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You are here: Home / Archives for lambs

lambs

LambMetrics – 25 August 2020

August 25, 2020 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 4
Total Lambs Born: 92
Drysdale lambs (live total): 43
English Leicester lambs (live total): 32
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 11
Total Sets of Twins born: 29
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 48
Total ram lambs: 44
Ewes lambed /76: 61ย  (80.3 %)
Lamb % : 141 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 8
Losses: 6 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Sometimes the blog-worthy things happen after the blog has been uploaded for the evening…

So, last night, as usual, after the LambMetrics were done I headed across the paddock in the dark, over the gully, up the hill to where the sheds are at the old house to feed the pet lambs.

Organised the milk, fed the lambs (pushy lil beggars LOL) and then rinsed out the bottles using the tankwater beside the shed since the water in the house has stopped until I can get the plumber to fix it.

Now, yesterday, I had to get the horse into the area behind the house because I felt she was tipping over the laminitic edge (drat). She wasn’t overly thrilled at being cooped up and followed me where I was washing the bottles and then went back to a pile of hay. I thought.

I headed back to the house to finish things up and…. heard the gate chain rattle on one side of the small paddock… Now, one thing you need to know about my mare is that she is chestnut and she is very, very good at opening gates.

In a flash I realise I hadn’t put the “horse-proof” latch in place because she hasn’t been in that area for months. Oh no. I put the bottles I am carrying down beside the gate into the garden and head off with the torch – calling to the horse and reminding her she isn’t allowed out in the orchard. (That’s part of the Day Paddock for the pregnant ewes!)

Annnd the gate is wide open. Drat. Oh wait, there’s a white blob in the torchlight…. oh rats, a Drysdale ewe with twins, camped for the night on the wrong side of the fence. Argh. Go a bit further and find three more ewes with lambs. ARGH. The gate has obviously been open for a while. I’d taken the alpacas out of that paddock to put with the ewes in the Big Paddock so no way I wanted ewes and lambs where they were.

Muttering dark things I’m trying to get ewes and lambs to move. It’s hard enough at the best of times but in the dark, when I’m tired and just want to go to bed…. arrrgggghhhh. In the end I had to be as “annoying as possible” and wrangled them all back through the gate.

Then I went looking for any other ewes that may have snuck under trees, around corners and the like. Chased the horse out…. Went back to the gate. But I can hear a frantic lamb back in the orchard so off I go (gee, this torch better not run out of battery) and find a lamb from the next door paddock running up and down the fence. On the wrong side. Must have lain down beside the fence and rolled under. Rats. Big lamb, in the dark and I’ve got a torch.

Up the fence.

Down the fence.

Up the fence. (Patience is a virtue..?!)

Make a grab for it. Miss. Another grab for it in the corner and manage to somehow snag it properly. Lift the heavy sucker up and over the fence so it can be reunited with its mother.

Okay, walk back, check no other lambs and no horse. Right.

Get through the gate. Put horse-proof lock in place.

Walk back towards the garden gate where the bottles are still waiting to be taken back to the house.

Clomp, clomp….

Horse…… you’d better not be in the garden?!

Find the garden gate pushed open…. argh. Why didn’t I latch it on my way out?! (I wanted an early night tonight?!)

She’s gone to the left of the house, so I go around the other way to try intercept her before she gallops over the lawn. Sneaky wench is enjoying some green grass. How do I stop her thinking this is a wonderful game and just going round and round the driveway??

Hmmmm. I start making weird snorting noises (scary…?) and flick/flash the torch as well as toss a little stick up into the tree above her. Snort, snort.

Run, run!

Thankfully, she ran OUT of the garden (and was heard to be trying to let herself out the back gate which HAD been horse-proofed)

Mutter, mutter…. stomp back down the hill, over the gully, up the hill and then just crawl into bed.

LOL

Today though had a cold and frosty, foggy start.

Alas, after doing the rounds – all well in the Big Paddocks – I got back to discover that one of the lambs I’d moved the night before had indeed been nabbed by a fox. ๐Ÿ™ I’ve never had a problem with behind the house before but I do normally try and have alpacas “surrounding” everything. Of course, I’d had to shift the alpacas from that paddock into a Big Paddock.

Bastard things. Hate foxes.

And then, this morning, there was a newborn Castledale whose young mother could only count to one. And this lamb wasn’t “one”. ๐Ÿ™

So now we have teeny, tiny Tina. All 2kg of her. Most of the Drysdales and Leicesters would be 4-6kg so she is an absolute titch. (The size XS rug is almost too big!) She looks a bit bedraggled in the pic – that’s what happens when you’re dumped in the dirt. At the moment she’s a very special Princess and has a box in the laundry. The other pet lambs are a bit rough and rowdy for a tiny newbie and she needs more feeding than they do. And I don’t want to go over there really late. Hopefully she doesn’t start yelling at 2am. LOL

Teeny, tiny, Tina.

And then the afternoon was rounded off with a couple of new Drysdale lambs. ๐Ÿ™‚

LambMetrics – 21st August 2020

August 21, 2020 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 4
Total Lambs Born: 73
Drysdale lambs (live total): 35
English Leicester lambs (live total): 25
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 8
Total Sets of Twins born: 23
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 39
Total ram lambs: 34
Ewes lambed /76: 48ย  (63.1 %)
Lamb % : 142 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 7
Losses: 5 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Nothing like the third week in August to deliver some wintery weather just when the first signs of Spring have started. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Thankfully, the weather isn’t horrendous and the sheep are in fine fettle with plenty of feed and shelter.

Today it was decided to engage some “gardening contractors” to come in and tidy up a bit around the old house…..

Who needs a whipper snipper?!?

The garden beds even saw some weeding and fertilising. ๐Ÿ˜‰

I may get this crew in again…. but possibly not once the roses are back in full leaf! LOL

Four lambs born today and everything was quiet and lacking in drama. Just as we like it!

English Leicester twins

The pet lambs are full of vim and vigour too. ๐Ÿ™‚ They’ve heard that we’re slightly re-jigging the Friends of Beersheba Farm and the change could involve them….. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Stay tuned. ๐Ÿ™‚

The Gang. l-r Bibbi, Lil’ Dude, Bobbi (back) and Clay

LambMetrics – 19th August 2020

August 19, 2020 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 5
Total Lambs Born: 65
Drysdale lambs (live total): 33
English Leicester lambs (live total): 20
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 8
Total Sets of Twins born: 20
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 34
Total ram lambs: 31
Ewes lambed /76: 43ย  (56.7 %)
Lamb % : 142 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 6
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Well, we’ve had the ups and downs today.

Day started well with Panda, our superfine, coloured merino ewe, presenting us with her twins. ๐Ÿ™‚ The greyer one is a boy. Both have frosty ears and were sired by the silver English Leicester ram, Sterling. Hopefully they will both have wonderful fleeces to spin!

Then on the morning walk around one of the Twins paddocks (Merino and Castledale ewes) there was this little lad…. Loud voice to no effect. Everyone seemed to have twins or not interested. There was a ewe that looked like she had twins very similar to him so I decided not to muck about and just presume he was a triplet or an unwanted twin and brought him home to join the tribe. Out there with the ewes I reckoned he had a greater than 50% chance of being dead tomorrow.

And yes, he’s wearing the XS size coat. LOL

The other Twins paddock revealed a Merino ewe who had delivered a dead lamb and was possibly in trouble. So, spent a fair bit of time extracting her next lamb which was tough going as her cervix wasn’t dilated properly. No idea how she managed to get the other one out!
As is often the case in a traumatic birth situation the ewe didn’t want to hang about after the lamb was presented to her. She jumped up, over the top of the lamb and I had to wrestle her down again. Usually when they have “calm” time they start to register the lamb in front of them and then the hormones settle and they are okay. I left them as she was starting to lick the lamb a bit.

When I went to check on them about 3/4 hour later I was dismayed to find the ewe disinterested and the lamb very very flat – it had been up and talking to its mother when I left.
As a result, I gave up on the ewe and scooped up the cold lamb. The weather wasn’t super bad but the lamb was in a bad way. It then went into a warm water bath and then towels and a box in front of the heater. It was very dull. ๐Ÿ™ It was warming up but I was really concerned it wasn’t acting “normal”. It only lasted an hour or so and then it passed quietly away. ๐Ÿ™ The only explanation I can think of is that the mother had stood on its belly when she jumped around and there had been internal bleeding which had brought on shock, which precipitated the rapid hypothermia and then the lack of response.
Sometimes we win but unfortunately, sometimes we lose.

The death of the merino lamb cast a bit of a pall over the afternoon but there were two new Drysdale lambs this evening to cheer us up. Very sturdy with attentive young mothers.

And let’s finish up with a more cheerful picture of the English Leicester ewe lamb born yesterday. ๐Ÿ™‚ She certainly likes posing!

LambMetrics – 9th August 2020

August 9, 2020 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 6
Total Lambs Born: 37
Drysdale lambs (live total): 18
English Leicester lambs (live total): 10
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 5
Total Sets of Twins born: 10
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 18
Total ram lambs: 19
Ewes lambed /76: 25ย  (32.8 %)
Lamb % : 132 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 4
Losses: 4 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Busy again today but it’s late so this will be brief.

Pleased to report that despite ups and downs ( = shoving prolapsed vag back in several times) the prolapsed ewe has improved today and is now getting herself up and about and actually eating again. (I had a big laugh when she pushed Hermione away from Hermione’s Special Dish of Treats…!)

The triplets are still going well.

Here’s the lambspam for the day though. ๐Ÿ™‚

Minty and her lamb having an afternoon siesta
Drysdale lamb selfie
Drysdale lambs = All The Cute

LambMetrics – 8th August 2020

August 8, 2020 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 8
Total Lambs Born: 31
Drysdale lambs (live total): 16
English Leicester lambs (live total): 9
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 3
Total Sets of Twins born: 7
Total Sets of Triplets born: 1
Total ewe lambs: 16
Total ram lambs: 15
Ewes lambed /76: 22ย  (28.9 %)
Lamb % : 127 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 4
Losses: 3 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Headed out early this morning. It’s peak lambing season now and with a full moon the other night I was hoping things would be settling down.

