the gut's ability to absorb antibodies from colostrum drops quickly as the hours pass. Do not assume it has fed because it is standing next to its mother: feel the belly. A full belly is a good sign.
2. Check the udder. Is there milk on both sides? Are both teats open? A damaged or dry udder means a hungry lamb even when the ewe looks fine.
3. Disinfect the navel with the product your vet recommends, straight after birth. A wet navel is an open door for infection.
4. Warmth in winter, shade in summer. Winter nights in central and northern Saudi Arabia can be cold, and a wet lamb loses heat fast: give dry bedding and a windbreak. In summer, ewe and lamb need full shade and clean water close by. A newborn's normal body temperature is roughly 39 to 40 °C; a cold mouth or a limp body is a warning sign.
5. Protect the bond. Keep the ewe and her lambs in an individual pen for one to three days. Crowding, disturbance and first-time mothers are among the most common causes of mismothering.
6. Watch twins and weak lambs. A ewe may accept one twin and ignore the other, and the lighter one is most at risk. Mark or tag twins so they do not get mixed up, and check that each one is sucking.
7. Act fast with a weak lamb. A lamb that will not suck needs colostrum by bottle or stomach tube, and only a trained person should use a tube. A very cold, limp lamb may need more than warming, so call your vet or an experienced person straight away.

Keep frozen colostrum or a colostrum replacer for emergencies, and agree with your vet in advance how you will handle weak lambs.

Saving lambs starts before they are born

A large share of early deaths is decided in the last weeks of pregnancy:

• Late-pregnancy feeding. Most foetal growth happens in the last two months. An underfed ewe carrying twins is at risk of pregnancy toxaemia, gives birth to light lambs and produces less colostrum. Raise ration quality gradually with professional advice, and separate twin-bearing ewes if you have scanning results. More in feeding pregnant and lactating ewes.
• Vaccinating ewes before lambing. Some vaccines are given to the ewe in late pregnancy so that immunity reaches the lamb through colostrum. Type and timing are set by your local vet and the ministry schedule.
• Mineral deficiencies. Ask your vet whether deficiencies such as selenium are known in your area, as they are linked to weak lambs. Do not give supplements or injections at random.
• The lambing pen. Clean bedding changed between ewes, ventilation without direct draughts, and enough light for night checks. The full preparation list is in the lambing season checklist.
• Season timing. Lambing in mid-summer or on the coldest winter nights needs more preparation. If your records show higher losses in one month, consider moving the date the ram goes in.

When to call the vet straight away

Do not wait until several lambs have died. Call your vet if you see:

• Scours in more than one lamb, or a lamb with sunken eyes that will not stand.
• Coughing, fast breathing and fever in several lambs.
• Sudden death of healthy, fast-growing lambs.
• A hot, swollen navel, or swollen joints and lameness.
• A birth that is not progressing, or an exhausted or feverish ewe after lambing.
• More than one death with similar signs. Ask for a post-mortem so you treat the real cause rather than guessing.

Treatment, the choice of medicine and any meat or milk withdrawal period are decided by your vet alone.

Track lamb losses by cause and age

You will only know whether your problem is cold, scours or mismothering from your records. For every lamb that dies, write down: dam number, birth date, single or twin, date of death and age in days, and the likely cause. At the end of the season, work out the lamb mortality rate by age and cause and compare it with the previous season.

In Throf you record the birth on your phone in the pen, linking the lamb to its dam and sire, giving it a number and tag colour, and marking the birth as single, twins or triplets. When a lamb dies, its full health history stays on file, and the dead-animals and newborns reports pull the cases into one Excel file you can review with your vet. Because costs are recorded too, you also see what those losses really cost you; see the true cost of livestock mortality. For larger units, see our sheep farm management solution.