[ZaktheLad]

At the beginning of November last year I sold 5 inlamb ewes.  Two were shearlings.  The couple that purchased them all travelled quite some distance 2.5 hours and they were lovely people.   I had made a list of the date each ewe was served and expected due date etc and said for them to keep a close eye on the shearlings as it would be their first lambs etc, etc.  They already had sheep at home - about 40 and said they were used to lambing shearlings. 

We kept in touch on how the ewes were settling in each and they said they would let me know when the lambs arrived.  Hearing nothing around a week or so after the first due date I sent a text and they replied that both shearlings had to be destroyed as they each had a single lamb that although coming correct way had been large lambs and died inside.  I felt feel really sick and devastated as they were smashing shearlings and one of them in particular used to mother all of the other ewes baby lambs from last year and so I thought she would make a superb mother herself.  I just can not stop thinking about the horrendous time these two Shearlings must have had.

The ram was my Hampshire Down - I lambed all of my ewes (including a ewe lamb and a shearling) in 2013 with no probs and so can't imagine what went so horribly wrong with these two shearlings.  The fact that both went the same way just leads me to think that not enough attention was paid to them and that they started lambing unnoticed until it was too late. 

I just so wish I had not sold them now and certainly will never sell any in-lamb shearlings again.  I would rather lamb them myself and cope with any problems than have someone else do it.

Of the other 3 ewes I sold to the same couple, one had a single ewe lamb and one had twins.  All healthy and smashing lambs.  I haven;t heard about the final one as yet and dreading it is bad news (although she is an older ewe and never had issues previously).

Sorry for the long post, just had to talk to people who would understand as I just can't stop thinking about it.

[Bramblecot]

You re not alone feeling that way - it shows you care and I would be the same. 
I also sold some in-lamb shearlings last year but the buyer had a change of circs. and offered them back to me.  I'm glad she did and I took them back rather than not know what happened to them.
After my dreadful start to lambing yesterday, I'm now concerned about all of them .

[Rosemary]

  That's really sad.

[Azzdodd]

I'm the same as you sold 4 in lamb ewes 2 shearlings all lambed now the older ones fine but the shearlings had problems as lambs too big. I think they were over fed personally

[Marches Farmer]

I too would dearly like to sell stock only to folks I know would look after them just as I would, but ......  Sounds like they could have been overfed, condition not checked correctly, not noticed that they were lambing early enough and consequently not checked out to see if there was a problem with the lamb.  Any of those, or a combination, could have been the cause of the problem.  I've noticed that if you talk to an elderly farmer he'll usually say that he's never stopped learning.  A lot of stock-keepers who've read a book and done something for a couple of years think they know it all!

[SallyintNorth]

 

Sounds like they were overfed so the lambs grew too large.  So sad that they had to be destroyed 

I'm feeling very glum myself at the mo - not only is my wee fleece flock off to a disastrous start (3 dead lambs, a sick shearling and a dead shearling), but the shearling who's died was one I bought from someone who wanted good homes for 5 crossbred gimmers... I shall hang fire on telling her, when hopefully I shall have better news from the other 4 to soften the blow.

Meanwhile, I have a fostered lamb now orphaned and on the bottle     I split a pair of twins to give my now deceased shearling a lamb to love, which she did, unfortunately not for long 

And don't ask me why - just 'one of those things', sometimes you get some aborted / predeceased lambs at the beginning of lambing.    I've just been very unlucky to have 2 of my 9 fleece sheep be 2 of them - there was one in another batch (of commercials) yesterday, too, so it's not just my little flock.

I have in the past taken lamb and placenta in to the labs, but they always say it's not fresh enough, and/or there's not enough placenta, to tell anything.  So unless I get a fresh lamb and a good bit of placenta with, I shan't bother with that again.

Sorry, didn't mean to threadjack - just I had been feeling that I wasn't looking forward to telling the previous owner of this nice little shearling that she'd died in my care.

[feldar]

That's really sad    sometimes things go in runs and no matter how hard you try, s**T happens.
 
People are funny though, they can tell you they know all about sheep, horses etc but they can sometimes overestimate their abilities, and shearlings can be hard ! not all breeds are the same. My Llanwenogs will spit out the largest lambs but they are not the largest sheep. My Hamps always need watching though generally get on with it, some can be drama queens though.
We are about to start the BWMS so i will see how they go. i've never lambed them before.

[devonlad]

sorry to hear that- I would feel exactly the same-absolutely gutted. "Proper" farmers think we fuss too much, but I translate that as "we care" and we notice things because we care.. last year we lent our ram out to a "friend" after we'd finished with him for the year. the friend kept him thru the winter and then as he bought his own he asked to keep him on a bit longer for company for the new one. we planned to bring him back on shearing day. he died mid shear, was terribly thin under the fleece and most likely died from liver fluke. afterwards my friend commented that "come to think of it" he hadn't seemed quite right for a while, lethargic and  not eating too well. he hadn't done anything.
no wonder we like you feel reluctant to trust others to get it right. I do end up feeling like a control freak when it comes to my animals. in our world life revolves around our animals needs- always.  Nothing ever alters this- no matter what.. I don't want my girls going somewhere where they're needs get pushed down a list of other priorities and are met when its convenient, rather than necessary.
we have some tricky decisions up the road as we will have too many sheep for land once lambing is done- I hate the thought of moving on our precious girls to someone who wont pay enough attention to them and let something go awry through simply not bothering enough.  Like anyone who's kept livestock for a while we've had our bad moments but never because we took their wellbeing lightly or for granted.

[kanisha]

You didn't do anything wrong Zak and as others have said its possible having only a single lamb they were if anything overcared for. Your gut instinct with these people may well have been right they just didn't appreciate the possible consequences of a large single lamb. Hugs all round I think. 

[ZaktheLad]

Thanks everyone for your kind words.

[jaykay]

Sounds to me like you picked good people and they 'over-cared' for the shearlings. I'm so sorry 

Sorry to hear your lambing hasn't started well either Sally 

[SallyintNorth]

Thanks jaykay 

[Pedwardine]

Does sound like they were overfed. Sorry such an awful thing happened which likely may have been avoided. That's the worst thing really isn't it? I hope it's good news with the final one