lambStart – Lambing

The process of lambing may occur indoors or outdoors. Both situations have advantages and disadvantages. Indoors, ewes and newborn lambs are protected against weather conditions, but outdoor lambing decreases the risk of infections.

A newborn lamb has energy reserves for approximately five hours¹. If the lamb is not (sufficiently) suckled or fed within this period, its fat reserves are depleted and the lamb suffers from hypothermia.  This implies that the body temperature declines below 37°C, which can be easily determined by rectal temperature measurement. An energy shortage caused by insufficient feed intake after birth, but also heat loss due to unfavourable weather conditions,  may lead to hypothermia and weakening of lambs.

When hypothermia occurs, the lamb is not able to keep its body temperature constant. The best treatment, next to drying and warming the lamb, is administration of nutrition. The glucose levels need to be brought up to the required level. Topro Kick Start offers a good support for this: this glucogenic energy source increases the glucose level in the blood.

To provide the lamb with a good start, the stage of hypothermia of course needs to be prevented. Kick Start is designed to be administered  as shortly after birth as possible, to ensure that the lamb has a sufficient amount of energy at its disposal to regulate its heat production, without needing to mobilize its full fat reserves for this.