[Eeyore-77]

Hi
Last Friday, after a fairly straightforward lambing for the rest of them, my last girl had two dead ewe lambs. Think they were too big and I didn’t intervene in time to help (and I am gutted).
I was fortunate to get a newborn triplet lamb onto her within 90 minutes, although it was about 1/3 the size of one of her lambs.
She appears to have taken the lamb after I rubbed it down with the dead lambs fluids, and is letting it feed, albeit after 6 nights she is still moving about when it tries to latch on, and not cleaning its bum or talking to it much as far as I can tell, but it is alive, appears to be growing, has a fat milk filled tummy, is pooing and peeing, and when I take her out of the pen she will do a bouncy little lamb dance which makes me think she is happy enough and she knows who mum is as she ran straight up to her. I also put a different older lamb in with mum to gauge the reaction and mum went bananas when it tried to feed.
This morning I thought I’d check on her milk after not checking since Tuesday. Right hand side was like I’d expect, kind of thin and squirts out easily. Left hand side though was tricky to get started and when I got it going it was a darker colour and thicker. I milked it off for a while and it started to come out more freely, and I put the lamb onto it and she started sucking vigorously for about a minute till she stopped as I think she was full. Udder/teats are pink and healthy, but left side a little hard, but didn’t seem tender or hot and ewe didn’t seem to mind lamb sucking once she started.
Was going to let them out on Saturday as I can’t keep them in for ever and a week seemed long enough but if she’s not entirely happy with the lamb and one side is stopping producing should I keep them in a bit longer?
It’s her first time and the mum doesn’t seem entirely sure about the whole thing, so I’m a bit concerned she runs off and leaves the lamb on its own, or loses milk on one side. I’ve never kept a single in to monitor the milk on both sides before, so is it normal for them to have a favoured side, or one side to drop off? Doesn’t help I guess that the lamb was wee and she had heaps of milk to satisfy it on both side I guess too. Thanks.

[shep53]

Single born lambs often favour one side only and so long as they are happy with the milk supply then the second side will disperse under pressure ,so please dont milk it as you wiil just increase milk flow and may lead to mastitis ,nature will take care of it

[Eeyore-77]

Thanks Shep53. I’d wondered about it before, but thought perhaps the ewe swapped sides. It was also that the milk was a bit thicker, and more yellow, when I looked in at lunchtime the lamb just doesn’t seem hungry even if I pop it’s mouth onto the teat. She’s got a nice fat tummy and seems content, but bored.

If she’s letting her feed OK, do you think it’s alright to put them outside too on Saturday. I’d rather she got onto grass and the lamb was able to stretch its legs too.

[Fleecewife]

Do you have a small paddock you can put them in so you can catch the lamb if necessary, in fact so you can catch them both just to check? Putting them straight in with the flock could be confusing for the first few days.
I'm assuming the thicker stuff from the unused side was old colostrum, which is extremely thick and creamy.

[Eeyore-77]

I’ve got the others (9 ewes/15 lambs) in the paddock ~2 acres, so was going to put them all in together. Then make up a pen from hurdles for feeding a few nuts to them all, so I can grab the ewe again if I want to check her out.
Thanks for the comment on the milk, one of them getting mastitis makes me feel sick if I could prevent it. No harm then in letting it sort itself out, she’s unlikely to lose one side of her udders?

[twizzel]

You can be the best stock person in the world and still get sheep with mastitis, lambs die, ewes die. I don’t turn anything out that I have doubts about. Can’t be faffed to have to catch them again the next day   

[Eeyore-77]

Hello,
Just an update from me.
I left the lamb with mum as advised and she seems to have cleared the gloopy milk herself as there’s lots of normal thin milk when I checked a couple of days ago.
I made up a wee pen for them outside and left them for 4 nights and lamb was feeding fine, so let them out this morning.
Mum went off to check every other lamb in the field. I should have also mentioned, my girls are black Welsh/black Welsh crosses so all black bar a couple of white lambs this year from a cross, and the adopted lamb is white.
She went to each black lamb and sniffed it and spoke to it gently. I could swear she knows her lambs that died were black ones even though she only saw them for a moment. Now she is walking about with the adopted lamb sticking to her like glue, but she is not moving far from the lamb as she grazes.
All’s well that ends well. Thank you for your advice and support.