The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Sheep => Topic started by: Jessandkath on March 24, 2017, 03:54:36 pm
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We are having the lambing season from hell. After a good outcome for the ewe with prolapse, we then had twins abandoned by an experienced ewe (bottle-feeding now), then we had another very good ewe walk away from her twins (they died in a 45 minute window that we weren't there), a shearling ewe walk away from a single (which died in my arms having come round really nicely and then just seemed to have a fit) and now our matriarch and supermum also walked away from her single - we've penned her up with it and she slowly seems to be dealing with it but she isn't really mothering it. We had another ewe lamb inside and she was also not impressed with her lambs but has accepted them. All are behaving so differently to previous years. We have tried to being the remaining to ewes due into the shed but they jump the pen so we've given up on that.
Any thoughts on what might be going on. All abandoned lambs were licked dry by the ewes first so they weren't rejected immediately
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Sorry to hear of your troubles :hug:
I have heard it said that mineral deficiencies can lead to lambs which don't get up and go very well. And to poor mothering in ewes which previously have mothered well. So perhaps you could look at giving minerals another year. We're using the Himalayan red rock salt here this year, for all our stock.
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Sometimes the ewes will know if the lamb isn't going to make it and will abandon it. I would guess at a mineral deficiency too (assuming you are doing nothing different to previous years, re: handling / stress levels etc).
If it were me I'd be mineral drenching all the ewes immediately (if poss without adding extra stress) and then all lambs as they appear with a lamb-boost, and keep a close eye on everyone.
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what condition score are the ewes and what breed
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Thanks. Yes everything is the same as last year, same timings for heptavac and everything. The tup is different but that's it. We're not aware of any additional stresses. There was a dog incident close by (chasing not actually getting hold of sheep thankfully) a few days ago but our issues had already started then.
Our ewes have all had access to a mineral and energy lick but will get something for them and also have a re-think for next year. Won't be able to get near one of the two left to lamb - she jumped out of the lambing pen once already (she happened to be in so we took the chance to pen her without stress but she jumped out so that didn't work) but should be able to get the other without too much stress.
They're Jacob sheep - all where in pretty good conditions with one definitely being too fat (but she's lambed triplets fine and is doing well)
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Sometimes these things just happen for no reason that's apparent to humans. We cull ewes that are poor mothers.
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so sorry to hear you've had a bad lambing year. If its any consolation we have used the words -" lambing year from hell" to describe this year. two weeks ago we seriously felt like we'd had enough of this and would gladly not do it again, and perhaps move to a two up two down in a town with a window box and some decking ,
but then the sun came out , the lambs started galloping up and down the fence every evening and things felt better again.
once the dust had settled what had actually happened was that all lambs actually survived but in the process we lost two of our original and much loved ewes. and had almost zero sleep for 3 weeks plus have probably supported our local vets to send all their staff on a 6 month round the world cruise.
in truth this was always going to be some of our old girls last years lambing but on the plus side each left us with 2 stonking lambs apiece. one of our other old girls, also demonstrated no initial interest in her twins, they seemed invisible to her despite a fairly straightforward birth. she just ignored them. eventually we resigned ourselves to them having been rejected and put them in a little pen overnight after volostrum. the following morning we tried to get them on her, just in case, and she was back in the game and has been fine with them ever since.
whats different this year ? some of our old girls perhaps we went to the well once too often, as our youngsters were fine, also we lambed in feb for the first time ever in order to co-operate with the people buying our ram- we wont lamb in feb again !!!! older ewes needing more energy than they could get- this year we have fed far far more hay, fed far far more cake and got through high energy feed blocks at a ridiculous rate. next year we're back to lambing in April !! but lambing we will be
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Just wondering if your lambing indoors or outdoors and how long you pen the ewes and lambs up together for post lambing so they can bond? Sounds like a nightmare. It could just be some virus, or maybe the damp weather has made some mould grow somewhere and its affected the ewes :(
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We, too, have had an, er, interesting, lambing so far. Last week we got maybe 10 hours' sleep in one 60-hour period and had to do some rapid mothering-up pen creations using pallets and pig hurdles. We had a Badger Face reject her ram lamb, although clearly adoring his sister, so she's in an adopter - first time this has happened in hundreds of BF lambs. One ewe slipped a tiny lamb (what on earth did she do with all those 18% ewe nuts?) and wandered off - she's in an adopter too. Both will go to cull. One lamb's head kept slipping back and it turned out to have the cord around its neck, one first-timer was very tight and turned out to have an intact hymen ..... If you have different problems, that's shepherding. If you have lots of the same problem then you have a problem.