Ram Lamb down - Help!?

[Jordi44]

I found my 3-1/2 month old ram lamb down this morning. He appears to not be able to use his back legs/end. He can get up on his front legs, but the back are just stuck straight out to the side. I don't know if he injured himself (he's in with similar age/size ewe lambs and has been for the last month or so). He doesn't appear sick - no runny nose, etc. - and has seemed normal (yesterday morning I fed early in the dark, so might have missed a problem with him then and didn't pay much attention to the lambs the rest of the day). I gave him a shot of Se/Vit E and another of LA 200 this morning. Put water and food by him, but he didn't seem interested. Any ideas? Always something around here. Thanks for any & all help, suggestions, or comments.

[kajarrel]

Any grinding of teeth, distended abdomen? Ram lambs with urinary caculi sometimes do this (lie with their back legs stiffly extended) but they are usually noticably uncomfortable. Too early for deer worm (at least for us) - although this is also a typical presentation. With listeriosis, I usually see problems with the ear set (one ear down) and they sometimes seem blind in addition to circling. Tick paralysis?

 

Kim

[Jordi44]

None of the above - just not getting up. I pinched above the hoofs (pastern area) to try to see if he had any feeling, but couldn't tell for sure - he was struggling to try to get away. This one has me stumped - I've had back injuries before - that's what this reminds me of - but unless he did something really stupid yesterday, that doesn't fit. Usually it's a case of a bigger one smashing a younger one or some kind of accident. He still doesn't seem interested in food - doesn't seem changed - better or worse - from this morning. I've never heard of deer worm - or at least not by that name. We get liver flukes, but that's usually in the fall and doesn't cause paralysis - just swelling under the jaw and listlessness. If he were sitting normally with his legs tucked under, you wouldn't even notice anything was wrong.

[kajarrel]

Deer worm = Meningeal Worm. It is a parasite found in white tailed deer and is passed to sheep by snails (see http://www.sheepandgoat.com/articles/deerworm.html).

 

Do you have ticks? Did you take his temperature?

 

Kim

[trailrider]

Something that I learned about a few years ago - is baylis ascaris. A roundworm of raccoons that can give the same results as meningeal worm. Have there been any coon droppings on the hay this spring? It only takes a bit of manure on the pasture to give the eggs(lonnnng surviving) to the animals that graze.

[kajarrel]

Did you figure out what was wrong? How did the lamb do?

 

Kim

[Jordi44]

He's still with us - but not for much longer. Acts like a neurological problem now - but that might be because of weakness, too - head bobbing, that sort of thing. Guess I write this up as one of those never know things. Doesn't seem to be contagious - everyone else is fine. My best guess is that he injured himself somehow - that fits the best of anything I've come up with - the sudden onset, no other real symptoms except can't use his back legs. He was eating for a few days, but if he's still alive tonight, I'm going to have my hubby shoot him - I hate seeing them just linger when there's no hope. Thanks for all the help and suggestions. It's nice to at least have somewhere to turn that people understand.