The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: ladyK on May 24, 2014, 09:19:49 am
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The first of my Soay ewes lambed this morning - my first lamb ever!
When I found them the little one is dry and can stand up, seemed curious enough, she's been sniffing and licking him.
The both seem content, both lying down side by side, but I have not seen him suckle in the 15 min I sat by them (in a safe distance). Is this OK??! How often should he be suckling?
She has something still hanging off her back end - like a reddish liquid ball in a membrane - the water bag? Does that mean there is a second one coming?? (I would have thought the afterbirth would look more solid)
Keeping my hands well off at the moment but would be grateful for some reassurance.
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The lamb will suckle when he's hungry
If there is another one it will pop out soon enough
Don't worry just leave them alone
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Thanks TimW, I do appreciate the quick reply.
OK I'll try not to panick - everything does seem to look OK...
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The new out lambs suck little and often, my Boreray were like that. The afterbirth stayed hanging for what seemed like ages.
Just keep an eye, have you put iodine on his cord and navel ? I give them a white powder half tea spoon but cant remember what its called :thinking: Someone on here will know. Exciting time for you :excited:
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Agree with iodine on cord but try to leave them alone to bond properly, unless the lamb has its ears down, looks depressed or starts bleating for food but the ewe butts it away or keeps fussing and licking at it and not staying still long enough to be suckled. Lambs will sleep a lot for the first day or so. First faeces will be mustard coloured then change to normal colour. They will be soft but if it looks like diarrhoea or is lighter with a greyish tinge consult your vet. Heavy rain forecast all day here - I'd get them under cover if it's the same for you. Watch out for laboured breathing (pneumonia), stiffness of limbs (joint ill) and saliva coming out of mouth (watery mouth). Chances of these are very small so don't worry too much and enjoy your new lamb!
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Morning LadyK . I got my neighbour to come and check my first Soay lamb. It was a cold frosty night and was scared to leave lambie as I hadn't seen him feed. Neighbour put a finger inside lambs mouth to check it was warm and felt lambs ears. Also felt to see that stomach felt round and not hollow. He said that after a few hours of being born the lamb would feel cold and look uncomfortable/ miserable if it hadn't fed. Also probably be noisy rather than lying content by mum.
You could squeeze mums teats to check there is milk there if you are worried.
The string of afterbirth stayed dangling from some of our ewes for quite a while, others it went straight away. When was lamb born?
We put iodine on cords once we were certain that there wasn't a twin coming. Didn't disturb until then. Just watched from a distance. Our twins always arrived within half an hour of each other.
Only lambed for a couple of years but hope that helps.
Piccies when you get a minute .... pleeeaase. :excited: :excited: :excited:
Cross posted with MF
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When my first lamb was born last year I had exactly the same fears. So much so that I thought he wasn't suckling and went and made a bottle for him.
Lucky for me a local farmer was just passing as I came out of the house with the bottle. I told him it was my first time of bottle feeding so he said he would show me what to do. When we got the the lamb he picked it up and laughed at me. He said the lambs stomach was full and there was no way he needed a bottle.
My cat got the milk from the bottle instead ;D
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Just read MF post. Agree heavy rain here too. Is there a field shelter or can you put something together to give shelter .... supposing that you are lambing out. Ours, on the whole, chose to lamb under cover when it was snowing/ raining. Thick hedges may be enough. Our Soay have been very intelligent at choosing best place to lamb and where to lie with their newborns.
I rarely spotted the lambs suckle in the first few days. Think they must have waited until I wasn't looking ::). Worried a lot in the first year but tried to trust them last year .... just checked that they 'looked right'.
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Congrats on your first lamb :thumbsup: . I expect you are still out there stock-watching ;D .
If Soay are like my Shetlands, they like to be left alone :huff: . Just a quick dip of iodine - I put some in a small jam jar so the whole cord gets dipped.
:fc: for the rest.
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Thank you all so much for your input. It really is just so useful and reassuring to know what is normal and what to look out for (I've read the books and loads of posts here before, but... when it actually happens inevitably the questions that comes up is a slightly different one).
