# Stomp & Steer Lambing Thread



## tiana29 (Feb 13, 2014)

Hi Everyone,
I thought I would finally join in and post a lambing thread.
I raise registered American Blackbelly Sheep and this will be my first lambing. I'm very anxious...

My ram - Shooter






Claire (marked on 10/15 so day 150 would be 03/15) Picture taken 02/11





Annie (marked on 10/19 so day 150 would be 03/19) Picture taken 02/11 








Tipsy (purchased 10/26 and had been with a ram at old home and my ram never marked her so it's anyone's guess as to when she is due) Picture take 02/11





 She is not very cooperative with pictures. She never shows me her back side. But I can say she does not have much of a bag yet so I think she still has some time.

Bambi (purchased with above ewe. My ram shows no interest in her and actually is kind of mean to her. I believe she is around 10 months old) I have no idea if she has ever came into heat or not.








Rosie (She continues to come into heat and has been marked 10/02, 11/20, 01/19) May be sterile????





One question I have is the CD&T vaccine. It seems popular to vaccinate the pregnant ewes 30 days before lambing. But with Tipsy I'm not sure when she is due so should I vaccinate her now? What if she lambs in two weeks? Will the baby still receive the vaccine through her milk?


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## SheepGirl (Feb 13, 2014)

150 days is towards the tail end of sheep gestation averages. Plan for babies around 147 days or earlier 

and the ewe you don't know is bred or not, vaccinate her when she starts building an udder. Or if she lambs, give the lambs an anti toxin at birth and then in 4 weeks give the toxoid.


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## bonbean01 (Feb 13, 2014)

Looking forward to your sheep lambing and....the pics!!!!!!  Hope all goes well


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## alsea1 (Feb 14, 2014)

Your herd is very nice looking.  I also raise ABB's.


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## tiana29 (Feb 14, 2014)

alsea1 said:


> Your herd is very nice looking.  I also raise ABB's.


Thank you Alsea. I loved the ram you used to have and was sorry to hear he got an attitude with you. My boy, Shooter, is halter trained and luckily has never shown any aggression to me or anyone else (knock on wood) but when the girl were in heat he started to act differently when I would come in the pasture so I started taking my dog with me just as a precaution. You have a really nice flock as well. Can you post pictures of your girls that are pregnant?
I'm still not sure if Annie is pregnant or just fat. I would love to see how your girls look.


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## tiana29 (Feb 20, 2014)

Updated Pictures:
Claire (I believe due mid-March)











Tipsey (I don't know when due?)








Bambi (She doesn't look bred to me but she has become more puffy in her lady parts lately and I can now see her little teats now which is new)








And Annie who I'm still not sure if she's fat or pregnant...? Would be due mid to late March.


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## Four Winds Ranch (Feb 20, 2014)

Nice sheep!!!    Have fun with the lambs!!  Lambing can be stressful and tireing at times but is very rewarding in the end!!!
Looking forward to your future lamb pics!


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## tiana29 (Feb 28, 2014)

Well, I'm trying to update my thread weekly with pictures so here is this week. Not much has changed except i have felt movement in all four girl's bellies which is exciting.
Claire:












Annie:











Tipsey:


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## tiana29 (Feb 28, 2014)

Bambi: (I have no idea when or where she was bred but she is very small so I'm thinking she can't be too far along but I did feel movement in her belly today.)











And just for fun here is a couple of pictures of my two working dogs:


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## tiana29 (Mar 6, 2014)

3/06/14:
Claire:
  

Annie:
  

Tipsey:
 
 

Bambi:


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## tiana29 (Mar 13, 2014)

Not to much to update. Everyone seem to be happy and holding tight to those lambs. I have only seen there utter increasing in size but no mucus plugs, pawing the ground or going off feed. So of course now I'm starting to question my book keeping skills.  I had the four pregger girls separated from the ram and other "none" pregger girl but since no one is showing sign's of labor they are all back together in the pasture.
Claire:

  

Annie:
  

Tipsey:
  

Bambi:


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## tiana29 (Mar 15, 2014)

Oh, I'm so excited. Tipsey lambed today!! Really no sign except when I went to feed her this morning she looked more sunken in on her sides (she still ate her grain) and then when I checked on her at about 1:00 pm she was off by herself and nesting. So I moved her, Bambi and Claire back to the "back field" which is within spying distance and watched. She had a 8.2 lbs ram at about 2:30 pm. I still have not seen her pass the after birth and it's 6:00 so I'm not sure if I should start to worry. Here's pictures:


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## tiana29 (Mar 15, 2014)

Ok, she passed the after birth.


