# sheep milk bag question



## ffagirl221 (May 21, 2013)

i took on a retried sheep breeder from the FFA we always cared for her during the times she wasn't with lambs it's been years over 4 and she still has large bag/sack hanging down? Is that okay? i  swear i remember it going away before. But shes never had a problem, she gets around fine, eats, walks, runs and everything so is it okay?


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## purplequeenvt (May 21, 2013)

How old is this ewe? Did she lamb this year? My guess would be that either she hasn't dried off completely yet or she's a saggy old girl.


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## BrownSheep (May 21, 2013)

I have a three year old ewe whose bag never tucks back up after she dries off. Your ewe is probably just saggy


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## ffagirl221 (May 21, 2013)

okay cool i had to make sure you know safe then sorry.
and she has to be over seven? I am not even sure i got her when she was 2 or so and had her many years now.


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## bcnewe2 (Jun 20, 2013)

if the ewe was ever fat while lambing or in milk the bag will grow much larger than normal. Then it breaks down the tissue and will end up hanging. It can also happen with old age and lots of lambings.
It is ok to breed the ewe but I would be very careful and monitor weight gain to keep the bag as tight as possible.  The problems you run into are that the udders hang so low the lamb is at risk of not finding them. Also the udders can become so engorged with milk and with little elasticity they become so big the lamb can't get it in it's mouth correctly so nursing is all but impossible. 

I sold a ewe once that was practically hanging down to the ground.  She was one of my first ewes and I fed her till the popping point before I learned how bad that could be.  She was to be a barn mate for a friendly horse.  She was accidently bred at that place and produced such nice lambs they continued to breed her. I guess her bag worked well enough.


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