Author Topic: the heartbreak and the delight ! with a good dollop of determintation..... (Read 2725 times)

pikilily · « **on:** April 17, 2012, 07:27:05 pm »

Hi guys- back in the land of the living. Ive spent the last two weeks staring a sheeps bums waiting for the girls to pop. (My day job is in gynacology- so it was sheeps bums at home and then.....

...)

anyway its all over now, thank goodness.

1st ewe - twins - one leg back in number two.

2nd ewe - six days late, absolutely enormous ram lamb with stuck head and one leg out, dead at six in the morning! I had checked her only 1 1/2 hours earlier.... We couldnt shift it one way or t'other. So we had to cut its head off...and even then it was a tough job to move!! Oh, my friends, that was really horrid, really, really not for the faint hearted!!

3rd ewe - triplets at same time as 2nd - thank goodness- so one fostered to bereaved mum above. It took me a week of supervising feeds, and trying to ignore the hungry little man's yells (and resist feeding him a bottle) before the penny dropped and she has decided she will let him feed. She wanted him with her all the time just didnt want to feed him!!

The two left with original mum are a comical pair...one was so tiny and a bit frail I ended up having to warm him with heat pads and foil blankets (the sort for mountaineering) topped with straw. Mmmmm!! hes now called Wellington! .... both lambs are now thriving...

.

4th ewe - twins - one would have been 'hung' but spotted it early and was able to reposition!

So all in all, a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. I am still beating myself up about the dead lamb, but the concensus of all the experienced shepherds on hand was that we could not have got that lamb out alive even if I had been there at the begining of the labour!!

On a positive note - they are all happily bouncing about the back field and i can sleep in my own bed !!

Emma T

in the hills · « **Reply #1 on:** April 17, 2012, 07:54:43 pm »

OMG ..... so glad Ive finished my first ever lambing. The mere thought of all that would have given me nightmares

Rosemary · « **Reply #2 on:** April 17, 2012, 08:21:02 pm »

We had a gimmer with a huge lamb - we had a C section done. Thankfully lamb and ewe doing well. Once the vet got the two legs into the birth canal, the head wouldn't fit

Relax now and enjoy the lambies and start planning for next year - like i'm planning NOT to feed the ewes expecting singles

TheCaptain · « **Reply #3 on:** April 17, 2012, 09:42:24 pm »

Quote from: pikilily on April 17, 2012, 07:27:05 pm

Hi guys- back in the land of the living. Ive spent the last two weeks staring a sheeps bums waiting for the girls to pop. (My day job is in gynacology- so it was sheeps bums at home and then..... ...)

anyway its all over now, thank goodness.

1st ewe - twins - one leg back in number two.

2nd ewe - six days late, absolutely enormous ram lamb with stuck head and one leg out, dead at six in the morning! I had checked her only 1 1/2 hours earlier.... We couldnt shift it one way or t'other. So we had to cut its head off...and even then it was a tough job to move!! Oh, my friends, that was really horrid, really, really not for the faint hearted!!

3rd ewe - triplets at same time as 2nd - thank goodness- so one fostered to bereaved mum above. It took me a week of supervising feeds, and trying to ignore the hungry little man's yells (and resist feeding him a bottle) before the penny dropped and she has decided she will let him feed. She wanted him with her all the time just didnt want to feed him!!

The two left with original mum are a comical pair...one was so tiny and a bit frail I ended up having to warm him with heat pads and foil blankets (the sort for mountaineering) topped with straw. Mmmmm!! hes now called Wellington! .... both lambs are now thriving... .

4th ewe - twins - one would have been 'hung' but spotted it early and was able to reposition!

So all in all, a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. I am still beating myself up about the dead lamb, but the concensus of all the experienced shepherds on hand was that we could not have got that lamb out alive even if I had been there at the begining of the labour!!

On a positive note - they are all happily bouncing about the back field and i can sleep in my own bed !!

Emma T

what breed are your sheep?

Just so I can avoid them....

pikilily · « **Reply #4 on:** April 17, 2012, 09:51:25 pm »

@Rosemary...yeh i sort of wish i had had them scanned! but even if i did, with a very small flock (five ewes) it would be bl**dy difficult to feed them seperate amounts according to number of lambs. i couldnt seperate them into different fields like someone with a large flock or lots of fields. .....mmmm maybe i'll have a think about temporary dividing the fields into very little paddocks! this past winter i tried to be moderate to cover all their needs! I thought i was being meagre with their rations.

@ the Capatain - the flock is mixed.... two suffolk crosses, one swaledale cross, one texel cross, and last years ewe-lamb (will put her to tup this autumn) who is a mulish cross. The ram was 7/8ths charolais 1/8 beltex. they are bred for meat, btw.

pikilily · « **Reply #5 on:** April 17, 2012, 09:58:49 pm »

this is my fourth or fifth year lambing - its always been so rewarding, although i always seem to have to help a little bit for the odd leg in the wrong position, but this years experience was tough! I think the whole village was rooting for us......we got through and it is marvelous to see the lambs thundering around the field.

So final count, seven lambs from four ewes, five ram lambs and two ewe lambs.
Emma T

Rosemary · « **Reply #6 on:** April 17, 2012, 10:08:36 pm »

Our vet said he'd done more C sections on both cattle and sheep this year than ever before - he reckons the mild winter meant that animals were in better condition that usual.

pikilily · « **Reply #7 on:** April 17, 2012, 10:12:57 pm »

funny old time innit! i deliberately kept the ewes a bit leaner this year cos i was told they were too fat last year!
irony is lost when it come to nature!
ET x