[Hillview Farm]

I've seen on a few threads now that people's lambing's aren't going to plan.

Feeling very glum, We started lambing early on the 8th:

- First ewe didn't let her milk down
- Second lambed twins and the second was dead (both tiny but now the one is fine) massive forehead looked like something was wrong and its neck was snapped (spoke to the stand in vet who wasn't interested) 
- Few good normal lambing's then yesterday a ewe lambed twins one with bent over knuckles (had to splint legs)
- This morning go down to find two ewes have lambed one a single who looks like its hips have been pushed out of alignment (wonky hips) and the other twins and once again there was a dead lamb as its neck a snapped (looks like it has turnt on the way out and the alive twin has needed to have splints on her front legs too.

Feeling low, I know these things happen but its still a massive blow as these are our new pedigree ewes. Fingers crossed that the rest goes smoothly and we don't loose any more!
 

[wellies]

Oh it's rubbish when things aren't going well, that with a lack of sleep & it really feels awful. We've had a bit of an up & don time. 1st ewe produced twins but the first one couldn't use it's back legs & after treatment from the vet we decided to have her pts as she was suffering. Had a ewe prolapse for the first time & lack milk a few days later but fine now. This morning we had twins born but the second was dead, both malpresented; 1st with a leg back, 2nd both legs back. The ewe didn't let her milk down but now has started to in one quarter after oxytocin. I feel pooped. I hope everything starts to get better for you soon. I've got 2 more ewes to go

[fsmnutter]

I hate to say it, but deformed lambs with twisted and fused joints/necks sound like possible schmallenberg. I would be back on to the vets and getting them tested so you know what you're dealing with. May come back as nothing, as there are non-infectious causes of problem lambs, but you'll at least know if you have an SBV problem.
hope all the survivors are thriving and you don't have any more problems.
Suzanne

[devonlad]

we're 2 down with 4 to go and although our first two were totally trouble free, both popping out twins unaided, we know we're not out the woods. two of the ones to go are first timers who always seem to produce something to challenge. we had a couple of bent knuckles the year before last- contracted tendons which like you we splinted for about 10 days and they suddenly just went right. hope you've had your share of bad ones tho it does seem more than fair share- wonder bout schmallenberg or something else ? or just plain bad luck for the year

[firther]

hope things improve for you hillview and I'm sure they will

[SallyintNorth]

Yes my lambing - of my own wee fleece flock - has started really badly.  No live lambs yet, one dead shearling and another poorly.  Desperately hoping for a healthy lamb soon...

I have been wondering whether it's a cumulative effect from the terrible long wet winter 2012/13; the better summer wasn't enough to heal the ground so although grass grew and forage was made, the nutritional value wasn't there.  Maybe we should've given mineral supplements or something. 

I have wondered before about minerals and the bent-legs syndrome.  We seem to get it some years and not others, but they pretty much always all come right once they get some sunshine on them.

And I've had lambs I called 'flopbot' some years - just not fully ready to stand up, but come right after a few days.  One took 10 days.  Pretty sure that must've been a lack of some nutrient.

[Blacksheep]

We are near the end of lambing just over 50 ewes but did have some problems near the start, we had one ewe with a schmallenburg lamb, had to lamb it with 3 legs coming out at once, due to long stiffened wrong angled hind limb and then pts, fortunately the other 2 lambs born from this ewe were normal, she was a ewe we bought in last summer.  Another gimmer started to lamb a week early with ringwomb so was taken to vets for possible caesarean, however as one lamb had recently died they said they couldn't do a ceasar and it took 3 people to pull the lambs out (poor ewe) the 2nd was born with alive but they couldn't get it to breath, testing showed the cause to be ecoli, just hope the ewe will be alright for next year, she hadn't seemed ill in herself prior to lambing so we were not aware of the infection. Also another ewe lambed one with wonky shoulders and stiff bowed legs which didn't come right so had to be pts.  These were all problems early on and more than we would expect to see, other than that we had a ewe that we thought was expecting quads become a few days before she was due, she was then induced and fortunately her 3 lambs(not 4) were all born healthy.  Oh yes and we started a new Shropshire flock of 3 inlamb ewes last year, unfortunately one was scanned barren and we have only ended up with one ewe lamb to add to the flock!
re testing for schmallenburg we were advised by our vet that they was no point, I think partly because you need to get samples to the lab straight away and I guess in our area they had plenty of experience of seeing affected lambs last year to recognise it.

