Sheep udder question.

Not sure how many sheep people we have on here but wondering if anyone has ever seen an issue like this before?
We have a yearling ewe, she just had a set of twins a couple days ago, and I noticed when stripping her teats that she has 4! Now sheep are only supposed to have 2 teats. She seems to have a lot of milk, but the lambs are very hungry. I am supplementing them but they do not drink a whole bunch yet, so must be getting some from her. But when I try to strip her teats I get nothing. I have tried the smaller extra teats and get a dribble of milk from them, but wondering if there is something special I could do to help the milk come out?

I have an appointment at the vet tomorrow to have a look at her. I really don't want to cause her to get mastitis from not getting that milk out.

I have 2 pet sheep, but in the past have had 5 ewes with lambs on them.
I have goats and think teats between the 2 animals are some what the same. In goats you can also get 4 teats. Your not ment to. You more than likely have a main big teat and the other 2 are smaller and branch off the main teat. Have you milked before ? if not unless you have your hands right the milk can shoot up into the milk bag again with only a little coming out. Why are you giving the lambs extra milk if you give them extra it could effect how much milk the ewe will produce. I know one thing is babies are always way better at getting milk out of teats than we can be at times. As long as lambs have a full tummy and you can feel the tummy to know if it is full. I have one doe that has small teats, but kids never have a problem. Hope I have not said anything to upset you, just some stuff that may help. Do not think the vet will be able to do anything about the teats. In dairys 4 teats are not wanted as they would not fit in the milking machine. In cows I believe they cut them off the teats that is. I would think that as long as lambs can get milk do not worry. I am guessing this is her first lot of twins and so the 4 teats did not show up until her milk came in.
Good luck

Well this is my concern. Mom seems to be very "full", but the lambs are hungry. They will nurse non stop so I know they are not getting enough. I am supplementing, (only 2 oz each three times a day) because they are hungry. If they are not bugging mom to nurse they are crying. So I know something is not correct.
We had a milk cow, Jersey, and she had a blind teat off her regular teat. It was also connected to the milk ducts and we could never get that portion drained, which can in turn lead to mastitis. We eventually returned her to the dairy and got a replacement since it was a new cow, but their way to deal with that is to dry up that quarter. But since this ewe only has 2 quarters and each has an extra teat that seems attached to it we cannot dry that up.
She is just a yearling so first set of lambs, so we never notice this when we selected her, never really looked, but sure will now when selecting replacement stock. My worry is that the lambs are not eating well and either will die or will be stunted, neither of which I want.
This vet just learned how to ultrasound mammary glands, so kind of an experiment to see what we see. To see which of the teats are accessory teats and which are her primary teats. In Dairy cows if they have extra teats they tend to be on the back of the udder, these little teats are on the front, so the vet wonders if maybe they are attached to the main milk ducts and the lambs cannot nurse properly on them and therefore not getting all the milk out.
In your sheep with the extra teats, did they milk out of all 4?

I do not milk sheep very often, just stip them when they lamb, but generally if I have to (Which I did for my Jan born lambs) I can get a decent amount out, so I am pretty sure I am doing it correct but definately believe the lambs are more efficient.

Some of our sheep have 4 teats too and they do just fine. Have you tried giving oxytocin to the ewe? Maybe she just isn't letting her milk down?

So stripping that is where you pinch the teat off and run your fingers down to make the milk go out I am guessing at that as I have only ever milked. If babies are crying they are not getting milk like they should so yes feed away would hate for them to die from lack of milk. Would be interesting to see what the vet can find and if they can help. My milk goat now has 2 big teats and 2 very small teats more like bumps. They don't do anything, but would get in the way if she was in a dairy I know that one.Main thing is the lambs get milk always best to be on mom as she gives them a good clean and shows them the way of being a sheep. Good luck

So interesting to read this! None of my ewes have extra teats - some of my cows do, but like chickencrazygirl they are just bumps and never work. Now I understand why dairies don't like them - that mastitis risk.

Think you are doing everything right so far. Maybe see if the vet can help with oxytocin, as gubi says.

Sometimes after a few days the mother starts being better about milk volume and letting down milk and the lambs get better at suckling, but I can never predict when or if this will happen.

Yes the vet said we can try oxytocin, so we will ultrasound the udder and see how the anatomy looks then if all looks well we will give her a shot. She seems like such a good mom, so not sure why she wouldnt be letting her milk down, those little lambs drink non stop so should be encouraging her to let down.
Havent been in sheep that long to know the answers to these strange things, but every year we learn something new.

Vet told me they don't do as much research/testing on sheep as they do on cows/horses/dogs so there is lots they don't know, not many medications specifically for sheep problems (lots of "off label" stuff). Really frustrating so good you are getting some support from vet!

Hidden I will be very interested in your Vet's ultrasound. One would think those 2 extras would be blind but one never knows. I would definitely give her a shot of Oxytocin to get her milk down which should in turn plump up the two bigger teats giving the babes something to latch on too. Good luck.

When I had my sheep all the ewes were given a small dose of oxytocin after lambing just to ensure that they cleaned and to get the milk down. Can't rememeber the dose now but it was small but of course practices change over the years, so what works for each person is different.

Heather

Just another quick thought is your ewe's milk bag hard or soft.
I had a goat last year with a hard milk bag and so milk was there just not to much of it and the shots did not work due to milk was there.
She got the hard milk bag due to I fed oats that they had not had all Winter time, fed them a few weeks every day before they kidded causing the hard milk bag. I lost one kid out of the twins due to that problem. Milk bag getting it soft was a lot of work. That and I got to know my goats milk bag real well.

Her udder was full and soft, but this am it is now hard. The little lambs didnt drink much this am so must be getting some out. But we will see what the vet says.
Heda I have had a very hard time getting a vet with any knowledge on sheep. We had one that was very specialized in small ruminants that was about 1 1/2 hrs from me, but now she has moved to Saskatoon which is 4 1/2 hrs... But this vet I am going to see today is a cattle vet, that is starting to take courses in small ruminants as well, there are quite a few people around here with flocks so definately worth their while to learn so they can take care of us all.
My appointment is this afternoon so will let you know what we find out.

We have had a ewe with 4 working teats before. They were all equal sized. Also had a ewe with three teats. So of our ewes did have the little blind teats (very small). After finding a few ewes with blind teats we started selecting very hard on ewe lambs udders. Some times the lambs will suck on the blind teats and go hungry if not helped.

We have also had a cow with 6 teats. The two additional ones off the back quarter were very small, but they did produce milk too.

Well after an afternoon in town we have found out she has normal udder confirmation. Her two extra little teats have small canals to them but the vet figured they will just dry up in time, the milk glands to them were almost non existant. The hind teats, which are normal sized have nice milk glands to them and once we let her sit for an hour she does produce some milk. The unfortunate part is she has edema, which is what I was thinking, but because of this she cannot store much milk at one time, so she is on medication to reduce the edema and hopefully with a softer udder she will produce more and the lambs will do ok.

That is good to know...hope the lambs can get more milk from her soon!