Counting Lambs

[Baymule]

 

[frustratedearthmother]

So sorry for your loss! Such a shock to find one gone that you didn't expect. Hope her babies will be ok and bring you some comfort.

 

[Sheepshape]

Hope her babies will be ok and bring you some comfort

Thank you. One is doing fine, but the other isn't sucking on the bottle at all....he's dull. listless and depressed. I've trickled milk into him in tiny amounts and gave him a shot of antibiotic as he was a bit severe....probably more down to his food lack than anything else. I think he is grieving his mother. Meanwhile one lamb ,Sage, who was a tiny 'slow starter' has definitely adopted me. She can get out of the bars in the lamb pen as she is so tiny and follows me everywhere. My cleaning and dealing with the other sheep is very much slowed down, but Sage is at my heels.

Our weather is atrocious again....lots and lots of rain and mud (but at least it isn't quite as cold as forecast).

One little bit os success. My lovely Marilyn (Blue faced Leicester) is turning into the doting mum I had always thought she would be.(She rejected her lamb and was restrained by day with bands to stop her butting her lamb at the outset).

This is the pair now.

Mum loves her crusts....

 

[Baymule]

Marilyn is a pretty girl and her lamb is just too cute! haha, animals do love bread! I had cows that would stand on their heads for bread. They got out one night, were waaaay down the road. All it took was shaking a bread sack, and the stampede started. They galloped back home, in the gate and got their treat.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

I’m sorry the weather, losses, and “orphans” have made a rough year of lambing thus far. I hope that the rest of your lambing goes off without an eventful hitch. The pics are adorable!

 

[Sheepshape]

More bad weather, a couple of uneventful twin births and single figures left to lamb.

One ewe decided to leave a tiny ewe lamb behind and the poor little thing was crying and lying in the filthy mud....emaciated and un-loved other lamb a large ram lamb). She has joined the orphan pen. A bit of
cleaning and drying, the little chihuahua coat shown in the avatar put on, and a warm bottle feed....and she has never cried since.(She's the lamb with the green mark on her side).

One of Arielle's lambs in the orphan pen still wasn't sucking from the bottle after 4 days. I bought the other type os teat and bottle from the feed store....and success. He's the lamb with the red coat (recently taken off as he is no longer hypersensitive to cold).

So the long days and hard work continue....but I'm hoping that this will lessen once the next bad weather spell (forecast to end in 2 days) allows me to let some more ewes and their lambs out.

Here's a couple of rather poor pics. of my orphan pen.

 

[Latestarter]

Glad you found little miss green spot before it was too late. Nice that red coat finally found a nipple acceptable to him. Hope the remaining ewes do you proud.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

The rest of your lambing is uneventful! Love the lamby pics!!

 

[Sheepshape]

More horrid weather and weather warnings issued for the next 2 days (possibly heavy snow, more likely sleet and heavy rain). Everybody in the vicinity is commenting that their lambs look thin and small this year due to the cold and wet Spring.

I haven't turned any ewes out of the shed for the last 4 days due to the weather warnings, and will wait until they have past.

A couple of days back i found a little ewe lamb with probable joint ill.....barely able to stand and problems with both of her back legs, and unable to walk. It seemed unlikely that I would coax her mother who had a fit ram lamb across two fields, so I bought the little one in, thinking that I had the dual problems of trying to treat a sick lamb and to persuade her to take milk from the bottle having been on the ewe for 10 days. For once luck was definitely on my side. I heard a ewe bellowing, checked to spray mark on the lamb's side and...wonder of wonders....the bellowing ewe was the mum to my joint ill lamb. Carrying ill lamb carefully back, who then started to bleat to mum. Over runs ewe mum with her ram lamb, who I scooped up, and easily led mum into the sheep shed. I penned her up with the two lambs and gave the sick lamb Metacam and Penicillin/streptomycin. 3 days on and little ewe lamb is back up and using her back legs almost normally. Ewe mum is a truly excellent example of good mothering and is very happy to be in the sheep shed. I expect that the ewe lamb will make a full recovery, even if she will get to hate the sight of me with her 10 days of injections. A little success amongst some disappointments always goes a long way.

Marilyn's ram lamb is looking huge now and she is quite the doting mum. The lamb is called Marshall......my daughter ran a competition amongst the class of 8-9 year olds she teaches. They came up with Marshmallow....WHAT????!!!....so a little tweaking and he is Marshall. They have named a couple of other orphan ewe lambs Lady Baa Baa (yes, an old one) and Stacey. As 'Lady Baa Baa' is a mouthful I've shortened it to Baabaara. Children always surprise me.....

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Congrats on the save!