Been out on the field again for quite a while, just watching, and I'm think I'm satisfied now that all is indeed OK for the wee chap. I saw him suckling twice and she holds still for him, and they bleat softly to each other when she grazes a bit too far for his liking. He was walking around exploring for a bit, he seems really curious and alert, he then settled down again for a snooze, so I went up to him and quickly felt his ears and mouth (warm) and sprayed his navel. Will stop myself from going out there again until the evening now. The rest of the flock including the ram are keeping a respectful distance.
The weather is showery here not really raining in sheets as it did yesterday - the field has a lot of natural shelter (hedging and overhanging trees) but she seems to have chosen her spot more for being a good vantage point than a sheltered position. I think it would disturb her to build a unfamiliar shelter structure around or very near her - so I'll just leave her to be for now.
(I do have a field shelter, but this is used by the donkeys overnight (they are out on the other field during the day) and the sheep don't really spend time there, so unless in an emergency I would not want to put her in there as she'll get stressed out by the unfamiliar space.
Piccies to follow! :excited:
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Here's a few photos (I took far too many :) )
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Looking good to me! :thumbsup:
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:excited: :excited: :excited: Thanks LadyK.
They look happy enough!
Sure they will do well as long as you've got some good hedges. Torrential here again today. ::)
How many have you got to lamb?
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What a lovely little ewe :hugsheep: and super lamb :love: :sheep:
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Lovely pics. the lamb looks like a little fawn :thumbsup:
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He looks lovely - congratulations :thumbsup:
Also, well done for containing your anxiety and not intervening unnecessarily.
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Looks great to me to - what a lovely pair :thumbsup:
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Looking good.
I hang around for a fair bit if I can, normally till they're bonded, and when the mother is walking away to graze with the lamb following. Partly for the pleasure of seeing it, but also to see the mother's behaviour to the lamb, and just in case there's another to follow. Also in case something daft happens; common here is that they lamb near the top of the hill and with all the licking gradually tumble down the slope :eyelashes: which is okay unless the lamb ends up in a gorse bush. Also handy with twins to make sure she's taken to both of them, and that if there's a weaker of the two it's not being neglected (if there's a weaker twin I give a squirt of the lamb aid/quick start to even things up a bit.)
After that, when they've had a few feeds, before I spray with iodine I stomach tube with artifical colostrum.
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Just saw this post this morning, hope all is well with the wee lamb now LadyK. My Soay has just had a Soay X North Ronaldsay lamb - it's the cutest of all our lambs this year, very rough coated. She was the only ewe I didn't see feeding her lamb, I just couldn't catch her though I hung around for ages over the first few days, nowt happening and I was really worried. Just had to bite my lip and trust her - lamb is big and bouncy now and tearing around with the rest. They are pretty self sufficient these rare breeds. I think it is if they have 2 you have to be careful partic if they're a first timer, there is always one smaller than the other (generally No2) and they can be a bit dopey about what they should be doing. All our rare breeds birthed without intervention which is a big relief.
Good luck with your wee lamb, they look like they should have little wheels on their feet :D
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Wee lamb doing very well, very bright and stumbling about determinedly after his mum.
4 more ewes to lamb, but no new lambs this morning.
Still I had my moment of panic: they both looked well when I first checked on them in the morning - an hour later I notice incessant and loud bleating from the field, I run to check and find the young mum frantic - no lamb! So now it was two of us headlessly running around looking for the lamb, all sort of tragic scenarios playing in my mind... After a couple of minutes I collected my senses and started walking the paddock more methodically and soon enough I found the little'un curled up under the hedge. Mum still running around bleating for him but he just wasn't responding to the calls. I stood him up gently and he seemed alright and after I put him gently near his mum again, she calmed down immediately, and off they went together, him now following again.
Can't quite understand what happened there - why was he not responding? Simply fallen asleep? Does this happen? I really thought of the worst for a few minutes there... his poor mum too it seems.
Anyway - all good again. Never a dull moment in smallholding...
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LadyK you sound exactly like me last year. Every time I heard a bleat I went to investigate. Usually nothing amiss, just the lamb wandered further than mum would like. You will find it worse when you get more lambs as they go off and play together and then all the mums will be bleating ;D
I seem to have got more used to the different bleating sounds this year. Recognising when mum is just calling for her baby to get closer and being able recognising a more urgent bleat.
