The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: trish.farm on February 16, 2015, 06:04:53 pm
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Spotted a prolapse this afternoon. size of a melon. rushed off to mole valley to buy a spoon, then had to collect my son from neighbouring farm and load up rolled barley. Just got back and the prolapse has gone back in! Do I still need to fit a spoon, will she keep prolapsing? Sorry, never had a prolapse before, bit worried about the size of the lambs, still 2 weeks till first lambs are due and ewes are massive, had to borrow a Hampshire Down for tupping, usually use a Romney. Could I be looking at lots of prolapses and assisted births?
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She will keep prolapsing but I would argue you do not need to fit a spoon as I hate them! Swap for a harness or stitch would be my preferred options. Best of luck :fc:
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should I pop a spoon in now for tonight, and get her stitched tomorrow. Don't want to risk her prolapsing again tonight and getting infected?
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I use a Hampshire Down tup with my ewes and rarely have to assist. Sometimes the shearlings need a tiny bit of help, but that's not unheard of whatever tup is used. I always have plenty of lube ready just in case, but more often than not, lambing is straightforward. My Hampshire does throw big chunky lambs and my girls are also looking large with 4 weeks to go!
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just been back out to the field. She hasn't prolapsed again yet. She was off the other end of the field though away from the others. Came running over in the hope of food so cant be much wrong with her, was worried she was going to start lambing!! Havent put spoon in, she took herself off into the barn so have put her in a clean pen and will check her regularly during the night incase she prolapses again. Don't want to stick a spoon in and cause more problems if not necessary. Am I doing the right thing??
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hampshire down will probly be bigger and more chunky than your usual ram,
I find they also have bigger heads and are bigger boned, muscle gives and bone doesnt
I had a hampshire down cross ram lamb whom I used on ewes and unfortunately I had one prolapse, lambs stuck with big heads needing pulling, and wide chunky legs and bones which were stuck in ewes which I previously did not need to aid, the lambs once pulled did grow very well and finished in June/july with no creep though,
other people are fine with the breed and some people just accept they have to pull a few lambs each year and dont see it as a problem,
I however prefer small lambs which hit the ground running and grow on afterwards even if they are ready a couple of months later :thumbsup:
if you are feeding for singles/twins etc you should hopefully be fine with the rest :fc:
Hope your ewe's prolapse sorts itself soon :)
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Do you have some flat land? The vet told us that sheep tend to sleep facing up hill and that makes the prolapse worse. Try moving her somewhere flat if you can. We bought ours into the stable yard with a friend for company
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yep, have put her in a clean pen and she is munching happily on hay. Nothing has popped back out yet!! Just been looking at my dates and she could as close as 7 days off lambing. She isn't in anyway over weight, but lamb wise she is enormous!! Everything is going into her lambs I think! She has really hollowed infront of her hips and I have a funny feeling she is closer to lambing than I reckon she should be! Have held off on putting spoon in, she is on a sparkly clean bed, will check her regularly and if she does prolapse again will bung it back in as quick as poss and put spoon in. Oh the joys of sheep!!! :innocent:
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NO easy answer to your question it depends on you , small prolapses can pop in and out for days or weeks but will normally develop in to a full prolapse at some point , you can pop the spoon in if you are really worried it won't hurt' then either buy a harness ( which you can put on and the ewe can mostly lamb through ) or take to vet and get a stitch put in ( you need to cut to allow birth ) A Hampshire should be slightly smaller then a Romney so should be very little difference in lamb size
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is a grapefruit size prolapse big or small??? Had tiny prolapses like a golf ball before that pop out while they are lying down then pop back in again, but nothing this big!!!! :o And what on earth does a full prolapse look like?????
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Small prolapse pink flesh colour ,soft yes up to grape fruit size FULL prolapse red raw looking small football size skin stretched taught
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We had a problem last year with one about large grapefruit size and couldn't get hold of a harness so used a spoon, I have to say I prefer the harness but, she did lamb at night unassisted through the spoon with no following prolapse after birth (so there is hope).
it was good to have a bag of stuff to hand, I'm sure you have it covered but we had a bottle of boiled water cooled (the cool water shrinks the prolapse back sometimes). some iodine and some surgical gloves, also sterile wipes if you have some.
main problem is infection, so watch when she sits down if she prolapses poos then
gets say hay on top and it drys, its a bugger to get off but it really is better to do
before it go's back in.
personally i would not feed her too much tonight keep her clean like you have
and go and get a harness tomorrow morning. if she prolapses again wash her, serilise stick it back and use the spoon. then get the harness .
hope that is at all usefull. good luck :fc:
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Its the vaginal wall you are looking at with the closed cervix somewhere near the middle. Its prevented from going any further by the closed cervix, it wont get massively bigger than the size it is but may decide to stay out more.
