The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Fud on May 09, 2016, 09:01:07 am
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My ewe started with the usual signs and I watched and waited thinking best not get invovlved unless It's needed. After a while I thought time to assist and found lamb being presented back legs first and with a bit of adjustment a lovely gimmer popped out, Im still at the stage where each lamb is special!
Waited a futher 30 mins without any further action so decided to check to see if another lamb was there but felt nothing, I was deflated only one lamb but everything ok so I left to get a coffee and to get on.
Usual routine, kept going back and checking ewe and lamb ok, whilst doing daily jobs. After 4 hours and no sign of afterbirth I decided to check if I could see where it was and discovered a foot trying to protrude out.
Panic or survival mode kicked in and I managed to asssist the second lamb to be born.
I know that i had checked thoroughly and there wasnt another lamb. But there was the second lamb as healthy as the first!
So question is "Where was she hiding it" and "Whats the longest period of time between the first and second lamb (Twins) arriving?"
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The uterus has two horns that split quite close to the entrance. If your hand goes down one horn you often will not feel a lamb in the other horn. I usually feel internally with one hand outside the belly to see if I can touch my other hand without a lamb in the middle. Or a really large ewe can just have a lamb deeper than the reach of your arm.
As to longest time between twins, its as long as a piece of string! It's not uncommon to have a few hours between, some reports say it can sometimes be days if there is a dead lamb that isn't giving the right signals to be born.
Sounds like you were spot on identifying the problems lambing at the right time to assist both lambs and the ewe.
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Knowing whether or not you need to look for more is (along with targetting the feeding correctly) is the huge advantage of getting ewes scanned. If they've been pushing hard for a while the ewe can get tired and stop actively pushing so hard, although the contractions will continue.
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Thank you for the replies...