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Lovely lamb, hope all goes well with the rest before you turn grey :thumbsup:
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Lovely pics. the lamb looks like a little fawn :thumbsup:
I always think Soay lambs look more like Fawns than lambs
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The lambs need a wee while to recognise mum too, our lambs were all confused at first, some of the mums are so alike. For the first 3-4 days I have found that the lambs are just like babies and just want to sleep a lot, wake up, have a feed, a little wander, then fall asleep again. In fact our Soay and the 2 Castlemilk Moorit ewes (all first timers) pretty much didn't move about at all in the first few days, just stood about with their lambs in more or less the same spot. The North Ronaldsays are bold as brass however and after day one it's get up or get lost, their lambs cosily together and not running after mum. Funnily enough I looked at the Soay lamb this evening, it was the second last to be born but is the biggest of them all - I still haven't seen her feed it!
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I have lambs that won't answer their mums, a mum that won't answer her lambs, a goat who keeps forgetting where she's put her kids - the kids are lying there blamelessy, but they don't answer when she shouts in a panic either.
Who know what goes on in those ovine and caprine heads!
Fortunately, the majority of babies and mums talk to each other.
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Another one lambed yesterday with twin ewe lambs :excited:
This time I recognised the content faces all around and did't panic - all looking good. :thumbsup:
This ewe is older and experienced so she chose her spot in the hedges.
Like the first one though she started moving about in the afternoon, and today she's taken them into the field.
I did have my moment of panic though when in the afternoon I noticed her still slimy/bloody behind was attracting the dreadful greenbottle flies... thought I couldn't risk not interfering. I caught her and doused her behind in (non chemical) fly repellant and thankfully the flies backed off (she is understandably wary of me now). Watching her closely today but no flies and she looks more clean now anyway.
Saturday's ram lamb is looking well and rather agile already! Amazing - it really only took him a day to get out of the 'sleepy zone'. Just a bit worried about his navel cord - it still looks quite 'wet' - how quickly should it dry up? (the twins born only yesterday have theirs already looking dried up and shrivelled.)
I'm fascinated how the flock behaves around new mums - the first day they seem to be protected by an invisible 'respect zone' - no one will come close even if I take a feed bucket to her. The second day it's more like the mum stays wisely away from the feeding melee but if I try to feed her separately others will try and interfere.
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They are lovely. :love:
We enjoy watching the interactions that go on in the flock, too.
When one of mine lambs the other ewes will often stand near to her and be gently sniffing her face. They don't interfere but seem to support her. Once lambed mum and new arrival often stay a distance from the flock for the first week or so. They don't come to the trough etc.
We have one ewe who feeds and mothers her lambs no problem but doesn't seem too bothered about keeping her lambs close. Another ewe, Annie, always takes charge and has her lambs and Biscuits lambs with her. Good old Annie. She is one of our quietest, gentlest ewes.
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brilliant, let's here it for soays :D
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Soays were at the Sherborne show on BH Monday - lovely little sheep were the stars :trophy: (in my eyes).
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Hope all is well. My first and only lamb arrived 2 weeks ago to my surprise and mums, I have 3 pet sheep,only one ewe who is 4 years old any neither of us knew she was pregnant. There are no other sheep on the farm where I keep them but farmer David had taken in some " bed and breakfasts" for a bit and they had mingled a couple of times. No idea there were tups in with them! That's what happens when your teenage girl gets let loose among the wrong sort in the hay!
Like you I was so worried -had done a lambing course 2 years ago for fun but its all different when it happens - and I had no iodine or anything. it was 11 at night and had to go pestering a friendly neighbour vet. have to say she was as excited as I was!
Enjoy wee lamby!
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I have lambs that won't answer their mums, a mum that won't answer her lambs, a goat who keeps forgetting where she's put her kids - the kids are lying there blamelessy, but they don't answer when she shouts in a panic either.
Who know what goes on in those ovine and caprine heads!
Fortunately, the majority of babies and mums talk to each other.
It is endlessly fascinating how the mums and babies interact and vary in response from one to another. :) Unless of course you are listening to a screaming ewe whos lamb is pointedly ignoring her as thats the fifth time in 30 minutes shes decided shes lost her lamb who is in reality not lost and keeping a watchful eye on her from a distance where he isn't deafened by her screams! ::) :sheep: