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LambMetrics – 28th August 2021

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#LAMBMETRICS for the last few days

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 0
Total Lambs Born: 107
Drysdale lambs (live total): 48
English Leicester lambs (live total): 37
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 13
Total Sets of Twins born: 35
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 53
Total ram lambs: 54
Ewes lambed /70: 70  (100 %)
Lamb % : 140 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 11
Losses: 9 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 4
Total Lambs Born: 99
MerinoX lambs (live total): 25
Castledale lambs (live total): 67
Total Sets of Twins born: 38
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 61  (98.3 %)
Lamb % : 150% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 2
Losses: 9 [lamb]; 1 [ewe]

 

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Down to only 1 ewe still pregnant. I think. (I don’t have the hi-viz tags on the Merino and Castledale ewes and it’s got confusing with a paddock full of lambs. lol)

Beautiful day today but the other night – straight after the blog – was drama-filled when I went back to feed lambs and went to try get 2 lambs back with their mother and then discovered a ewe “down” and her (new) lamb missing.

Found it under a fallen tree. Couldn’t tell if a fox had tried to grab it or if it had bled a bit due to getting itself into a tight spot.

The Merino ewe is okay now but wasn’t interested in her lamb whatsoever. And at 9pm I wasn’t going to muck about – a jacket, a bottle and a warm shed were in its future. (The ICU Small Animal rugs are awesome – I can put a heat pack in the jacket to keep the lamb snug all night.) Lamby is now doing well.

And then there was another lamb whose mother didn’t want it.

Those of you keeping track will realise this means that now I have WAY TOO MANY lambs on the bottle.

I caved. I got the special “Lambar” feeder to make like easier for Mum and I.

The poddy lambs may need a blog post all their own. There are a variety of reasons the lambs are on the bottle – ranging from fox attack injuries to orphans. They are quite the “gang” now!

One set of twins is on the bottle because their mum had been ill and subsequently didn’t have quite enough milk when they were born.

This ewe had a partial vaginal prolapse. The “retainer” normally ties to the wool but short wool necessitates a harness to “hold it all in”!

There was a request for a Floss update.

You will be pleased to know that Floss appears to have made a full recovery! Thank you all for the love, prayers and good wishes for her.

Floss – nearly 2 yrs old

The other day was International Dog Day or some such thing. So here are some pics of the other dogs here. 🙂

Bramble and Brighid are slowing down now. Maggie isn’t an awesome sheepdog generally but she’s been very useful on the night rounds during lambing. She’s been taking “guard dog” duties very seriously!

  • Bramble – aged 12
  • Bramble & Brighid – litter sisters
  • Maggie

Today was so lovely – so here are some flowers in the garden too.

  • Peach – “Lady Palmerston”
  • “Silver Princess” – E. caesia spp

Supposed to rain tonight – obviously that means the last sheep will probably lamb!

Hopefully the stats can be wrapped up tomorrow!

LambMetrics – 14th August 2021

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 6
Total Lambs Born: 59
Drysdale lambs (live total): 35
English Leicester lambs (live total): 14
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 6
Total Sets of Twins born: 20
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 27
Total ram lambs: 32
Ewes lambed /70: 38  (54.3 %)
Lamb % : 147 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 4
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 42
MerinoX lambs (live total): 3
Castledale lambs (live total): 32
Total Sets of Twins born: 19
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 23  (37.1 %)
Lamb % : 152% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

 

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Glorious sunshine today after the cloud cleared in the morning. Lambs and ewes alike seemed to greatly enjoy it.

The older lambs have reached the age where “evening zoomies” are A Thing before bedtime. 🙂 Will try to video one day but no guarantees!

Last night I was a little late getting to “Lambing Camp” after dinner and blog and I took Maggie (Border Collie) with me. She was great and alerted me to a problem – wherein I discovered that the fox had already visited. The problem of having shelter beside the fence. I was not happy about the loss of the day-old English Leicester ram lamb but at least there are quite a few this year. (said through gritted teeth)

Gave one of the older English Leicester ewes a helping hand after that. (Right about then I was feeling VERY happy about using a headlamp..!)

A couple of ram lambs later I went to observe a Drysdale having a set of twins and then I headed to the swag to try and get an hour or two of sleep.

Today was a lot of basic chores and so forgot to take photos.

This afternoon however there was a “disturbance”  and it turned out that a Drysdale ewe had successfully stolen a Castledale lamb from a young mother. Lots of back and forth and rearranging of sheep mobs ensued to get the lamb back with its mother.

“Love Me!” said the lamb

The confused mother was wrangled into the shed to sit in pen next to old Minty, who was doing Aunty-Demonstration.

Thankfully the mother and lamb appear to have sorted things out now.

LambMetrics – 6th August 2021

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 17
Drysdale lambs (live total): 10
English Leicester lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 6
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 11
Total ram lambs: 6
Ewes lambed /70: 11  (15.7 %)
Lamb % : 127 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Castledale & Merino Flocks

Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 7
Merino lambs (live total): 0
Castledale lambs (live total): 7
Total Sets of Twins born: 3
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Ewes lambed /62: 4  (6.4 %)
Lamb % : 175% [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 0
Losses: 0 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

 

NOTABLE MIDWIFERY TALES:

Well, I must say I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night!

Nothing like lying there in the dark and listening to every burp, fart, baa, groan and snuffle from over 100 sheep…. LOL

Thankfully, I had a companion in the tent. (Who didn’t set foot outside the tent the entire night! haha)

A vixen was heard at one point (approx 3.15am) along with the clamour of Floss and Maggie barking….

The good news is that along with the lack of sleep and the staggering around the paddock numerous times at ungodly hours there were no further fox problems last night. (Only another 3 weeks to go….. )

So here are some happy snaps.

One of the English Leicester ewes had mismatched (size) twins and is a bit unsure about the small and unsteady one but hopefully another bellyful of colostrum before bed will settle things.

The other is a lovely black, English Leicester EWE lamb out of an ex-bottle lamb. Yay! Good girl, Squeak!

(The Friends of Beersheba Farm subscribers may be competing to get in first on who is naming sponsoring that lass!)

Early to bed tonight! (After I do a quick check, and feed.)

Floss Update – 13th September 2020

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Floss is home! 🙂 🙂

It will be a long recuperation and the vet is still cautious due to the “foreign body” still most likely being present where it shouldn’t be. So, lots of antibiotics and close monitoring for weeks.

And 2 months off work. (At the moment that’s easy… as she gains weight and energy again that’s going to be a challenge. LOL)

Thank you for all the well wishes and prayers. Am so glad I have a great vet too. 🙂 🙂

Floss update – September 12th 2020

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Floss (August 1st, 2020)

For those who had been following LambMetrics you’d have known that the youngest member of the (aging) sheepdog pack, Floss, hasn’t been too well lately and had had a couple of trips to the vet.

Yesterday I was really not happy with the way her temperature was stubbornly staying high despite the antibiotics and so Floss went back to the vet clinic for further investigation.

Long story short – septic pericarditis (icky infection around the heart) most likely caused by an inhaled grass seed months ago. Apparently it’s quite rare in dogs. Great. At least we got it before she collapsed….

Pretty serious stuff indeed.

So, I left her with my awesome vet while I went and checked out Merino rams and then later in the afternoon learnt they had successfully sucked out about 100ml of ‘gross icky stuff’ (not the technical term but essentially it was pus) from the outer lining of the heart and that she was going to stay at the vet clinic over the weekend hooked up to an IV of different antibiotics (designed for anaerobic bacteria, rather than the more regular aerobic ones she’d been initially treated for.)

As of this evening she has improved – her temperature has come down below 40C – and eating well.

The vet is still pretty guarded with his prognoses for her but temperature down and eating are all good things so I’m determined to be hopeful.

If you can spare a little prayer for her that would be amazing.

LambMetrics – 7th September 2020

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#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 2
Total Lambs Born: 115
Drysdale lambs (live total): 52
English Leicester lambs (live total): 40
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 14
Total Sets of Twins born: 37
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 59
Total ram lambs: 56
Ewes lambed /77: 77  (100 %)
Lamb % : 137 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 11
Losses: 9 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

TA DA!

Sheep – deflated

How many times have I been warning this ewe that if she held on to them for too long she’d end up needing help?! Humph. They never listen! 😛

She decided she was going to lamb under the Favourite Tree (aka “The Tree That Wendy Hates”) because it’s lovely and DRY. It’s also got sticks and limbs down and Wendy has to crawl in on hands and knees to get under there. Ugh.

Just one problem – it’s oops if they need help under there. *facepalm*

I stared at this ewe and thought, she’s in labour, she may be okay but I’m not sure and I have to go out for several hours*. Hmmmm

Tiny whimper bleat.

Righto. Gloves on!

First lamb seemed a bit of a chunk but wasn’t convinced she wasn’t just being a little bit “posh to push”. Hmmm But when I saw the little (black) foot I also saw meconium stain and ding ding it’s stressed so heave that lump out for her.

I’d better fish around for #2 while I’m here….. 2 toes… good… head? Nope. Hmmm. Maybe it’s back legs? Hmm nope, that’s an elbow not a hock.

Meanwhile, the ewe won’t stand still for me now. Time to Call a(n Assistant) Midwife!

With the wonderful calming skills of the Assistant Midwife it is then possible for the Midwife to make full use of the whole arm obstetric gloves. Uh huh.

Thankfully the ewe is quite “roomy in there” so that’s easier on the hands and I’m able to find the neck of the lamb and maneuver the head/neck into the correct position. Then it’s a simple task. Another black ram lamb.

So that’s it! Cassie should lamb early-mid October but the main lot are all DONE.

Tomorrow I’ll try have some more fun stats to mull over. But now I have to go feed lambs.

 

 * this included having to take Floss to the vet again. Poor darling. Very sad puppy. Blood work showing a raging infection of something so more antibiotics and hopefully that will make an impact overnight.