[Womble]

I learned that if you're sitting with a tup lamb on your lap to give it a bottle, and feel a lovely warm feeling sweeping down your legs, that might not actually be love after all  .

Oh, and I've learned to use straw instead of shavings. They've all got bits of shavings in their wool now, and it's going to be hell to remove! 

[Hellybee]

Same as every year really.........Don't leave the tap on.    Think twenty steps ahead of lambs.  Covert baler twine. Remember to keep all 500 ml pop bottles.  Remember that you WILL be mugged every day. 

[Llandovery Lass]

A very odd thing, we had a lamb that got her head caught between the gate and the post, all she could do was writhe on the ground. Took her to the vets expecting  her to be put down, she has been on steroids for nearly two weeks and is up and jumping and almost normal. When she was down we had to bath her because of the urine. My oh got some nappies and it worked, sounds odd but she was dry and the nappy wet, needed changing about 5 times a day! So next year I will have some nappies for any I may have to nurse.
The other thing is don't be too confident about leaving them to get on with it, a breach lamb can die quite quickly if not rescued, there is nothing wrong with having a feel if you think it's gone on long enough.

[mowhaugh]

Buy plentiful supplies before hand so when the rep who you buy all your animal health products rings to ask if you need anything, you don't have to ask him for gin and tonic! On the other hand, I'm not expecting it to be on ours next bill, so maybe that was a good way of doing it. He even brought a lemon.

[suziequeue]

The other thing is don't be too confident about leaving them to get on with it, a breach lamb can die quite quickly if not rescued, there is nothing wrong with having a feel if you think it's gone on long enough.

Yes - I have to say that the deciding factor for me in calling the vet this time was that I wasn't confident in the lie once I had had a feel.

I thought the lamb might have a leg back or something which was stopping it coming.

On reflection and in disucssion with the vet, I think I could have been more "assertive" in my internal examination - and then I would been able to discern that indeed the lie was normal and let her labour on. So that's one for next year.

However, next time I will tell the ewe that I am calling the vet and then go off for a cup of coffee and see if it has the miraculous effect that I have experienced with humans in the past and in my ewe this time.

[Hevxxx99]

Never assume a ewe isn't pregnant.

I had 2 lamb that I thought were barren. It seems Swaledales hide singles (and udders) very well...

Never, ever say "Lambing went well. We didn't lose any!" I found an aborted lamb in the field the afternoon of the morning I said that.

[Marches Farmer]

Ah, yes, I checked one ewe that scanned with a single three times, very thoroughly.  Second lamber, no sign of enlarged vulva, udder development or live lamb and decided she'd lost the lamb.  22.5 weeks after the ram came out I find her standing next to a cold lamb still in the bag.  She's now in an adopter with one of my neighbour's triplet Berrichons and will hopefully use all that milk to good effect. 

[Foobar]

I'll be finding a different scanner for next year ... 33% have been wrong so far this year

[Remy]

The size of the ewes, their udders and 'girly bits' are no indication of the order in which they will lamb, or how many they will have!  I don't have mine scanned and bought one ewe in that looked like she was about to explode, and another to keep her company who wasn't far off in size.  I guessed the first one correctly, and luckily was on hand to correct two misrepresented lambs.  But ten others lambed before the other one, many of them a fraction of her size.  The second one to lamb looked quite small, didn't have much in the way of an udder and had quads!! 


And mainly, that every year brings problems of a kind you haven't encountered before 

[Backinwellies]

I was reminded at least twice this year that going with my instinct is the right thing to do .... if I think a ewe is struggling ... she usually is ....   and help too early (as long as cervix is fully open) is less likely to be a problem than help too late!

[nimbusllama]

Well - how long is a "bit longer"? Last year I left it one hour then pulled the lamb but I felt that I could have "waited a bit longer"...... so this year I waited two hours and the lamb was still very far back and I couldn't feel the feet.

When I used to do Obstetrics, something magical used to happen to labouring women when The words "Emergency Section" or "Call the Consultant" were used. The same thing happened in this case.

That of course is the £1M question  But I would wager that many ewes are interfered with that would do their own thing in time
Yesterday morning I had a ewe scanned with trips that had just one at foot , I left her but passed by about 3 hrs later with a neighbouring sheep farmer in the truck (he was just being nosy) ---he thought I was mad to leave her and wanted to catch her up but I left her and on my way home in the evening she had 3 lambs asleep next to her. Her lambing process took 8 hrs I think....sometimes it just takes a while

I had a Castlemilk Moorit ewe start 'nesting' at 7pm and then didn't get going very well, but I couldn't catch her in the dark alone. I stayed up until 4am checking for any progress and finally caught her (with help) at 7am the following morning (with the nose and 2 front feet showing) and delivered a strong healthy ram lamb!.... I was sure it would be dead after 12 hours labour, so never give up hope...


The other thing I have learnt is that my 4 ewes have given birth in exactly the same order as last year, I will let you know if they do the same next year.

[Big Light]

Sod's law works double - if you sleep in slightly later the lamb will just have died, if it's sunny they won't lamb, if it's peeing down and freezing there will be Barrow loads and after a boorach a quick finding of your sense of humour and a positive outlook essential

[daveh]

Nimbusllama wrote:
I had a Castlemilk Moorit ewe start 'nesting' at 7pm and then didn't get going very well, but I couldn't catch her in the dark alone. I stayed up until 4am checking for any progress and finally caught her (with help) at 7am the following morning (with the nose and 2 front feet showing) and delivered a strong healthy ram lamb!.... I was sure it would be dead after 12 hours labour, so never give up hope...

I have found with my CMMs that they won't lamb when you are watching but insist on doing it when no one is watching. The only time I have witnessed an unassisted lambing is when I hid in some adjoining straw bales for about a half hour. The ewe kept checking that everything was quiet and no one about before lambing. It may have been the case that if you had not gone near her for an hour something may have popped out.

Regards, Dave

[suziequeue]

Yes - we have binoculars on the bedroom windowsill so we can look out from there without opening the window. At night we open the window and shine a powerful torch up the field from a distance and count the number of pairs of eyes. I can also hold the binos in one hand and the torch in the other and do a sweep of the field.

[VSS]

Are you pleased with Humbug's lambs?