Dog ate a lamb

[Rob30]

My Great Pyr female is about to welp in a week. Some of our ewes are also lambing right now. We just had a ewe lamb and the female ate it. We showed up just in tim to see the dog covered in blood, and the ewe passing the afterbirth and calling her lamb. In the dogs defense, she has never eaten a live lamb before, and we can't say it was alive. However from what we could see there is no reason to think it was dead either. We brought the dog in the barn now and have her tied up.
There is plenty to eat in the barn as well, piglets are usually escaping and chickens. She has not touched them.
I think the blood may have attracted her in the first place.
Anyone with experience with this? How did you deal with it?
I am giving her the benefit of the doubt because the pups are probably putting a big drain on her. But I am afraid she will do it again. We lamb 3 times a year, so taking her away at lambing is difficult. And it leaves only the male on guard.

[Janet McNally]

Hi Rob, how old is she?

[Stan Potratz]

I claim no particular knowledge about dogs.

However we had a similar occurrence with a 7 year old female about to whelp this spring which might be of some value. She had never touched a live sheep or goat and was perhaps our most trusted dog. But she was v. thin—and had been for years due to having barely survived parvo as a pup which left, our vet indicated, a compromised digestive system.

She would eat afterbirth - but never a lamb. Our barn flock was lambing. It took the 2nd lamb before we were prepared to believe that she was responsible. We began given her purchased lowest-grade hamburger concluding that she had a desperate need for more red meat type protein than the dog food (pup food quality not adult) was not enough
The probable cause became apparent when she whelped 9 healthy, large puppies (we were hoping for 3 given her body condition).

We continued given cheap hamburger plus dog food for 4 weeks after the pups arrived - fearing that the drain of lactation would be too much. At one point she went out a hauled in a fawn - and ate it all. (I arrived in time to watch her eat the last part - the head).

She is fine as are the pups- and so are the sheep, goats, lambs and kids - and never bothers our lambs. She still likes afterbirth.

[Janet McNally]

I was hoping to find out the age of the dog so I could shed further light. While I have not had a pregnant LGD eat a lamb I have one female, that when pastured with her pups, killed several lambs (always the runtiest) to feed her pups. In each situation the sheep had devoured the dog food set out for the puppies that night and she understandably felt a need to feed them! In each instance she actually did not partake in eating the lamb herself, just sat back and let the puppies eat. She also spent one morning scrounging through a road killed deer to proudly retrieve the liver for her 5 week old pups. I have heard of other instances where pregnant or lactating females killed lambs but in all instances the dog owner admitted a lack of management/feeding of the dog at the time. So I guess I would agree that the survival instinct in these dogs is there and they will provide for themselves if they feel their needs are not met.

Stan touches on something we have experienced with pregnant bitches which is the need for additional, higher quality food during the last few weeks of pregnancy. These dogs have exceptionally large litters, and if you look at what they are producing on a per pound of body weight basis are putting out an impressive level of production compared to our other farm animals. Normally dog breeders feed the bitch puppy chow, but I've noted a problem whereby our dogs cut back on dog kibble in late pregnancy ...just when they need to be eating more.

After loosing one bitch to what I think was probably a metabolic crisis brought on by her refusal to eat dog chow during the last two weeks of pregnancy, I filled the void with ground burger (ground mutton). Mark L. pointed out the need to add calcium to meat, so I now add a powdered calcium supplement to the burger. The burger is consumed very well and I think it pulled Mocha through her pregnancy this spring.

There are other aspects of LGD nutrition that I think are not met by dog kibble alone. For instance in the winter I have observed LGDs consuming wool off of fences, and some dogs might even take to plucking wool off of sheep. The addition of the occaisional deer hide, which is consumed, hair and all, seems to temper this. I have wondered if the snow pack and lack of access to vegetation leaves the dogs lacking for fiber in the diet?

one last comment about timing of pregnancy and lambing. I do pass on a heat cycle if the intended litter is going to be born at a bad time. Bad timing would be any time the temperature is below +20 degrees F, or during or right after lambing, and to some extent I pass on fall litters as well (pups do not move in the winter as well as they do in the summer). the ideal time to have LGD pups is about a month before lambing. The new pups will have some size appropriate lambs to begin early socialization with, and will be young enough to be safe to put with ewes and lambs that first summer, and the bitch will be ready to go back to work when the new lambs arrive.

Janet

[lovetree]

We like to supplement our prego LGDS with raw organ meats (liver,. kidney, heart etc)
The only time we have ever had a problem with a LGD pregnancy was when I didnt do so...I dont know if that was the cause or not but it was enough of a coincidence that I will make sure any future prego does not go without !

[Janet McNally]

btw, I made the assumption the dog ate a live lamb. The odds still are in favor of the dog having eaten a still born lamb.

Janet

[Rob30]

Sorry for the delayed response. We are doing a farmers market this summer which keeps me busy.

The dog is 4 years old. She has been an excellent dog. Not as bonded I find as the male. But she will actually leave the flock at times to return to the barn and check on lambs. Although I am sure part of the reason is she would prefer to be in the barn.

I can not say for sure that the lamb was alive. But there was no reason it wouldn't have been. There was nothing left but the head.

We have increased her feed about 4 weeks ago. We found her eating her food as well as the males food. So we increased both of there feed.

Normally we supplement their diet with meat from culls, or livestock that die on farm. However during the summer the flies are just to bad to butcher.

[Janet McNally]

Hi Rob, well based on the above info, I would say it is definitely her pregnancy then, that is driving her to consume some fresh meat, so I would recommend supplementing her diet with some burger and organ meats for a spell and changing the food to a good quality puppy chow. I also start confining my bitches about 10 days before whelping so that I have some say in where the pups will be born. If she is disapearing lately, she has probably dug a den somewhere else on the farm. Mary and I can both attest to the surprising places we have found dens. One time it took me 3 weeks to find the den as the mother kept doing the 'broken wing act' any time I went looking. Over the years I have found a number of huge dug outs in various places far from the barn that evidently are from pregnant bitches digging a den site. When she whelps, watch out for fly strike, as dogs can also get struck. I usually bathe the mother after whelping to clean up the birth fluids in the fur, which is especially important with a heavy coated breed like a Pyr.

Janet

[Rob30]

We had a 4 month old lamb this week decide it no longer wanted to live. So I have butchered it and I am feeding it to the dog.
She has welped now. Only three pups and she layed on one. She was pretty fat, I thought there were going to be alot more. One boy one girl.