After a couple of troublesome ones I checked the ewes with a certain amount of trepidation, to be honest. It had been raining softly most of the night and I arrived to find – lambs everywhere. Oh.

Walk up the hill towards the shed (and can hear Bibbi yelling for breakfast) and I see two ewes and three lambs hanging about in a way that makes me go hmmmm. A Drysdale and English Leicester? Oh, a Drysdale and Hermione. Hermione is an English Leicester x Drysdale ewe who has a known (familial) history for “lamb-napping”. Last year was a classic…
As I get closer to them I groan and am making plans in my head to sort out the mess and then I realise — the three lambs all look the same…. and they don’t look like Drysdales. The Drysdale ewe wandered off and so that meant: triplets!

Well played, Hermione. Well played.

Yep, that’s three lambs. The pregnancy scan only came up with two…. Seems that Hermione worked out if you want more lambs you have to actually birth them yourself. LOL
So, two girls and one boy for her. She’s doing a good job so far. The lambs are 75/25 English Leicester/Drysdale.

Mob squad

During the other rounds of the morning I decided to pull a lamb out of the Twins paddock. I think it was the same lamb I saw getting poor love yesterday – it’s mother loves the other twin more – and it was looking thin and miserable. This means Bibbi now has a pal.

Meet Bobbi, a merino boy. (Pink jacket, pink nose)

Bibbi & Bobbi

I guess I had better talk about the ewe that prolapsed yesterday. Discovered this morning that the prolapse had resolved fully (yay!) and that there was afterbirth hanging out as she sat there (boo….)
So, knew that the lamb/s were definitely dead and was hoping I could extract them safely. It was a bit of work but nothing like the other day, thankfully. She must have felt much better to have them out but the fact that they were dead made her a bit depressed and dull. She received a fair bit of TLC over the day – and little Bobbi curled up next to her as she sat there (not wanting to stand).
She’s let herself out of the shed though now and she’s around the other ewes. Still quite dull but hopeful that being around the others will help her recover faster.

Meanwhile, I asked for help to name Boadicea’s adopted bub over on the facebook page. Some great names suggested (will keep some for later….) but the one with the most Likes was…. Poppy.

Thanks, everyone, for your help!

Hi Poppy!

LambMetrics – 4th August 2020

August 4, 2020 by Wendy Beer

#LAMBMETRICS for the day

Drysdale & English Leicester Flocks

Born today: 3
Total Lambs Born: 10
Drysdale lambs (live total): 5
English Leicester lambs (live total): 4
English Leicester X lambs (live total): 0
Total Sets of Twins born: 3
Total Sets of Triplets born: 0
Total ewe lambs: 5
Total ram lambs: 5
Ewes lambed /76: 7ย  (9.2 %)
Lamb % : 128 % [live]
Assisted/Dystocias: 2
Losses: 1 [lamb]; 0 [ewe]

Notable Midwifery tales:

Today had a few challenges.

First need for assistance was an English Leicester ewe. First time having twins for this one and the boofhead boy lamb jammed things up. He had his feet and head in the right places though so just needed a bit extra pull and wriggle to successfully get him on the outside of his mother. His twin sister was also feeling the stress at being stuck behind him but came out with minimal effort. Both lambs were heavily meconium-stained (they do a poo in the sac because they are stressed and the colour stains the fluid and them) But their mum is a good one and she cleaned them up. I’d say they were “polished clean” but she let them roll around in the dirt!

Unfortunately, that was the easy part.

A Drysdale ewe had a lamb toe showing but when she was laid down and investigated the lamb’s head wasn’t to be found easily. Not good. All I had were a pair of feet and…. a chest.

The head was eventually located – the neck twisted around and back. This is really not good. And I suspected the lamb was already dead – live lambs are more active in “presenting” themselves for birth properly. It didn’t feel too big and the ewe wasn’t too fat (all factors in a live lamb being unable to sort itself out) so odds were it was dead and the poor presentation was a result not a cause.

The exercise took several hours, including a trip to the vet for supplies and a lot of lube was used, but I eventually managed to extricate the lamb. We were all exhausted. I think I went through 5 pairs of shoulder-length gloves, the Deputy Midwife had sore legs (and ribs) from restraining and comforting the ewe and my hands felt like they were alien. But at least the ewe could stand up afterwards. The lamb had been dead before labour started and the placenta was detached. (Part of the reason the lamb in the pic below seems so red is because the placenta is wrapped around half of it.)

The poor ewe is now tucked up in the shed for the night, alongside the English Leicester and her twins. She’s donated some colostrum for the freezer and she’s had anti-inflammatories and antibiotics. Seems okay and hopefully will still be so in the morning.

Tomorrow is another day….!

Sad mumma
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