The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: suziequeue on February 10, 2011, 07:37:31 am
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eeeek - we have four ewes in lamb and I haven't a clue. Went to a talk last night given by the local vet and I had no idea things could go so badly wrong.
I'm not too worried about the technical side of things (giving injections, returning prolapses to their rightful owner etc etc) but it's the abnormal lies, failure to suck, when to call the vet in, keeping an eye on them over night and managing them in late pregnancy etc etc that I am really worried about.
We have badger faced sheep - four ewes in lamb. They are a hardy welsh mountain breed and we plan to lamb them outside in April.
I know people on this forum will have had similar fears in past times.
Anything I can do to allay those fears? It's difficult to see how I can get hands on experience without being up all night somewhere. I might speak to out neighbours and see what they think about me going up to one of their sheds on or two night but I'm working full time......
We are going to move the ewes into a small paddock close to the house nearer the time and get a lamb cam
:-(
Susanna
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we went to a vet talk before our first lambing.
They tell you the worse, it probably wouldnt happen but at least you will know what the signs are if something is wrong.we have a friendly neighbour [farmer] who we ring or ask to come and have a look.He keeps us straight.Do you have anyone local to help you if needed.
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if your ewes are older girls and are in lamb to a welsh mountain or similar sized breed then you may well have the experience I did - checked my 6 shetlands every 5-10 mins and yet didnt see a single one being born, they sneaked them all out when I turned away :-))) So dont panic too much, but would def recommend seeing if you can go to neighbours. You might not need to be up all night, I went about 6.30am and still saw quite a few (including a few tricky ones), it was very helpful and also means they know you are lambing and wanting to learn and if they are like my neighbours they will offer for you to ring them if you are stuck with anything.
Also theres still time to go on a whole day lambing course which will give you practice castrating (they used dead lambs for this on my course) and manipulating tangled up twins (with a lambing simulator). It wont be like the real thing but it does help. The courses round here were in March so worth a try.
Ours gave us a good flow chart which helps to reduce the mass of horrific problems to something you can work through.
The other thing is to be prepared to pay to call the vet out if you are stuck, they are the experts and are there to help if needed.
But dont panic altho it is a worry til its over. But remember, as well as the worry, you should look forward to the leap in your tummy when you look up and see a perfect tiny lamb next to its mum who is making little grunty crooning noises to it......matchless moment!
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I think this is a common fault with training and education about lambing. There is too much concentration on what to do when things go wrong. More emphasis should be given on how to give your sheep the best chance of it all going well and avoiding problems in the first place, after all a lot of lambing problems are managaement related.
If you get the management right, you will have far fewer difficulties. True, there is no harm in doing a bit of background reading to give you an idea of what to look out for, but not so much that it scares you witless. Get a good book (The Sheep Book for Smallholders by Tim Tyne is highly recommended - availible on Amazon and 5 star review rating).
Badgers shouldn't give too much trouble so long as you manage them right. My daughter has a small flock of them and they are pretty straight forward.
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I'm sure you'll be fine. Our first experience of lambing was with 5 ewes; outside lambing in April - 2 of them just dropped their lambs in the field when we weren't looking, both twins. Other three also straightforward. So remember there is only a 'chance' that things might go wrong. The second lambing time, now with a few more ewes involved one problem - we called our neighbour to help - it was a ewe trying to give birth to dead twins. But it was soon sorted thanks to having someone to call on. Percentage wise our experience is about 1 in 10 ewes with a problem, and that can be anything from the need to remove the membrane from a lamb which has been born 'in the bag' to needing to intervene in the birth. No need to panic, just have some measures in place just in case something is not quite as it should be. Look forward to hearing how you get on. And remember VSS is right - the vets have a duty to tell you what to do when things go wrong, that's what they're trained to do.
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First of all, don't! Like VSS said, people concentrate too much on what might go wrong, whereas actually it's the management pre- and post- that will decide if you have a successful lambing or not. top tip, if you can get yourself on a course, do so. I had to assist one of mine (a great big single out a small mummy Portland - good grass = big lambs me thinks!), and the course gave me the confidence to help out when it was needed. The other thing is, trust your instinct. If the water balloon has burst and, after 40 minutes still no sign, then get in there and help out.
I'm not a big fan of vets and would trust my friendly commerical sheep farmer for advice over the vet any day, as they would probably tell me that the ewe wasn't pregnant and that she would need complex surgery to fit a gastric band to get the weight down (arrggggghhhh money-grabbing, bull-sh***ing, advantage-taking a***holes!!!!)
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I'm not a big fan of vets and would trust my friendly commerical sheep farmer for advice over the vet any day, as they would probably tell me that the ewe wasn't pregnant and that she would need complex surgery to fit a gastric band to get the weight down (arrggggghhhh money-grabbing, bull-sh***ing, advantage-taking a***holes!!!!)
'course that's just your opinion :wave:
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Can't say my vets are like that. I find them sensible and very helpful.
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Thanks - just a panicky moment there.
I bumped into our neighbour out walking her dog this morning as asked if I could spend some time with their lambing, Their sheep (they have thousands!!) and due a couple of weeks before ours.
She was really helpful so we'll sit down and talk it through in a few days and work out a plan.
Need to get all my supplies in though.
Ooooh goodie - shopping :-)
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Best thing in the world is to chat up neighbouring farmer. Generally they have more experience than the vets if things go wrong and are cheaper (generally)!
There are also some really good courses out there now for beginners. Check out the smallholding courses website for more info. I have a course being held on my sheep in a couple of weeks time.
Plus always remember - just ask! Lots of people on these forums to give good advise!
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We went on a lambing course and found it really useful. Most of all handling a dead lamb. Not because we had to deal with a dead one but live ones feel exactly the same, just warm. We called a the vet when I was worried about a ewe and they gave me some good advice. Turned out that we had to deliver a single from our Ryeland which was stressful but the key was to remain calm and not panic. When he came out and was breathing it was like a miracle.
Good luck with it all.
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Did you go to Beech Hayes by any chance? They have a thing called ewegenie which is an artificial ewe and they use dead leambs to help you recognise the presentations - should revolting but so beneficial for first timers to get the feel of it.
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It was near Skipton and yes, they also had this artificial ewe thing filled with warm water to make the womb seem life-like! We had to identify the lambs position and deal with it accordingly. Although it's a hell of a lot more scary when you are doing it to a live ewe, obviously.