[CarraghsBorderCollies]

my mum mourns every dead newborn, she replays it over and over again she talks to all her friends about it like it were a child!

me; i view it both in terms of financial loss and loss of a valuable addition to a breeding line, whilst it saddens me i take comfort in the knowledge there was little more i could have done and perhaps there was an internal fault that would still have ended in heartbreak, and i take joy in all the offspring that turn into good examples of their breed/type and fulfil the purpose for which they were bred whether it be meat/eggs or working dogs or in the case of the rabbits loved family pets!

what do you think?

gem x

[doganjo]

I see it both ways.  I don't have any farming stock but I breed dogs.  I have lost occasional puppies.  Once when the bitch rolled on a newborn when I was in the kitchen making a cup of tea - I hadn't realised she'd pop the next one out so quickly.  So I blamed myself and spoke about it to my friends to offload the experience.  Another time a bitch kept chewing the cord of the second one born while I was trying to clean up the first, and she chewed down too far.  Again I saw it as my fault so had to talk about the experience.  Most people have tried to tell me neither was my fault and it's just the loss of what could have been a good animal but you can't help it.  We are all different.  Just as well really!

[CarraghsBorderCollies]

my mum used to be a dachshund breeder so i grew up breeding dogs/ studying basic genetics/ researching bloodlines and helping with whelping!

in spring i had a very sad experience with a pedigree  simmental heifer while we were minding the farm at the back end of lambing! we also had 12 ewes due to drop!

anyway the calving went like clockwork, a fantastic bull calf was born! we went up to the house for a cuppa and when we came back we were shocked to find a heifer calf as well. the heifer had no milk and wouldnt stand to let either calf feed so we went to a neighbours dairy farm and got colostrum! we fed both calves and went to bed after checking sheep! at 5am we put heifer in the crush and got calves to suck and did this several times during day! all was going well she was bonding with the calves and they were getting stronger that night after we went to bed the silly thing laid on the bull calf crushing him to death i dont think she knew what to do with 1 calf let alone 2 as it was her first calving, (as anyone who has anything to do with cattle will know the heifer calf is useless when it is a twin with a calf of opposite gender except for slaughter as it is always a hermaphrodite!)

the hermaphrodite heifer calf is doing well now.

gem x