Sheep

[country girl]

Can someone tell me why my pet lamb has died. She was only 8 weeks old, still getting bottle fed 3 times a day and looked very happy and healthy. She was fine with her afternoon feed, but was dead come evening feed. She just looked as if she was lying sleeping. Can anyone tell me what I have done wrong.

[lankeela]

So sorry to hear this, I doubt very much if it is anything you have done wrong. Young animals of any type are very susceptible to illness or infections, particuarly hand reared ones that don't have the antibodies passed to them in their mother's milk. I am sure you did all you could for her, and only a vet could tell you the exact cause. Console yourself that you did all you could to make sure she was happy and healthy for her all too short life.

[andy-hughes]

Agree with all opf the above - again condolences.

Animals often inherit defects from their parents which do not manifest themselves as visible symptoms, and the first you - or indeed your pet - know about is when death occurs.

It is highly likely that she passed away in her sleep and felt no pain, and knew only love and care in her short life.

No-one could do any more.

[Clanad]

Although we're on a cattle ranch here in the western U.S., neighbors raise sheep. As a boy I also had experience with lambs for a 4-H project. Through these I became familiar with the axiom that there is no such thing as a sick sheep... meaning they are either well or dead. Having said that, I did have "bum" lambs (lambs discarded by their mothers) that died as you described. They were found to have experienced "Overeaters Disease"... a common phrase describing this:
Type C Enterotoxemia: This is a disease of young suckling lambs or bottle fed lambs. The causative agent is a bacterium, Clostridium perfringes Type C. C. perfringes is an anaerobic bacteria that resides in soil and manure and forms spores that are highly resistant to disinfectant and environmental breakdown. Essentially C. perfringes is present in all types of soil throughout the world. C. perfringes Type C causes death in young suckling lambs. The bacteria enters the body through the mouth either from contamination on the udder of the ewe or from suckling on dirty wool or manure tags in effort to find the teat. The bacteria grow rapidly and produce a toxin, which causes rapid death. The lambs are rarely observed ill but rather are simply found dead in the morning. If observed before death treatment is unsuccessful.

Again, echoing the previous, there's little or nothing you could have done about it...