I find that often the ones that put their tongue sideways have a cold and can't smell and therefore are reluctant to suck. Can you hear any congestion in her lungs or does she have a runny nose? Although difficult to do, I generally try to give these a shot of gallimyacin (sp?) and continue to feed with a tube until they start feeling better (I don't tube down into their bellies, but put a short tube on a syringe and put the milk on the back of their tongue and make them swallow it). Also, hold your fingers on the side of their mouth to try to keep their tongue in straight. Some lambs like the harder nipples, not sure of the name, but they are the black 'goat/sheep' nipples that go on coke bottles that I get at the feed store, the really soft white nipples are hard to get in their mouths when they are fighting you, because they collapse so easily. I usually put a pretty big hole in them so the milk will flow out without much effort on the baby's part, this does tend to make a mess, I agree, but I try to make sure the baby is swallowing every so often so that at least SOMETHING is getting down them. After a couple of days they usually come around and start sucking once they can smell.
Another thing I've done is give them a tiny bit of probios, this sometimes helps get them eating better. I always clean the milk mess off the baby with warm water after each feeding is all done to keep them from getting so sticky and messy. Onalee _______________________________________________ This message is from the blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
