# Newgirl97- Lambing Thread 2014: A light in the dark



## newgirl97 (Mar 17, 2014)

Hi everyone!

I wasn't going to make a thread this year because I'm going to be one for ten days of lambing season (with my luck, all of the lambs will be born this time  ) due to me going on a missions trip and us not realizing the timing when we put the rams with the ewes.

Anyways, I've decided to start my thread anyways and I'll just update it when i get back. I'm starting now (we don't officially begin until the 26th) because we have four or five ewes who look very close to going and will most likely go early.

All of our sheep are Canadian Arcotts 

Our ewes: 

Second time moms, bred to Ramsley:

_Name: Lamb count last year._
Snow: twins 
Cinder: Single 
Aurora: single
Daisy: Triplets
Jazz: twins
Alice: twins
Lady: twins
Gem: twins
Sheep-Dip: twins
Nala: twins
Minne: Twins. *Unfortunatley, this year Minnie had twin lambs too early and they were both born dead. She kept ramming the other moms, so we seperated her with the rams (risking an out of season pregnancy) to ensure that she wont harm any babies. Poor girl keeps crying for the other ewes. 
*
First time moms, bred to Ace:

_Name: mom_
Patty(the fatty): Cinder
Salt: Daisy
Pepper: Daisy
Scout: Jazz
Pout: Jazz
Princess: Gem
Kiara: Nala


Thats all i have for now! This year we are building eight lambing jugs. Last year we had two for our eleven lambs, but they all kept going at the same time, so we had a bunch of makeshift ones all over the place... so this year we are hoping eight will cut it.

I'm really hoping the sheep have lambs until the 27th (the day before i leave) and then stop until the sixth (the day i come back)

If only!


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## newgirl97 (Mar 26, 2014)

First day of lambing season amd we've got twins!!

Lady blessed us around 11 today with adorable ewe/ram twins. She even chose to go inside to have them!! Good mama! 
The ewe seems very playful, skipping all around the jug while ram likes to eat and sleep!

Pictures on the way!


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## newgirl97 (Mar 26, 2014)

Ewe!!


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## newgirl97 (Mar 26, 2014)

Ram! 

Sorry the pictures are sideways! Im on mobile and photobucket is being poo


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## newgirl97 (Mar 26, 2014)

Together!


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## tiana29 (Mar 27, 2014)

They are adorable. Congrats.


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## newgirl97 (Mar 27, 2014)

@tiana29 thanks!!!

Gem had twin rams today! Pictures to follow


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## Parsnip (Mar 27, 2014)

So exciting!!!!!
Congrats on the cute healthy little ones!


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## newgirl97 (Apr 7, 2014)

Im back from my trip, 18 some lambs, ill work out the stats later but i got home and assisted a birth. Patty was struggling and his leg was weirdly positioned so i had to pull him and HOLY COW THIS LAMB IS HUGE. WE WEIGHED HIM AND HES 14 lbs HE ALREADY HAS TO BE ON HIS KNEES TO EAT


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## newgirl97 (Apr 7, 2014)

When he was first out i put him by her face to lick off because she was too weak to stand, and he was too weak to walk. He laid on his side calling for her and she cleaned and called for him, and at this exact moment the radio played, cant help falling in love with you by Elvis

It was such a sweet sweet moment


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## Ruus (Apr 8, 2014)

newgirl97 said:


> Im back from my trip, 18 some lambs, ill work out the stats later but i got home and assisted a birth. Patty was struggling and his leg was weirdly positioned so i had to pull him and HOLY COW THIS LAMB IS HUGE. WE WEIGHED HIM AND HES 14 lbs HE ALREADY HAS TO BE ON HIS KNEES TO EAT


 Whoa! That's a huge baby! His poor mama!


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## newgirl97 (Apr 8, 2014)

Hes Ginormous! We're calling him monster *B)

*
I'll go take pictures tonight, but heres the stats thus far:

Jazz: Twin boys (Last year twin girls)
Kiara: Girl
Lady: Boy/girl (last year boy/girl)
Gem: Twin boys (Last year twin boys)
Patty: Boy
Snow: Twin boys (last year twin boys)
Sheep-Dip: Boy/girl (last year twin boys)
Salt: Twin girls
Daisy: 1 boy 2 girls (Last year, one boy, two girls)
Alice: 3 girls (last year Boy/girl)
Cinder: 2 boys (last year, one girl)
Pout: 2 boys
Scout: 2 boys
Aurora: Boy/girl (last year, single boy)


LEFT TO GO:
Pepper, Princess and Nala!


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## newgirl97 (Apr 10, 2014)

Finally have some pictures!!!

Lady's two (These are the first two i had born!)




Cinder and her rams:







Jazz and her dark-faced boys!







