Lambs

I started the last post with a photo of my "lambing board" with two entries. It's full now......and there is overflow onto another board. I have 72 lambs with 3 more ewes to lamb.  Celeste lambed this morning. These lambs are #71 and 72.  Most of the others are in the field. That's no lamb. That's Puddleduck Petra coming to the barn. You can meet these lambs at our spring open house, Meet the Sheep, Saturday, April 4.

Reviving a Lamb

I went to the barn a little after 6 a.m. this morning and found what looked like a dead lamb along with two lambs who were up and nursing. The lamb that was flat out on the ground had membranes over his face and was cold and still. I pulled the membranes off of the nose and surprise! That lamb wasn't quite dead yet. It made a little sound and started to breath raspilly. (Spellcheck says that's not a word, but it works for me.) First, get lamb warm. The heat lamp wasn't fast enough... ...so I brought it to the house. After it started to revive I substituted a heating pad for the hot water. Tube feeding with colostrum was next. Fortunately I had a couple of ounces in the freezer.  I switched the heating pad from under the lamb to over the lamb while Rusty made sure he didn't go anywhere. I carried the whole bundle back to the barn so I could get on with chores. That's when I set up the heat lamp. I also milked some colostrum out of the mom and tube fed the lamb  another few ounces.It got up before long and now sports the most glamorous in lamb-wear. If a ewe lambs with a single lamb in the next few days I will try to graft this one on. That will be another post. These are the other two sets of triplets and their moms.

Today's Lambs

Lambing moved into high gear today. It's been one ewe a day until now. The morning started with Ginseng and twins.Next was Maggie. I pulled twins but one was dead. This one has a long story that I won't go into now because I still have to go back to the barn. Maggie and the remaining lamb are at the UCD Veterinary Hospital for the night. Maggie was low in potassium and that needs to be dripped in over a 24 hour period.  Esmerelda is a Jacob-BFL cross who is just a year old. She delivered 7.8 and 8.8 pound Jacob-cross lambs. That first lamb was on its feet within 5 minutes. 

Foxglove is another Lilac ewe with lilac lambs (although it's hard to tell when they are wet).This is the kind of lambing I like. Put her in the barn. Go to the house. Come back to the barn and there are lambs nursing. Here is the count so far. By the way the TB means that I've banded Tails and given BOSE. Rams and ewes are color coded (blue for boy)

Lambing in Threes - Not Always Pretty

Lambing count so far: 4 sets of twins and 2 sets of triplets. I hope this is not indicative of the rest of lambing season. After checking Ventura every so often for lambing progress I found her with only a tail hanging out. Not a good sign.I don't know any other way to deliver a lamb in that position other than to push it back in and find some feet to pull. This is lamb #1. With lamb #1 at 5 lb 6 oz and in an abnormal presentation that's an indication that this is a triplet delivery.Lamb #2.Here are all three.

Ventura with all three lambs the next day. They clean up pretty well.

Here is what I found in the barn this morning:Loretta had one small lamb that had obviously been up for awhile and there were multiple fluid filled membranes. Triplets again? Yes.The second two were trying to come at the same time. Match up a head and two feet and pull that one. The next one comes easily.

 That third lamb took quite awhile to get going. I let her stay in that sunny spot as long as the sun was there.

 Not triplets but three happy Farm Club members and three babies.