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## tiana29 (Mar 20, 2014)

Well, I now have 2 babies.
Bambi gave birth to this little 5.8 lbs. ewe yesterday after I left for work. She was clean, dry and full belly so I guess everything went fine.


And Tipsey's baby is now named Stomp & Steer Remi:





Claire continues to get bigger. I say she looks like a wine barrel walking. Her utter has got a lot bigger over the past week and I think she will have "them" (fingers crossed) by this weekend...
 

Annie I still don't know about. She big and looks pregnant but no utter to speak of. I know that she has never given birth so maybe she is just waiting on dropping milk. I did not get a picture of her because nothing has really changed.


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## tiana29 (Mar 24, 2014)

Wow, we had a rough weekend. 
Claire started to show signs of going into labor on Friday night at about 9:00 p.m. We stayed up with her all night and checked for progress at about 2:00 a.m. She was making progress but was not dilated enough. So we gave her some more time and checked again at 3:30 a.m. she was dilated more but still not enough so I manually stimulated her cervix and gave her some more time. She finally passed a 5.2 lbs ram at about 5:30 a.m. She did a very good job cleaning him up but he was still wet at 6:00 a.m. and getting to cold so I stepped in and dried him off and warmed him up. I watched him drink twice before I went in to try a sleep a little. I went back outside at 8:00 and he was chilled so I warmed him up on a hot bottle of water and momma made sure he drank but he was still lethargic at 11:00 a.m. so a friend came over and showed me how to tube feed him. That really helped. Gave him a boost of energy and he has been fine since that point. A friend of mine wanted to name him so meet Stomp & Steer Stewie. 
 
I would like to point out that I realize that was a long time for her to be in labor but she never seemed distressed. From about 9:00 pm to 3:00 a.m. she would push and then take a 20 minute break. While on her breaks she would lie down and chew her cud but never seemed in distress which is why I tried to intervene as little as possible.

Now, unfortunately, we lost Annie on Sunday. She started pawing the ground and nesting at about noon on Saturday but again she would maybe push every 30 minutes or so and just lay down and chew her cud and again not seems to be in distress. She did this all day Saturday and by about 11:00 p.m. you could see that she had "dropped" and her stomach was more hallowed out so I was thinking that she was just positioning the lamb. We were surprised when Sunday came around and still nothing. At about 1:00 p.m. on Sunday we finally saw the bag come out. By 2:30 she had made little progress so I went in to feel. Her cervix was still small and the lamb was coming backwards. I tried to manually stimulate her cervix but it did not seem to be making progress so I called my friend and she brought the vet with her. The vet tried for over an hour to simulate her cervix and pull the lamb. He said that the lambed died a few days ago and the ewe had ring womb. He said that there was nothing that we could have done differently to change the out come and that mother nature just probably never meant for her to have lambs. He said we could take her in for a c-section or we would have to put her down. We made the hard decision to put her down. She is 8 years old, had never been breed before I was given her last year and even if she survived she could not be bred again which would create problems trying to keep her away from my ram on my small place. We did process her out for dog food because I disagree with wasting her. She had a full term beautifully marked little ewe that had definitely died a few days ago.
RIP Annie. I'm sorry your last days were so rough.


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## newgirl97 (Mar 25, 2014)

Very exciting about your two little rams!

And I'm very sorry about Annie and her Ewe  I hope the rest of your lambing goes perfectly!


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## tiana29 (Mar 25, 2014)

Thank you @newgirl97 ! We now have the two rams and one ewe lamb (her name is Betsey). I only have one other ewe that I'm just hoping at this point she finally settled. She continued to come into heat until January and I have not seen any sign of her coming back in so time will tell if she finally is preggers but that would mean she is not due until June. I hope your lambing is a success and a high percentage of ewes.


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## taylorm17 (Mar 26, 2014)

I love Tipsey and her baby. They look so much alike! So happy for the healthy babies and am very sorry for your loss.


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## tiana29 (Mar 26, 2014)

Thank you @taylorm17 
Here's a couple of updated pictures. I just love little Stewie. He is so friendly and comes right up to us. If you scratch his chest he will shake his back leg like a dog. 
 
And I think the hardest thing to do is get a picture with all three babies in frame.
 From left to right: Remi, Betsey, Bambi (Betsey mom), Tipsey (Remi's mom), Claire and little Stewie.


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