Patty and Monster (The three day old giant!)







Salt and her teeny tiny week-old lambs (they're only 5lbs each!)





 (to the left is Monster, the three day old in comparison to them!) One of them is so sweet, she comes to be picked up and will lick your neck once you do (this is due to her being bottle fed for her first few days of life, but I'm telling myself its because she loves me)


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## newgirl97 (Apr 10, 2014)

Scout and her big healthy boy



Scout's little sickly boy. His brother was born double his size, and butts him away from the milk. So even though they're over a week old, they're still in the jug until we can ensure this guys gaining weight (we've been bottle feeding him) and hes starting to gain some weight, so he might move out soon!




One of Snow's boys


 His ear tags make his ears floppy!

Daisy's Triplets




One of Auroras ADORABLE lambs. I love her markings!!





 (Shes top left)



Aurora's adorable ram!




Alice's triplet girls:




One of Gem's boys, BUT OKAY THIS IS FREAKY.
This is Gems boy from last year, (Whom we called Dobby)



And this is her boy from this year! SPOOKY!




The flock:






This little lamb i cant remember who they belong to, but they're sure cute!


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## newgirl97 (Apr 10, 2014)

Oh, I think Princess will go soon! 
She's distancing herself from everyone else, everytime i go out there she hasn't eaten or even gone near the food, and shes got a little bit of white discharge on her hoo-haw. Heres hoping!


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## newgirl97 (Apr 11, 2014)

Im worried about Nala,

Shes been prolapsing on and off the last two weeks. When she has the belt, shes fine.. But within hours of it coming off she starts prolapsing again.

Im worried that when she has her lambs she'll just keep pushing out all her insides and we wont be able to fix it..

Has anyone else experienced a ewe prolopsing prior to lambing, and how'd that turnout for you? Is there anything we can do for her?
She lambed twins just fine last year and was a great mama


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## newgirl97 (Apr 12, 2014)

Princess lost her lamb  She was in all night and in the morning we turned her back out.. An hour later we found a little frozen ewe lamb. It was only -4 c. Poor mama was trying to get her up. Its terrible that shes with all the other ewes who have their babies. We're considering moving her with Minnie and the boys


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## newgirl97 (Apr 13, 2014)

Nala (The ewe that was prolapsing) was appearing to go into labor, this morning we went in there and she had twin ram lambs. They were still covered in birth goop which makes me believe they were born dead? I only think this because she has had lambs before, and was a great mother to them.

Is it possible they would have died due to her having the prolapse?


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## newgirl97 (Apr 13, 2014)

Only one ewe left to go, and i really hope for a happy ending for her!


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## luvmypets (Apr 13, 2014)

So sorry for your loss. Its hard but farming and raising animals always comes with a catch. I had a breeding pair of Buff Orpingtons. I raised them together, but one day we came and the roo had a broken neck. Its hard such as when we lost a ewe to a stroke along with her lamb. I hope your last ewe lambs perfectly with no complications. We are still waiting on our ewe mammy to lamb, maybe they will have theres on the same day...that would be cool.


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## norseofcourse (Apr 13, 2014)

I'm so sorry for your sad weekend     I can't imagine either of those, let alone both happening so close together.  Best wishes that your last ewe has a good healthy lamb with no troubles.


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## newgirl97 (Apr 14, 2014)

We've now had an outbreak of sickness in 6 of our ewes, and we are treating them. My sister informed me that a mum laid on one  of her lambs and killed it... Not sure who yet. 

She also informed me shes sure Cinder is dead... I really hope not because she was one of my three favorites...


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## aksrabbitgirl (Apr 14, 2014)




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## newgirl97 (Apr 14, 2014)

Snow was the one who laid on one of her babies.


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## newgirl97 (Apr 14, 2014)

Thank you to everyone who has posted sympathies, it really means a lot to me.

I thought I'd give a more detailed clear description of what is going on over here. Our one ewe, Daisy was having some problems a few days ago, and we were able to treat it and heal her before it got too bad (read all about what happened in this forum post: http://www.backyardherds.com/threads/nursing-ewe-with-possible-leg-injury.28732/ ) Yesterday morning we went out and all of our sheep appeared fine. In the afternoon we noticed some of the sheep laying down and when we went towards them, they wouldn't get up. These sheep include: Jazz, Scout, Cinder, Aurora(or Alice... which ever one has the triplets... the two are very identical),Lady, Snow and Gem. We treated them the same as we treated Daisy, and right away Gem started improving. Out of all of them, Cinder was definatley the worst. When we first went out in the afternoon and noticed some sheep were off, she was standing in the doorway, and would not move, no matter how annoying your were to her, or how much you pushed her. Later in the evening when my dad got home with more supplies to treat them, Cinder was down laying on her side. We got her into a jug and got her laying normally.

