The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Jukes Mum on April 24, 2017, 09:36:09 am
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Due to a set of rather unfortunate circumstances we have ended up with a pregnant gimmer (little Orphan Annie who was delivered prematurely by C-section last year after a dog attack). She is fat and has been overfed by the well-meaning OH who thought she must need extra feed being a baby only herself :-[
Unsurprisingly she prolapsed 2 weeks ago and has been in a prolapse harness ever since.
She is due to lamb on Friday. At what point should I remove the harness? During the day, one of us is always here, so if she started lambing we could whip it off easily enough, but what happens if she lambs at night? We obviously do night checks, but are not with her all night.
The prolapse was small and was only coming out when she was straining. If we remove the harness, will she just prolapse again? I have read on here before about ewes lambing past a harness . Is this always possible?
Sorry for so many questions, but this is our first experience with a prolapse. Poor Annie!
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Leave it on til she starts. I have had two lamb through/round the harness this time. A ewe lamb will be sometime from start to finish so you should see her...they don't just pop them out like older ewes, if you take it off she'll just prolapse again.
Also don't be tempted to interfere to soon when she starts, ewe lambs can be ages and she'll need plenty of time to open up. :fc:
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Don't worry - they can lamb ok with the harness on. I don't know how - but they do! I've had several lamb overnight with the harness on and as if by magic the lamb(s) happily laid by their side or feeding.
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Depending on breed you may see two hollows appear in front of her pelvis, which means the lambs have positioned themselves for lambing. This takes the pressure off the prolapse and the harness can be removed.
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Thanks all.
I took it off today to clean it (ew!) and have been watching her like a hawk while it dries. I'll pop it back on now and keep you posted on how we get on.
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Depending on breed you may see two hollows appear in front of her pelvis, which means the lambs have positioned themselves for lambing.
No chance- she's a Ryeland, never been sheared and strongly resembles a pompom. I have trouble identifying which end is which!
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Echo the others, I've had to use one twice and both times the ewe lambed with it on - no idea how she managed?
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Depending on breed you may see two hollows appear in front of her pelvis, which means the lambs have positioned themselves for lambing.
No chance- she's a Ryeland, never been sheared and strongly resembles a pompom. I have trouble identifying which end is which!
Down breeds are best for spotting this happening, as the wool closely follows the contours of the body. When we see this happen in one of the Southdowns we say "she's dropped".
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Then I shall keep a close eye out for her looking like a more distorted pom-pom ;)
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We had one this year that managed to get the nose of the lamb over the top of the spoon and legs underneath. Was spotted and tine cut, spoon out and successfull. But normally thy lamb past it.
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As everyone says they can lamb with the harness on, we had one but the dog ate it, it was left in the back of the Land Rover freshly of a sheep, so anyone that knows collies can guess the outcome ????
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Is there such a saying as "A watched sheep never lambs"? If not, there should be!! Come on Annie!!!
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Go away from home and she will definitely lamb :innocent: and just to add balance 9 out of 10 ewes can lamb through a harness successfully and then the odd 1 gets totally stuck in the harness
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9 out of 10 ewes can lamb through a harness successfully and then the odd 1 gets totally stuck in the harness
very comforting- thanks :innocent:
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Little Annie had an enormous boy lamb yesterday :relief:
We were sat on the bench in the field at tea time last night with a glass of wine when she started, so we took her harness off and she happily obliged to lamb. Most convenient!
Hopefully the prolapse and giant lamb will be a lesson learned to my fella not to 'sympathy feed' the fat sheep!!
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unfortunately it depends on the risk you are willing to take - most will send to market. If you use better management next year but I'm not sure prolapse is connected to breeding not sure about over eating. Far to dangerous to stuff animals.
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Little Orphan Annie will never be going to market :hugsheep:
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Our mild prolapse is going for mutton after weaning... Interested to try mutton from our own ewes anyway so it's a bit of an experiment... our other empty cull ewes are going to market. Must be strong- 3 out of 9 of our ewes will be culled and all probably could be given a second chance but I always said our mini flock would be run as commercial as possible and that means culling hard.
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Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against culling whatsoever, just not Annie. She's rather special. She was born prematurely by C-section after her mum was attacked by a dog and had to be shot. All rather traumatic but she's a real pet.