# Twins .....10 weeks on



## Sheepshape (Apr 7, 2016)

Bella was expecting twins by her scan. She went into labour a week ago, out in the field, and needed a little help to pull out a large ram lamb. I left her licking off the ram lamb and went to check my way was clear to the barn as the day was cold, wet and windy.

On coming back, I saw a tiny 'something' other than the ram lamb, and largely covered by the ram lamb. Having moved the ram lamb, I found a tiny, still ewe lamb, not breathing. A bit of gentle swinging and rubbing and she moved. Down to the shed...






Tiny,under a pound, cold, too weak to stand or suck. Into cardboard box and under lamb lamp. Started to bleat in a tiny, thin little voice. Colostrum taken from mum and fed to her via a bottle. This went on for 24 hours, but mum then decided that the little girl was a non-starter, so transferred into bottle lamb pen



 

A week later, still wearing her chihuahua coat,here is LLaila. She takes her bottle well and curls up happily with her contemporaries who are 3-4 times as big.


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## babsbag (Apr 7, 2016)

Isn't she just the tiniest little thing ever, and so cute.


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## Latestarter (Apr 7, 2016)

Wow is she ever a tiny little thing! Will she grow to full size with time? She's adorable!!!


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## SpringCrkFarmTN (Apr 7, 2016)

How precious she is!! Gives me much hope with my new triplets just born last night.


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## maritown (Apr 7, 2016)

Wow that size difference!!  She is sooo cute


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## Latestarter (Apr 7, 2016)

Gosh, where was my thinking... Congrats on catching & saving the almost lost little lamb!


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## promiseacres (Apr 7, 2016)

congrats


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## norseofcourse (Apr 7, 2016)

WOW - amazing!  Great job saving her!


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## Ferguson K (Apr 7, 2016)

She's so tiny!  I just want to squish her!


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## samssimonsays (Apr 8, 2016)

What a doll!


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## Sheepshape (Apr 8, 2016)

Thank you all so much.

She is the cutest lamb I have ever known. She takes her bottle really well now and is delightful.

I have no idea as to whether she will ever achieve, Latestarter. She is theoretically a large breed, being a cross between a Beulah Speckled Face (medium sized) and a huge Blue Faced Leicester father. Her markings are much the same as other mules of this type, but her face looks different......sort of squashed. As I'll be keeping her (and hoping she continues to thrive), I'll be able to post pics. of her fully grown.


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## Mini Horses (Apr 8, 2016)

Congrats!  Great save and she is soooooo  CUTE!!!!!   Of course she's a keeper!     And we will be watching how "our" babe is growing.


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## Latestarter (Apr 15, 2016)

How is she doing now? Hopefully still growing and thriving.


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## Sheepshape (Apr 15, 2016)

She is doing absolutely fine....about newborn size now. She has a nice little fat milk belly and plays and sleeps with my other bottle lambs. Apart from her size, she seems absolutely normal.

I'll take more pics. of her...she no longer has her coat as her fleece has grown in well.


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## Sheepshape (Apr 16, 2016)

So here she is aged  almost 2 weeks.





That is her at the back. Another triplet birth of the same age is in the middle of the pic. and a slightly older Beulah Speckled Face is to the right ( a smaller breed). This pic. sort of makes her look bigger than she is.

Here's another of her.



 

The lamb to the right of LLaila is, again, a few days older, and , theoretically of a much smaller type.

Llaila seems very happy and lively, and, apart from her size, seems to be like her contemporaries.


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## Latestarter (Apr 16, 2016)

Wow, she is so tiny! But she looks good  She looks like she may have doubled in size, which isn't much considering how small she started out... Thanks!


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## Sheepshape (Apr 17, 2016)

She definitely has doubled in side and takes her feeds very well. I'm not really sure as to whether she will attain a normal size or is going to be a dwarf variant. She has a slightly 'squat' face and a bit of a pot belly. However, she is in proportion throughout. Her legs are proportionate to her body and her fleece markings like her contemporaries.

Whatever, she is healthy and welcome to stay here.

Her 'milestones' seem the same as the other lambs. She is nibbling bits of solid and chasing chickens whenever she can....trouble is the chickens tend to ignore her!


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## Baymule (Apr 17, 2016)

If she is a dwarf, will she be a pet? She sure is cute, but how would you keep the rams away from her?


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## Sheepshape (Apr 18, 2016)

Whatever she is, I'm keeping her. With regard to the rams,that's more tricky....they seem to find their way over any obstacle course. I've had ewes pregnant where there were seemingly no rams for miles and no ram has been seen in the field.....Night Visitors, I think.

I think there is some form of hormone prep that can be given to ewes to stop pregnancy ( a sheep version of the pill). Either that, or I'll have to find a similarly diminutive ram!


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## Latestarter (Apr 18, 2016)

Oh! There's a thought... we have "mini" breeds of goats... Perhaps you'll start/develop a new market for "mini" sheep?