Flash forward to today and most of the ewes seem to be on the mend... Except for two.
My beautiful Cinderella passed away today leaving us with two little heartbroken lambs to feed. Snow White is also doing very poorly right now, she's in a very delirious state and she laid on one of her little guys.  I'm very certain we're going to loose her too. I went in the jug to see her and shes just grunting, her ears are back and shes not holding her head up for long periods of time. Yesterday she was one of the ewes that wasn't even doing that bad, she was walking around only having her ears back. Out of all our ewes, there were three that i was/am very close with. Cinderella, Snow white, and Minnie. And so far I've lost one, and appear to be loosing another.

I know this may seem silly for me being so sad over the loss of a sheep, but i was holding it together very well... until i went into the barn and saw poor Cinder's boys just crying and crying for their mama, and seeing the state Snow was in. I really pray that Cinder and Snow's boy will be our only casualties.

Rest in peace, Cinderella


 throwback to when she was a lamb


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## bonbean01 (Apr 14, 2014)

I'm so very sorry


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## newgirl97 (Apr 15, 2014)

Thanks bonbean,


This morning the beautiful Snow White passed away



Rest in peace, sweet sweet girl
Throw back to day one with her


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## newgirl97 (Apr 15, 2014)

We took Snow in for an autopsy tonight and our sheep have been diagnosed with Black Leg.

Which is caused by the open dirt in the pasture we have them in (We had pigs there prior, and a lot of the newly planted grass died in the winter)

Black leg is caused by sheep breathing in a certain spore, that coats their lungs.

The good news is, they only need an injection of penicillin each day,
The bad news is, We found this out after we lost two of the sweetest sheep out there


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## norseofcourse (Apr 15, 2014)

I'm so sorry you lost Snow White, too.  I'm glad you know what it is now, and it's something treatable.


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## bonbean01 (Apr 15, 2014)

And NO...do not think you silly at all for being upset and grieving your sheep...they are not just sheep...they are all our babies and we love them.  You can cry on my shoulder anytime and I will never think you silly...hugs to you!


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## BrownSheep (Apr 15, 2014)

I am so sorry this happened. I am happy you have a name to put to it now though.

Not everybody can be a shepherd. It takes those of us with strong yet tender hearts. That is because it is hard and trying, and sometimes despite everything you do you will lose one and the only thing to do is brush off the dirt and focus on saving and protect those that are left.


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## newgirl97 (Apr 16, 2014)

Thanks everyone  it means a lot


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## newgirl97 (Apr 16, 2014)

Today Pepper had a little single ewe lamb  marking an end to our lambing season


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## norseofcourse (Apr 16, 2014)

Yeah for Pepper!


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## newgirl97 (Apr 16, 2014)

Final stats:

(Including lambs we lost: )

19 boys 13 girls

Surviving lamb count:

16 boys 12 girls


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## luvmypets (Apr 17, 2014)

Pics plzz


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## Ruus (Apr 17, 2014)

Congratulations! It's been a rough lambing season for you, but at least it ended on a good note!


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## newgirl97 (Apr 20, 2014)

Thanks everyone! Pictures'll come soon!

Unfortunatley one of Daisys ewepassed away yesterday from black leg


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## newgirl97 (May 4, 2014)

Pictures are coming!

Uploading them is such  a pain!

Unfortunately we had a loss today  Snow's last remaining boy was trampled to death by the ewes


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## luvmypets (May 4, 2014)

So sorry


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## newgirl97 (May 8, 2014)

Thanks @luvmypets

Pictures are coming guys, i'm just so unmotivated.

Yesterday we vaccinated the moms for Blackleg (The vet had told us just to do just the sick moms, but we suspect that the bottle boy we lost died from blackleg, not from being trampled.) So we did all of them, we ran out of stuff for the babies so we were got more today to do the babies with... we came home to find my little lamb friend, Dot had died. 

Out of all the lambs, she was the sweetest. She'd give kisses and was just so so tiny (only about 6 or 7 lbs and a month old) I had dreams of her being sold to a zoo or as a pet, as she would be too small for breeding and for meat. 

Rest in peace sweet baby.  This has been a very tough lambing year for us.


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## newgirl97 (May 8, 2014)




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## norseofcourse (May 8, 2014)

Sorry it's been such a rough year...


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## luvmypets (May 8, 2014)

Ive had alot of assists in the month of may. First was our big Lily, and today we assisted a chick hatch.


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## bonbean01 (May 9, 2014)

So sorry you've had such a rough go of it....next lambing season has to be better...right?  Think of how much you have learned through this all...a very painful learning...but will help in the future.


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## luvmypets (May 9, 2014)

Very well said bonbean


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