Archive for The Gathering Place "The Gathering Place" is a web community where people can gather and make new friends, share ideas, enjoy a few laughs and learn about many interesting things together. It is a safe place where friends can correspond with each other about what they love.
The lambing season got off to a rocky start this year. The first problem was a ewe getting stuck upside down in a ditch overnight resulting in the loss of her twin lambs about 3 weeks before they were due. She got an infection as an additional complication, and after a few days in the barn being treated with antibiotics when she ate nothing, we gave her a dose of oatmeal and beer to get her rhumen started. Soon she was eating again and was returned to the flock.
Then one morning there was a dead ewe in the field with no sign of illness or having been attacked. A couple of days later there was another one just like her. Another one was sick and in labor, so the vet was called to intervene when the owner couldn't remove the lambs which were dead and had been for days apparently. Blood and tissue samples went to the lab for analysis and the ewe was euthanized because there was no hope for her.
Then for a week all was well, and finally, a ewe delivered a healthy set of triplets, followed by another one having a nice single lamb, and we all breathed a sigh of relief! For the next week I checked the flock at 1am and found no lambs to be brought to the barn, and no ewes about to deliver. That was strange, they were having lambs at all times of the day and night except when I was there. Finally last night I got some action, brought in a ewe with a nice little lamb who settled down to have 2 more after I got her to the barn.
Another ewe that was already in a pen with 2 lambs when I arrived, had 2 more by the time I left. An old ewe was way out in the pasture, getting ready to die, and her lambs are probably already dead if she is that sick. Plus, another old ewe is also having some problems that nobody can remedy. The death loss is disproportanately high already this year. We expect a certain amount but really got walloped already this season and it is less than half way over.
Today I went down to the barn to check on her and see what else was new. The quad momma has a lamb that appears to have had a leg stepped on. Sometimes we can splint them and they heal up in just a couple of weeks but this break is in the hip, so that lamb will have to be euthanized. While I was there I helped give little lambs their shots, eartags and elastrate the little boys. I wasn't wielding the tools, only held the lambs in the proper positions and hugged them, and told them what good little patients they were. That is the fun part of that job.
Mary
Last night when I went putt-putting out into the field with the lambmobile (not as fancy as the popemobile, and smaller too) I found a ewe sleeping beside a nice big lamb, and thought it was going to be easy to get them to the barn. Not so, when I picked up the lamb and put it in the cart, she ran back to the flock and wouldn't follow the cart to the barn.
Then the fun began. I circled around and tried to get her interested in the cart with the lamb in it. He was hollaring his little head off but airhead mom was busy running though the flock hollaring her head off too so she didn't notice, even when I just sat still for a few minutes with the engine turned off. So, I took him to the barn and put him into a pen and went back out to bring the whole flock into the barn.
They move as a group, but not always in the direction I have in mind, but after a lot of zig zags I got them to the barn. Wall to wall sheep. Now the trick is to let the ones I don't want go out the door and keep the one I do want. She sneaked past me once but I had closed the corral gate so brought them all back inside and we started over. When I had just her and one other left, I closed the door, put the lamb out in the straw where she could see it and waited for her to go to it. After a couple of minutes she started acting like a mother.
Then I moved the lamb into the pen a few feet away, and she went in after it a couple of minutes later. I closed the gate and let the other ewe out of the barn, then opened the corral gate to let the flock go back to the pasture. Other than that it was a tame night and this little tale is ended.
In addition to it being lambing season, it is also calving season. The first was born night before last, a redish brown heifer whose mother is black and father is gray. Why red/brown? Who knows. Last night another cow, a red one, had a red calf fathered by that same gray bull.
I've been watching a 1/2 hereford cow who separated herself from the herd yesterday. Last night she was beside the fence next to the road. I shined my flashlight on her but she had no water bag and no blood. This morning after daylight I looked out my living room window using the binoculars but could see about half of her when she stood up, but only her head when she laid down since our house is downhill from her pasture and she was down in a little hollow next to the road which hid her from view. I kept watching, and couldn't tell what she was doing or if she was having trouble getting that baby out into the sunshine.
After I saw the neighbor feed the cattle and go check on her I half expected a phone call asking me to help pull a calf, but she had delivered by herself, which I saw when I went down the road about an hour later to see what was new in the lamb department. 3 ewes had lambs after I was there last night. It was a nice day to be born.
Mary
Lamb report, too many last night. First I found a set of twins, already on their feet, so they got the ride to the barn in the lambmobile with a nice calm ewe following, and I put them into the only empty recieving pen. Went back out to the pasture to pick up more and found 3 new lambs with 2 ewes loving on all of them. OOPS, who belongs to who? The lamb cart was full with all of them together, and both ewes followed nicely. Triplets? No, both ewes had obviously delivered a lamb.
I put them all down in the barn, kind of spread out and waited to see which ewe was attracted to which lamb(s). Moved a ewe with a single lamb to another pen in the front part of the barn, (smaller pens there) and moved a set of twins and their mom to a mothering pen (group pen) where they had plenty of room. They had already been tagged and paint branded. All this confusion about pens and stuff really does have a system to it.
At this point I was still guessing about which of the 2 ewes were claiming which lamb, and they also seemed to be guessing, so just divided them up by what seemed to be right, and put them in the 2 pens I had just emptied. Went back out to the pasture and brought in about half the flock to get a ewe who was trying to deliver 2 lambs at once and had an assortment of feet and heads sticking out. They looked dead.
