Twin lamb disease, also known as pregnancy toxaemia, is a nutritional disease like ketosis in cattle.
It is caused by insufficient or irregular feeding during late pregnancy.
Even where the feed seems abundant, if it is of poor quality then sometimes a late pregnancy or early lactation ewe simply can’t eat enough to meet her nutritional requirements.
Sometimes mechanical issues such as bad teeth, or sore hooves can impact on the ewe’s ability to eat enough to sustain herself and the lambs inside her.
Twin lamb disease causes the ewes to present as sometimes lethargic, dopey, disorientated, to separate from the flock and possibly have tremors or twitchiness.
Symptoms can be mild or strong depending how inadequate the diet is.
Where there is a serious problem, death can occur around lambing time either before or after giving birth.
Death is most common with twins or triplets because the nutritional demand on the ewe is highest depending on the number of lambs she is carrying.
Lambs produce 70 per cent of their growth in the last two months of pregnancy, so this is the period mothers lose condition prior to birth if the diet is inadequate. This weight loss sets the mothers up for difficult births.
Often grain or pellets are used to supplement the diet of late lactation ewes giving birth to twins or triplets and this is wise practice. It is also sensible to continue feeding grain for about one month into the lambing period to help maintain good lactation.
Vitamins and minerals can also assist with reducing problems from twin lamb disease.
To give birth involves multiple prolonged muscle contractions. Calcium is required to contract the muscle and magnesium to release it.
If either of these minerals are lacking in the diet, then it can affect muscle tone and increase the length of time required to deliver the lambs.
Longer deliveries obviously require more energy from an already depleted ewe and put her at greater risk of twin lamb disease.
Even worse, if the ewe runs out of either calcium or magnesium during delivery, she runs the risk of going down with milk fever and not being able to get back up again. She may not even complete delivery of the lambs.
Delivering the lambs is not the ewe’s only concern during birth.
At the same time, she needs to produce high-quality colostrum milk for the lambs to kick-start their immune systems.
Colostrum milk contains three to four times the concentration of vitamins and minerals as does ordinary milk. If these minerals are lacking in the ewe’s diet, they will also be lacking in the ewe’s colostrum, potentially impacting on the lambs’ health after birth.
Simple steps can be taken to improve ewe and lamb health and survival in the months before and after birth.
You need to focus on increasing the energy that the ewe extracts from the diet either by providing supplements or by improving the digestion of the food on offer. Probably both.
You also need to consider how you might reduce the energy burnt up with contractions during birth, by improving muscle tone and reducing the time duration of delivery.
Even if you have abundant hay, silage, or dry pasture available, consider feeding half a kilo of grain or pellets every second day to the ewes to help them maintain body condition during late lactation.
The right vitamins and minerals will also assist the ewe to deliver healthy lambs.
Australian Probiotic Solutions has a Vitamin Mineral loose lick that is weatherproof, easy to feed out and formulated to contain the right minerals and vitamins to assist ewes to deliver lambs with less stress and less energy required.
Australian Probiotic Solutions includes enzymes, probiotics and yeast to improve the digestion of the food you are providing so the ewe can extract more energy from the same diet.
Increasing energy supplied to the ewe, and decreasing energy exerted by the ewe, is the key to assist in preventing twin lamb disease.
For more information about Australian Probiotic Solutions, phone Mark Moylan on 0437 249 091 or go to: https://www.apsolutions.com.au
– From Australian Probiotic Solutions