Author Topic: Lambing - Delayed Birth (Read 6268 times)

AndyR · « **on:** March 24, 2011, 05:29:13 pm »

Hi there - hope your lambing is going well.
We have an unusual happening.
One of our Llanwenog ewes produced a ewe lamb, which suckled OK but unfortunately died a day later for no obvious reason. This same ewe then produced twin ram lambs 8 days later both of which are doing well. Talking to our local expert, who is lambing 400 ewes, he has seen it very occasionally, but our sheep bible only mentions delays of up th 12 hours (not 8 days).

Has anyone else had a similar situation?

We think that we are doing reasonably well with a current lambing percentage from 8 ewes of 150% (with 2 more still to lamb)

Cheers
Andy

Beewyched · « **Reply #1 on:** March 24, 2011, 05:41:37 pm »

Wow - 8 days apart

We don't have sheep at the mo, but I remember my parent's sheep - a "speckle face" cross-breed used to have triplets most years & on one occassion had the smallest, again a ewe lamb, & then had the 2 boys the next day (a gap of at least 20 hours if I recall).

Madcow · « **Reply #2 on:** March 24, 2011, 06:02:14 pm »

my, thats very weird, but I guess nature has a way to keep us on our toes, just when the books say one thing, she makes others happen !
hmmmm I thought 1 of my ewes was still looking fat............... but 3 weeks later!, I guess shes just fat !

SallyintNorth · « **Reply #3 on:** March 24, 2011, 06:15:28 pm »

A few years ago we had a pair of unclaimed but licked lambs appear overnight in well-walled field in which there were only lambed ewes and their lambs!

The only possible explanations were (a) that a ewe had produced a pair of lambs several days after producing one or more lambs, (b) a ewe had pinched another ewe's lambs and produced milk for them several days before having her own lambs - and then licked and then ignored her own lambs, or (c) an alien spacecraft had abducted a pair of newborn lambs for investigation and then returned them to the wrong field.

They were nice ewe lambs who were initially known as The Alien Twins. I still have Starlight, who got fosterd onto another ewe; I can't remember whether we fostered Moonlight and whether she got kept on or sold as a breeding ewe lamb. Starlight will have her second crop in a week or two. Her first lamb was a corker, wish we knew how we'd bred its mother!

Beewyched · « **Reply #4 on:** March 24, 2011, 06:48:19 pm »

I love option c)

names were brill too!

doganjo · « **Reply #5 on:** March 24, 2011, 07:03:55 pm »

I've heard of this in cats so I suppose it's possible in other species, but never that long. If they were triplets the ewe lamb just wasn't fully developed internally so was effectively aborted - lungs, heart, liver function - maybe not complete.

Cinderhills · « **Reply #6 on:** March 24, 2011, 07:47:33 pm »

Quote from: SallyintNorth on March 24, 2011, 06:15:28 pm

(c) an alien spacecraft had abducted a pair of newborn lambs for investigation and then returned them to the wrong field.

Fleecewife · « **Reply #7 on:** March 25, 2011, 12:32:01 am »

The most likely explanation is that the first lamb was not hers but she pinched it at birth. On the Shetland group, someone has reported lambs being born to the same ewe about 2 weeks apart and the first birth was witnessed so it must be possible. Also as doganjo suggests, the first could have been aborted before term. But the alien spacecraft is the most appealing option

Freddiesfarm · « **Reply #8 on:** March 25, 2011, 08:14:45 am »

I have had a similar thing where the ewe aborted one lamb a week early and then lambed the others successfully a week or so later.

The other wierd thing we had was picked up first by the scanner. He said quads and he said two large and two small. she lambed twins and all seemed well and I thought the scanner had got it wrong or she had reabsorbed the other two and then 17 days later (so next cycle) she produced another pair. She had been kept in with her lambs for some reason, so there was no doubt about who they belonged to. To make things more interesting the first lambs where lleyn on lleyn and the second ones where hampshire on lleyn as we had changed the ram over in between!