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## ohiogoatgirl (Apr 19, 2016)

if she stays much smaller I would wonder how she would do bred to a Shetland ram? shetlands are small and small babies. plus I can imagine the interesting fleece possibilities!


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## Sheepshape (Apr 19, 2016)

She is growing well (and growing fat!) and is really lively. She has a nice, thick fleece. I'll take some more pics of her as she grows, and find her a suitable ram if she stays a "Pocket Rocket".


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## MrsKuhn (May 3, 2016)

well isn't she just the cutest little thing ever!  Im in love


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## Sheepshape (Jun 11, 2016)

LLaila  my tiny twin lamb has certainly changed a lot over the last few months.

Here she is now




 

Llaila is the 3rd from the left



 

That's her standing



 

And here she is again, with two other lambs of approximately the same age.

All my bottle lambs are now weaned, and LLaila is still the smallest, but she is not smaller than some of the lambs with their mums.

She is clearly going to become a 'normal' sized mule....though she has kept her long tail and will be staying here with me.


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## Latestarter (Jun 11, 2016)

Thanks for the update! She looks great!   Couldn't really see the tail till that last shot. Why did she keep it? Was there a special reason?


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## Sheepshape (Jun 11, 2016)

Personally I don't have an issue with long tails,Latestarter. The only animals I have ever had fly strike in have been docked,but have diarrhoea. So,in the fly season I spray them with insecticide and keep an eye on them. 'Crutching' them (or shearing) generally gets rid of the problem.

For sheep who will go to market (and I don't generally breed from mules), then we use the hot docker to give them the 'fashionable' look. Essentially I hate tail docking, and only do it when necessary. The argument always goes that tail docking is for hygiene purposes, but over here only certain sheep breeds are docked and of those docked, some have 'dock to the hock' and others (e.g Blue Faced Leicesters) tend to have a high docking. I therefore am left wondering as to why it is really done other than for fashion.That's just my biased opinion, though, and it's far from most folks' thinking.


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## babsbag (Jun 11, 2016)

She has certainly changed and glad to she isn't a dwarf. She is very pretty. I agree about the tails even though I don't raise sheep. I really like to leave all animals as nature intended unless there is a health reason not to.


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## Baymule (Jun 11, 2016)

She is looking good. I'm glad that she is not going to be a miniature version of herself. I have Dorper/Katahdin cross ewes. @ have tails, 2 don't. I left the tails on all my lambs. I had no problem cutting the ram lambs, but I don't want to cut their tails.


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## Sheepshape (Jun 13, 2016)

Seems to me there's a lot of myths involved with docking sheep. much like there used to be with docking dogs' tails.


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## Bossroo (Jun 13, 2016)

Rality check ---  Do yourself and the sheep a favor and dock their tails.  With long tails, all is fine and dandy UNTILL they get diarhea with the oncomming of fresh, rich new grass  and fly maggots start to eat into the sheep's hind quarters.  NOT PRETTY and it causes the infested sheep lots of PAIN. It becomes  labor intensive and quite messy to get rid of the maggots and become  expensive from loss of condition of the sheep then have to feed it extra to regain weight.  If you send the lambs to auction, their selling price suffers.  Just plain NOT proper animal husbandry. At least in MY  neck of the woods of Cal. , there is NO Vet. that would come to your farm to treat a sheep much less a sheep with fly strike. Just not cost effective for his time and it would cost you about 5 times what the sheep is worth if one can find a Vet. to come to treat it.


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## Sheepshape (Jun 13, 2016)

As mentioned earlier, I have had maggots in a few ewes some years back......ALL had had their tails docked. 
All of my sheep who are going to go to market get docked as most purchasers want 'rounded ends'. Most of the ones I keep also keep their tails.
I have a policy to watch them closely and 'crutch'  the ewes if they start getting diarrhoea from the abundant grass in warmer months. All ewes will be crutched, with or without docked tails (shearing gets rid of any problem, too).  I haven't found the insecticide pour ons too effective.
Our vet is more than happy to come to our farm for a single sheep, for a very reasonable cost. Animals can also be taken into the vet without having to get the vet to come out. The few  ewes I've had with maggots in the past have been managed by shearing the area, hose washing, dowsing is strong iodine solution, and a shot of antibiotics and pain killers if the skin has been significantly breached. I don't need the vet for that. My chickens devour the maggots to complete the cycle....
I've sold ewe lambs without docked tails in the past, and the prices were not really affected. However, as I know there is a preference for docked tails, any to be sold will have their tails docked as some farmers will dock yearlings if they prefer them that way.
The worst case of maggots I've had was after two rams had been fighting and a horn was knocked off. Flies laid eggs in the stump, eating an inch diameter hole down to the skull as every dressing I tried to apply was dislodged. That was a bit tricky to tackle, but the wound eventually healed and he's gone on to father MANY lambs.


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## Baymule (Jun 13, 2016)

Mine are hair sheep and don't have wooly tails.


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