So annoyed with myself this morning. Outside lamber had had a lamb and was cleaning it up fine. Went to check and could see the tips of the feet of the next one. Some of the other sheep started coming to me with their lambs which were running around so I thought I’d come away and go back to her in 10 mins. Went and checked lambs born in shed this morning, cleaned up mess in there, went back and twin had been born but bag was over its head. I tried reviving it but it was gone.
It doesn’t help my OH starts saying I didn’t need to leave her and should’ve stayed close by etc. Makes me feel even worse. I could see the tips of the feet and there didn’t appear to be anything wrong so it wasn’t like she needed assistance, so thought 10 mins wouldn’t do any harm. Not like I left her struggling. Just feel sad. I know the whole livestock deadstock crap but this just feels unfair. I know I don’t post much here but the only place I can do so with any sort of privacy.
You absolutely should not be blaming yourself, you did exactly what I would have done and there was nothing to suggest this ewe wouldn't lick the second lamb's head as soon as it was born.
Your assessment that it was more important to lead the other sheep away from her was exactly right, and I too would not have gone straight back over to her. Leaving the field so that the others settled back down, away from the lamber, was also the absolutely right thing to do. (And you can tell your OH I said so. If he's lambed over 3000 ewes, most of them outside, over 16 years or more, he can argue an alternative view with me if he likes. But if he had, I doubt he'd have been so insensitive. Anyone who's farmed knows that trusting your own judgement is crucial for anyone in farming, so even if there are other ways to look at things, it's never helpful to bring another person down over what they did in a given circumstance. By all means offer a gentle, "Something you might like to consider for another time" if there was a better course of action they could have taken - and you'll know from my past posts that I would be doing that if I thought you could have made a different and better choice.)
It really was bad luck. On the plus side she's got one healthy lamb which will now do extremely well, and be away bigger and earlier than if it'd been sharing the milk with a sibling, and the ewe will have learned her lesson for another time. Her condition will be less affected by rearing one lamb, so she'll be well placed to have another pair next year and to do them both well.
Grieve for the little life lost, but don't dwell on it.
Any lessons to be learned? Not really, no-one watches every eye every minute of every lambing, and walking away for 10 minutes at "toes showing" is both normal and reasonable. If she was a first-time lamber, or had never had twins before, failing to lick the second lamb as soon as it's born is a little more likely - but then so is failing to bond with either lamb because her flock mates are all fussing around her, which risk you correctly averted. (This sort of thing is why I like my caravan in the middle of the field at lambing time, and a good pair of binoculars!)
Topic: Feeling a failure this morning (Read 386 times)
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March 24, 2013, 09:55:39 pm
