bottle baby lamb coughing

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Kenz

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Hey everybody, this isn't a cattle question but maybe you could help me out. :D I've got a bottle baby lamb about three weeks old that I'm feedin liquid milk replacer from a bottle. He's doing great, happy and healthy, but he gets really bad coughing spells. Everyonce in a while, he'll get hit by a series of hard coughs, usuallyabout 20 min. after I feed him. It doesn't seem to hurt him and he seems finee, just gets really bad coughing spells. Any ideas?
 
Sometimes it is caused by drinking too fast and a build up of "flem" in the throat. It is common with a lot of bottle babies..
Maybe Keren or Msscamp or Angie can add more insight into this as they have experience with them and I do not only calves..

If the temp is good and it's alert I wouldn't worry about is..Maybe the nipple opening is to large so it is drinking faster consuming more at once than it should be.
 
hmm, its odd that he gets it 20 min after finishing the bottle, but yes I would be inclined to say its because he's guzzling the bottle. My first step would be to change teats to one that makes him work harder to get his milk, so it takes him longer to finish his bottle, see if that makes a difference.
 
Thanks for the responses, that was along the lines of what I was thinking. I'm using a prittchard teat, which has a pretty small opening. But I've got an extra, so I'll try cutting the opening smaller and see if that helps. Will the flem just go away on its own?
 
Kenz, I usually start them on the pritchard flutter valve teat then put them onto an excal topper teat - they have to work harder on the topper because it is a more solid rubber, so they get it slower. The topper will also last longer - lambs tend to shred the pritchard teats as they get stronger!
 
I usually start them on the pritchard flutter valve teat then put them onto an excal topper teat
I've got something similar to that, thick black rubber, so I'll try that and see how it works out.

Thanks for the help everyone!
 
make sure that you hold the bottle so he has to bend his neck down and his head up the way he would on his mom and start feeding him cold milk (not heated) and he'll be less likely to over eat
 

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