[Backinwellies]

   Had bad couple of days.  Lost 2 triplet girls from my favourite shearling after a 36 hour battle... she is a lovely ewe and still crying for her lots babies. 
In contrast another shearling who had a traumatic birth ( I had to assist birth of large twins.... In hindsight I'm sure she was suffering from hypocalcaemia) .... both lambs lively and battling to suckle. mum totally ignored them but would allow them to suckle.  We dried and stomach tubed colostrum to ensure they got enough... then left them.. observing from a distance that lambs were suckling.

Got up this morning to a dead lamb (largest) I suspect she laid on it.  Ewe lamb ok and trying to suckle.... I fed mum so she was still enough for lamb to latch on.    Ewe still showing no signs of maternal instinct at all  but tolerates lambs presence and suckling.   So I am stood in shed with one mum searching and crying for lost lambs and another who doesn't seem to know what the lamb is and a dead lamb .... want to cry myself.!! 
 
Help please will ewe eventually become a 'mum' to her remaining lamb?   Or would I be better to rear it? I don't want to lose another.

Do I need to give here anything more than the pen strep for my intervention?   

[Me]

If it was a tough pull some metacam/meloxidyl anti inflamatories would be nice, might perk her up a bit, leave her in the pen with lambie, as long as he is finding the teat she will learn to love him

[Bionic]

Linda, I am so sorry to hear this. I can't offer any advice but know how heart wrenching it can be, hence my decision not to lamb next year.


I feel like an expectant father pacing up and down the maternity waiting room 


I hope that ME is right and that your ewe will get to love her remaining lamb 

[jaykay]

If you've got a clumsy ewe, making a box/low pen for the lamb, so that she can see and sniff it, but can't lie on or butt it, is a good plan. Then you can lift it out to feed regularly, until she's got the idea.

Sometimes shearlings, especially if they've had a rough time lambing, seem to take a while to 'warm up' to the idea of being a mum - but they mostly do in the end.

[ZaktheLad]

Really sorry to hear you are having such a tough time - so horrible when lambing goes like this.  I can understand why Bionic feels it is all too much.

However, I think your shearling ewe will be fine given a little time and patience.  Shearlings can be funny creatures - some find the whole birth process just far too much to handle - just like a human mother can!  One of the biggest hurdles is getting the ewe to accept the lamb and your ewe does seem on the way to doing this - she is letting it suckle and is not aggressive towards it - you are part way there.  I would be very tempted myself to go in and double check the lamb is actually drinking and not just moving about underneath and wagging her tail as this can give a false impression of them actually getting the milk.  If you can hear her actually sucking the teat whilst her tail is going though - that is a different matter and she will be just fine. 

Such a shame about the twin - if you think the ewe did lie on it, are your lambing pens large enough?  You may want to give her a bit more space if she is a clumsy Mum - but not so much that she can run away from the lamb.

I really do believe though that she is well on the way to being a good Mother - just going to take a little bit more time.  Shearlings - what a nightmare!

With regards to your other ewe - does she still have one lamb left - a surviving triplet?  If not, perhaps consider a foster if she is looking for a lamb to love?

Hope things rapidly improve for you 

[SallyintNorth]

   Sorry to hear of your losses - but as I keep saying (and have to remind myself too), focus on the ones which are alive.  

If you have some combivit, or a vitamin/mineral drench, I'd give the ewe some of that.  Bucks them up after a hard delivery.

As jaykay says, make sure the lamb has somewhere it can be safe but still with mum and where mum can see and smell it.  Support feeding until one day you'll come to help and that lamb will have a nice full tummy.  Another time you'll find mum and lamb curled up together.  Then take lambie away and mum will nicker for it - job done, they can go out.

It may only take 24 hours, it may take several days.  But they do pretty much always come around.  I had one take a week and I think I had one take a few days longer - but unless they are actively harming the lamb they generally don't take long. 

If you can, when you are helping the lamb to feed, position the lamb so the ewe can sniff its bottom.

[SallyintNorth]

go in and double check the lamb is actually drinking and not just moving about underneath and wagging her tail as this can give a false impression of them actually getting the milk.  If you can hear her actually sucking the teat whilst her tail is going though - that is a different matter and she will be just fine. 

Maybe it's just us, but we get lambs waggling their tails and making good sucking noises, and when you check they've got a mouthful of wool 

The only way I ever convince myself a lamb is feeding is by seeing that it has a nice plump belly

[mab]

sorry to hear about your losses    can't offer any useful advice sorry    things improve.


m

[Backinwellies]

Update

Still much the same ... I am tube feeding. lamb is still sucking (properly) quite a bit but there is little milk I am hoping this will improve as ewe recovers.  At least ewe seems to have avoided laying on this one so far!

[Backinwellies]

   am winning.  Lamb fully belly when I went out this morning and I caught the ewe having a quick sniff of lambs bum!   

[Bionic]

sounds positive.    for lambie and her mum