After I got all but one of the extra sheep out of the barn, I attempted to catch her with the leg hook but she fell down so I took that opportunity to grab her and turn her on her side, then went to work getting the lambs out. Hmmm, 2 heads, 2 legs. Legs belonged to the larger head, so I pushed the smaller one back and pulled on the legs. Nothing moved, but I noticed that one leg was farther out than the other, so I pulled on the shorter one while pushing the smaller head backward, and that unlocked the larger lamb. Pulled him out but there was no sign of life.
The ewe was being cooperative so I needed to get the other one out before she wanted to get up. Had to reach inside her following the lamb's neck and shoulders, found a knee, straightened out that leg, then went after the other one, got it straightened out, pulled on both of them together and out came the second lamb. Then the ewe got up and ran to the other side of the barn. I don't blame her!
The second lamb was also dead, and both had been part way out for so long that their tongues were huge and their heads badly swollen. The ewe will need an antibiotic bolus or shots, because none of this was clean. She will be given a couple of triplet lambs from different sets and hopefully she will be happy to raise them.
Lambs are supposed to be born in kind of a diving position, both front feet first with the chin resting on the knees. A leg backward will lock the lamb against the ewe's pelvis unless it is very small. Probably more information than you wanted.
Mary
One new lamb to bring to the barn night before last, but along with it and the mommy came a ewe who will deliver soon, and she really loved that lamb! I had fun trying to get the lamb and the real mother into a pen without the extra one, she was sticking like glue! Finally, after having both ewes and the lamb in the same pen, I was able to use the lamb as bait, get the real mom out, and close the gate before the pushy one could follow. I had 2 other pens available so took the lamb and mother to another pen down the row a ways.
While all of this was happening, the whole flock was just outside the barn door looking in. Apparently they were attracted by the excited ewe. I told them I didn't need their help and closed the barn door before they came inside. Later I opened the pen gate and let the goofy granny out into the barn where she will probably deliver a lamb in a few hours because she shows some mucous now. The pen next to the new momma is empty, and I bet she will choose that one. Often the older ewes who have been in the barn a few times will go into an empty pen to deliver.
Last night there was just one set of twins to bring in. They were accompanied by a granny ewe who is close to delivering but was not as pushy as the one that came in the night before. However, they were both wet like big sponges, and of course the lambs were wet too, so my barn overalls and jacket also got wet. The receiving pens in the barn are all full so I moved another ewe and her twins to a group pen and put the new momma in there because I think she is going to have another lamb. Or maybe 2 more. One of hers is teeny and the other just average size for a triplet.
Yesterday afternoon we had rain/snow squalls, it was nasty, so of course several ewes delivered lambs. By the time I went out the storm had gone and the stars were out. Timing is important!
CajuninKy
So exciting! I love reading about your adventures. Did the ewe who lost her lambs get new ones yet?
Mary
Oh yes, the ewe who lost her lambs got 2 new ones, both triplets from different sets. Another ewe got one new one but didn't like it, so went out into the pasture with just her original lamb to raise. A ewe who had one teeny tiny lamb that died the second day, is in a stancion pen with a new lamb or two. My brain gets kind of fuzzy at this point in the season so I don't remember how many she got, and it does depend on what is available. Too long of an interval between delivery and recieving a new one lessens the chances of success.
Last night I brought in 3 mothers and 4 lambs, although 2 of those ewes might still have more to deliver. The weather wasn't bad, so no chilled lambs. I needed to check one little guy in the barn, he has a poopy butt and looks a bit droopy, but is still nursing. The ewe and his twin will probably be kept in the barn for an extra day or two while his little digestive system gets straightened out.
The Lord has blessed me with little windows of good weather when I go out to check the sheep. It doesn't take long for a newborn to get chilled. Yesterday my neighbor needed to go to the doctor, so I checked sheep in the middle of the day and brought in 2 ewes with 1 lamb each. The weather was sunny but windy and one of those lambs was shivering. I put him in a pen with a patch of sunlight, so it would help to warm him up, and by the time I went out and brought in the second ewe and her lamb, he had almost stopped shivering.
Today's weather was a bit of everything, all cold, so the sheep and I need some more good weather tonight.
Mary
Three nights in a row there were no new lambs for me to bring inside, although the ewes were making deliveries from early mornings to late evenings. We got more bad weather, so one night I put the ladies in the barn after I checked the field to make sure they hadn't delivered some lambs out there. It was snowing hard and blowing it into my face so much that I could hardly see with the light on the 4 wheeler and the flashlight.
Last night somebody else put them inside because of the same conditions, so when I got there they were all standing there looking at me, except the one with the new lamb who was busy with her baby. I put them into a pen about 20 ft from where I found them, entered the info on the barn chart and came home. The drop band (those still needing to drop their lambs) is down to about a dozen, so it won't be long before I get to sleep all night again. 23 nights in a row now, and I'm ready for a whole night's sleep.
This past week a ewe with a nice set of twins laid on one of them and suffocated it, then the next day she did the same to the other one. I'm quite sure this will send her to the sale yard. Other ewes with triplets or even quads can keep them all alive in the same amount of space.