Clean it carefully - neat iodine on the vaginal wall I should imagine would sting a little. Dilute hibi or dilute salt water and gentleness if it needs cleaning up.
Though they can clearly also prolapse the uterus (this is a post lambing prolapse and is much larger) the two prolapses occur for different reasons so there is no reason she should do this and if she was going to the spoon probably wouldn't prevent it.
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We use dilute Savlon - much gentler than most wound disinfectants - and dab off very gently with pure cotton cottonwool (some has polyester added, which is quite abrasive).
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update!!! nothing popped out during the night, just rushed out to checked her as she was lying in the same place in the field for 2 hours, looked like she was lambing. Prolapsed again. Pulled myself together, got dilute hibi scrub, washed off prolapse which was clean. washed my hands, covered myself in lube and gently pushed in back in! Whoop whoop, it popped straight back in. Washed and lubed a spoon and fitted that. There is a small amount of discharge, similar to start of lambing, so will keep beady eye on her!!!
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Give her Pen & Strep, trish, straight away if you can. Otherwise, good job! :thumbsup:
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big gold star for me Sally, gave her P and S earlier today!! :thumbsup:
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Hi sorry i wasn't very clear as stated by (me), iodine non dilute would pinch a bit, we use Dilute Betadine here, and at time of writing I thought that was the same, wrong again as it is dilute to start with.. hae. anyway just posted to say.
Dilute hibi perfect.! Well done its quite a challenge first time.
did you tie the spoon stings to the fleece? we did this as instructed the first time, but she pulled the spoon out by rubbing on a fence.
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hmm, yes strings tied to fleece. Have just checked her and still in ok. Will have another check before bed!!
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After many years of lambing on large farms, I never managed to keep a spoon in with string tied to fleece!
I preferred the stitch, but it does need constant attention to make sure it doesn't tear the ewe when she tries to lamb if you haven't cut it. I also found the harnesses really good.
If I was putting in spoons, I made a makeshift 'harness' to tie it to with baler twine, ideally the thick stuff, if not then double/triple thin stuff to make it less likely to dig and rub the ewe.
First step was a good loop that goes round the neck, tied onto itself so it won't slip tighter when attached to the other strings.
Then a string tied to the middle of the loop, going down the middle of her back.
Finally, a loop round each back leg, tied to the string in the middle of the back until reasonably tight.
Then I could get the strings on the spoon to tie somewhere that seems the most natural angle either on the back leg loops or the join in the middle of the back, depending on the shape of the ewe.
Hope that helps someone
Suzanne
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i have found if you pull a clump of wool up slightly then wrap each end around a few times and pull very tight then tie they dont rub it of if its low into the wool
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Ewe doing well, spoon still in tied to wool. Everything looking clean and healthy. :fc:
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Update - Ewe lambed this morning. 2 massive ram lambs, both missing a front leg, one up over its head and the other right back!! Got them both out easily. No prolapse, I took the spoon out when I saw she was starting to lamb. afterbirth came away nicely and nothing else has popped out! Phew :relief:
The spoon worked really well, twice she tried to push her prolapse out through the spoon but I popped it back in.
Now in a dilemma, should she be retired/culled after weaning or dare I put her back in lamb again. It was just a vaginal prolapse, she had 2 massive ram lambs, and they have been on adlib hay.
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Yes cull/retire her best for her welfare
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Thankyou, I reckon she will join the retirement flock to keep the ewe lambs I hold back company!!
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Good idea
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Don't try to lamb her again. Chances are you will get yourselves and her a load of trouble which isn't fair on either of you. Retire her and enjoy what she has produced for you.
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Update - Ewe lambed this morning. 2 massive ram lambs, both missing a front leg,
You had three-legged lambs? Can we have a photo? ;D (Sorry couldn't stop myself.... been up half the night watching a goat thinking about kidding only to finally lie down and chew her cud after all.... still no kids and she is three days overdue)
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Update - Ewe lambed this morning. 2 massive ram lambs, both missing a front leg,
You had three-legged lambs? Can we have a photo? ;D (Sorry couldn't stop myself.... been up half the night watching a goat thinking about kidding only to finally lie down and chew her cud after all.... still no kids and she is three days overdue)
I read it the same at first, was thinking, "Oh no! :o Schmallenburg?", then read on. :relief:
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I honestly thought the first lamb really did only have 3 legs!! No matter where I felt I couldn't find it!! Finally found it wrapped round the top of its neck!! Slight moment of panic!! Along with the "please don't prolapse! panic!!
2 sets of twins and 2 huge singles so far.