OPP = Ovine Progressice Pneumonia. Here is a good site to read up on OPP:
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/livestocksystems/DI5750.html Mark What does "OPP" stand for? Thank you! Onalee Hello Michael, First thing I would do is sit the ewe on her butt and press the udder with my entire hand on the problem side. Look and see if the teat noticeably fills with milk. Assuming it does enlarge look for the wax plug at the teat opening. The plug may only look like a few hairs but pull it out much like you would a splinter. Once the wax plug is out try to get some milk to come out like you did previously. Sometimes the lambs are just too small and weak to get the plug out on their own. If the other teat is working the lambs will just give up on the plugged teat. Two lambs fighting over one teat is going to leave the smaller weaker lamb hungry. I hope the above worked for you... The second thing I would feel the entire bag which should be pliable. It might be helpful to feel a different ewe's udder that you know is OK first for a reference. If the problem ewe's bag is very firm to almost hard it is likely you are dealing with mastitis. Sometimes mastitis is very painful to the ewe. The ewe will stomp her leg on the affected side to prevent the lamb from suckling. Other times the mastitis leaves the udder numb and appears to not bother the ewe at all. Mastitis can affect just one or both sides of the udder at the same time. If you notice one side of a udder is always full... check it to see if it is hard with mastitis not providing any milk. If it is mastitis there are inter-mammary antibiotic treatments available to help stop infection. This may help save the ewe provided the other side of the udder is unaffected. A ewe can raise lambs on only one teat but obviously two teats are better. IF it is mastitis I would raise the lambs as bottle babies. OPP is a virus that sheep get that has no cure. One of the symptoms of OPP is mastitis or what is called "Hard Bag". If the lambs do not suckle the OPP positive mother they can be raised free of OPP on a bottle. Good Luck, Mark Wintermute trying to milk my American blackbelly ewe with 2-day olds, and having no luck. One lamb is very small, and we are thinking, needs supplemental feeding. I'm new to sheep, but got to practice on a goat with smallish udders yesterday and had plenty of luck milking her. My Ewes udders are no bigger or wide than a man's last digit on the little finger. Her bag felt swollen and very full of liquid. We could not get a drop, and tried for several minutes. We tried imitating the pushing movement the lambs to to get them to let down, etc. Any advice? _Michael _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