[ZaktheLad]

Sally - sounds like an horrendous start to your lambing - hope things greatly improve for you very soon.   Does seem to be an awful lot of joint issues in the lambs this year from various flocks, going in the posts here.   My ewes start lambing circa 4th April so keeping my fingers and everything else crossed. 

[Ladygrey]

Sounds awful hopefully the rest of your lambing all goes well!

Thankfully my pedigree ewes all lambed well and everything is perfect!

Rest of them start from 3rd of April according to the crayon marked ones, but as the crayons didnt show up on half of them and they have all bagged up now bar one, according to the day the rams went in I can expect lambs from tuesday next week!

[Marches Farmer]

Does sound like SBV.  Read a report that 80% of sheep tested inthe West Country were positive for SBV.  Didn't vaccinate my rams as it might have raised their temperatures at just the wrong time for maximum fertility, but all the ewes were done.  Expensive but will have saved all the cost by selling just a couple of lambs.

[Hillview Farm]

Hello all

after having a good read online I am sure we have lambs with SBV, these were all bought in inlamb.

Now my surviving lambs (bent joints, twisted hip) will they be ok? Obviously the twisted hip will have to go as I cant risk lambing it or will the bent over front joints which are correcting I might add be, ok to lamb? I am not very educated on SBV, will the ewes be ok to lamb again next year?

my crossbred original ewes are due to start lambing soon so we shall see if I have a problem.

[fsmnutter]

In terms of the ewes, there is likely to be some immunity gained from natural infection, so should have no problems next year, as far as the experts are saying.
The problem is when the ewe is infected at a certain point in early pregnancy, the virus then goes into the nervous system of the lamb, causing it to not move around as normal in the womb, and stiffen up and get these funny joints.
I would be tempted not to keep any of the affected lambs (send away fat/store instead, as they should be OK as long as not lame), mainly because odd joints are more likely to be under strain later on in life, and cause earlier arthritis/lameness issues, particularly if put in lamb and bearing extra weight and metabolic stresses.
If you have problems in your homebred ewes, then I would vaccinate next year, if not, it would suggest you don't have schmallenberg in your area, and so it's less likely the ewes will get affected at the wrong time of pregnancy next year. The virus only lives a very short time in the blood, so the in lamb ewes likely got infected before they came to you, and likely didn't have any virus in the blood to be picked up by your local midges to spread onwards.
Fingers crossed for your homebred ewes and hopefully that will be an end of the problems for you.
Hope that helps
Suzanne

[wellies]

My understanding is your girls which contracted it this year during foetal development should be fine to lamb next year so you shouldn't worry about that  We vaccinated our ewes but not the rams this year, I'm not sure on the current thinking on if they need to be revaccinated...does anyone else? We splinted a lamb last year and when I discussed it with the vet and did some research the thinking was it did seem to have a genetic tendency. We have used the same ram this year and ewe but we didn't put them together (just in case that matching was causing an issue). The same ram hasn't produced any lambs requiring splints this year and the ewe produced a healthy large ewe lamb. Our little ewe lamb didn't survive but that was not because of the splints, her legs were straightening out just fine she just had other complicating factors. I'm sure your guys with splints on will do fine. A bit of sunshine in the fields will help enormously. I really hope things start getting a bit easier for you 

[Roxy]

Sorry to hear about all these problems.
 
Its made me a bit jittery, and I only have three Gotland first timers to lamb!!
Have enough problems with my livestock, without any further disasters.

[Hillview Farm]

Thank you Suzanne and wellies, very comforting words. Fingers crossed for my ewes sand hopefully it's just the bought ladies, we took a risk but what else can you do when heading down a new breed line. We did our research on the breeders I think we were just unlucky this time.

Don't worry your self roxy it'll be fine!!