The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: greedyasapig on April 09, 2013, 11:42:19 am
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Hi All...
Have had better days. 2 days ago our Tete Rouge started the signs of going into labour after an hour it became obvious she had prolapsed .. i washed her down carefully and popped it back in, at this point she is due in 2 days well that is today and prolapse has been in and out since.She is fairly calm but obviously not happy, being a first timer the EWE and US this year we called the vet to see what was best. (we are in France)...
Vet promptly came round inserted his arm and said it looks like 3 or 4 in there!! :o :o.. his advice was give it till 5 pm and we could do a "C" section ?? blimey im well out of my comfort zone now ...
I was just wondering if anyone has had experience of this and is mum still able to feed the lambs having been opened up or are we going to loose her etc
i will ask vet later i was just hoping for some positive feed back please..
Just gonna check her now and thanks in advance for any replies
Wayne
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Hace assisted at quite a number of caesars on sheep happily not usually my own sheep.
Its not for the faint hearted if you are not used to these kind of things and rural french vets in my experience are not always as sensitive as I might like. however with care and attention yes the ewes can do fine although if she has that number of live lambs you may need to prepare to bottle feed.
I guess whatever happens you are in the vets hands... my own personal preference I insist on painkillers for the ewe
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Ceasers are surprisingly routine for vets in the Uk so i don't see why France should be any different. However if you are confident in lambing multiples you could sew up the prolapse yourself until you see a water bag and then assist the ewe in lambing.
Let me know if you want information on how to sew up a prolapse as it takes quite a bit of explaining yet is easily done!
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Are you sure she is in full labour? she could have a vaginal prolapse which will keep popping out until she lambs, in which case i would pop a spoon or harness on her until she fully lambs. If she is in labour and lambs are up in the canal ready to come out, if she has four smallish lambs i would personally lamb her the old fashioned way before doing a c- section. if she then prolapses fully and you can get the womb back in ( try shrinking it back with sugar) then apply a harness to keep it in.
I would think this would be better than opening her up, but this is my personal view.
It will also depend on your ewe and how strong she is, if she is showing real signs of distress then go with your vet he has the knowledge to deal with these things but i am suprised he is going for a full c- section before trying to lamb her naturally. Most prolapses are alleviated by the lambing process.
She will need meds no matter how you proceed anyway, antibiotics and painkillers and i have known c-section ewes bring up lambs but it will depend on how strong she is, i would have thought 4 would be too many for her to cope with, maybe just one or two and foster the others.
Good luck anyway
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We've always put a harness of late prolapses. Unless it's more than the size of a large orange this generally keeps everything in until they lamb down. Once the lambs begin to move into position for birth the pressure comes off and as soon as she shows signs of lambing down (pawing the ground, making nibbling movements with the lips, lying on one side with legs extended and clearly pushing, squatting with tail held out, etc.) we whip off the harness and she lambs normally. We have also had ewes lamb normally with the harness still on. We've always culled a prolapse ewe, though, with the exception of two consecutive years when we tried giving one of our ewes 4 injections of 15ml Calciject at 4 x weekly intervals pre-lambing - no prolapses. This suggests an inability to utilise calcium in the diet but we never kept her lambs so don't know how far the genetic connection goes. We always have ready a sterilised sheet sealed in a plastic bag, ready to keep clean a massive prolapse. Very thankfully we've never had to use it .....
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Don't understand the vet bit of the post ,if he could get an arm in to feel the lambs then they can come out the same way, so why talk of a c section
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I'd have thought if she had multiples they would be fairly easy to pull when the time comes - so I'd do what the others suggest and deliver vaginally if possible.
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Sad evening here in France. Mum is ok ish c section done vet tried and tried to get lamb out and after 20 mins suggested to save mum to save mum a c section was necessary. OK lamb was dead, we translated tangled but intact and perfectly formed....... hence not a natural exit or assisted exit . real shame she is such a loving sheep not fair.
Hopefully all will be well she is on a 6 day antibotic course and the op was very professional and speedy,.. mum is back on her feet just .
Fingers crossed for the others we have XXXXXXX
bye for now .
Wayne
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Sorry to hear about the lamb :fc: hopefully your ewe will slowly pick up. A little bit of care and attention and she should be on the mend. Pleased to hear that the vet was professional its always a bit of a shock especially if you are new to all of this but in my experience its a rare event; there is plenty of good advice and discussion on here about preventing / avoiding prolapse in ewes .
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thanks for posts ...large glass of Red going down now and check on mum in 5 mins ...
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Sorry to hear about the ewe and lamb. Our very first lamb was delivered dead by the vet after the ewe had a prolapse. Our lamb looked perfect too. Luckily the ewe didn't have a c section but it took the vet a lot of tugging to get the lamb out.
He gave the ewe painkillers and pen & strep and we had to repeat the pain killers the next day and pen & strep for the next 5 days.
That was nearly a month ago and the ewe seems to be doing well so lets hope yours does the same.
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Fingers crossed for your ewe. What a sad thing to happen.
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real shame, but you did your best and hopefully mum will be fine. We would always cull a ewe who had to have a c- section, but i know people who have had these ewes go on and breed normally again, so she may be worth a try again.
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Thank you ALL so much for posts/replys... we think she has had a big enough trauma to try again hopefully she will be fine. she is up and eating ok now. Good news to cap a crap start to the week the EWES sister has lambed today and we have a wobbly little lamb in the barn tonight so all happy here...
Just 1 question i would like to ask,.... the lamb is a tad lean for what ever reason can you suppliment her natural feeds from mum with an additional bottle now and then ? or is this risky in weaning away from MUM.??
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If she has plenty of milk and just one lamb then he'll soon beef up. Have you checked he as found the teat?
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Hi ya,
yes she has found teat we guided her initially but its as if she is blind almost as really wearily and unsteady she often goes to mums front sniffs alot and sucks at wool and leg even till she finds her way to rear and teat , Im probably worrying after loosing one early in week just wanted to assist.
She does get milk but only feeds for a 30/40 seconds im guessing cos she is weak.
FINGERS CROSSED for tonight.
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She'll improve. It's maddening how dim they seem - but they do generally get it sorted out :sheep: