[goosepimple]

Lambing Medicine Cabinet HELP please.


It is 4/5 weeks to lambing for us.  I have lambed before (Soays) which were totally self sufficient and everything went like a dream, as it supposed to with rare breeds.  I am aware however, that we were lucky and that it may be different this time, so I would like to be prepared.  All ewes are rare breeds.


Looked at some items on the Home page here, Youtube videos and have Tim Tyne's sheep book for reference, but what would you recommend as the most helpful items you would always have at lambing?


Colostrum
Iodine
Vets phone no.
what else?


Thanks in advance.

[novicesmallholder]

We are still novices, this year was our 3rd year, so do not profess to be experts.  We used mostly:
Towels to help dry off if cold
Clostrum - if not fed after half hour tubed with150ml colostrum
Glucose - put some in colostrum to assist with energetic
Stomach tube
Heat lamps
Vets phone number either advice over phone or call out
Iodene for navels
Volac - if having to bottle feed

Hope this helps

[mowhaugh]

Too tired to be of much use, but I've just applied one, so clips for turned in eyelids.  Not that we get many, but handy to have.  Right now something along the lines of Damson Gin for the shepherdess seems a good idea, too.

Pen and strep.

[Fleecewife]

In addition to iodine, colostrum and a bottle, teats, milton etc, glucose, castration rings and applicator, temp ear tags, note book ( we record sex, dam, any identifying features for when they lose the ear tags and we have to work out who's who), old towels, we also have gloves and lube, LA antiB (Alamycin currently), Calciject, a selection of various sized disposable syringes and needles, milk powder left over from last year, but I don't think we used any then.
Cold lambs we rub with a towel and plonk on the radiator, or give to the dog to lick.  We do have some lamacs, free samples left over, but we've not needed them.
We will have a pen set up in the polytunnel in case of emergencies - not done yet as we have over a week to go yet.
Big torch, head torch, spare torch 
Shelter with fresh straw.
Water buckets to give the ewes a drink after they've delivered.  I prefer the ones which hang onto hurdles or pens, as the lambs won't fall into, or be born in, them as they can with buckets.
We have some lambing books for if anything goes wrong, but usually  our lambings tend to be fairly low key (hope I'm not tempting fate)
What we don't have is spray paint cans as we don't put numbers on the lambs.  We tried once when we had a much larger flock but a) we couldn't get one to show up on coloured fleece, and b) the dams licked the marks off within a few minutes 
Somewhere there's a bottle of kickstart type stuff, which I carry in my pocket, but in all the years I've had that I have never used it.  I think it's just possible it might now be out of date 
We do have a stomach tube somewhere but it's not been needed so far, and we do have pulling ropes, but again not needed.
Since we stopped keeping Jacobs we have had very few problems with lambing, but even with primitives problems can occur so we still check them 2 hourly through the day, although we leave them for about 6 hours overnight, unless there's a blizzard.  My lambing kit might seem a bit enormous but I have the stuff from the Jacob days so it's there.
And to cart it all about we use a cleaned-out licky bucket with a lid.
When we are checking the ewes, we just have gloves, lube and a phone in our pockets.  Our land is around our house so not far to come to fetch the kit if needed.

Oh and baby bum wipes - you can never have too many baby bum wipes 

[JulieWall]

Calciject 20 is cheap and should be in your lambing kit along with a big syringe and some antibiotic needles, if you need it for a ewe with hypocalcaemia you won't have time to go rushing off to the vets. A tin of molasses is handy too, warm water laced with a tablespoon of that is great for reviving a tired older ewe after lambing, you won't have to persuade her to drink it either!
Obstetric gel in case you need to go in or assist and some thick boot laces or lambing cords. Sod's law says you'll need these things if you haven't got them and if you have them handy you won't.
Iodine for navels.
I think most other stuff has already been listed 
Concentrates and a bucket of water for each ewe after she has lambed, they're always thirsty and hungry after.

I wouldn't be too quick to pump colostrum into a new lamb, 30 mins seems a bit hasty. if you fill it's belly with artificial feed it won't want it's mum's colostrum and you could stop it from getting her antibodies or even from bonding with her. Try and get it onto her udder first and failing that, milk her and tube it with that. Only use the packet stuff as a last resort. I use my finger inside the lambs mouth to check it's temperature, a well fed lamb will be toasty and warm. If it has no desire to suck you will discover that also but if it feels cool or worse still cold, you've got a problem. Check a strong lambs mouth to learn how hot it should feel.

[SallyintNorth]

goosepimple, you will like the Eblex leaflet "Manual 14 - Reducing Lamb Losses for Better Returns".  You can download it here

It includes a checklist of lambing kit items, and also a flowchart for how to revive a flagging lamb, depending on its age, temperature and condition.

[goosepimple]

Thank you, thank you all SO much that was brilliant brilliant information and I am so glad I asked.  Thank you! Written it all down and about to download that leaflet Sally, thanks.


For some reason none of your replies came up in my ' new replies' (?) so just got to it now by backtracking (anyone had that problem before?)


Thanks again, theoretically they should all do it beautifully on their own as last time but I'm a worrier so having the confidence of backup will be useful.