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patandchickens
Overrun with beasties
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Of course she had to wait for *really crappy* weather 
It was cold, windy and pouring rain last night. I went out at 1 a.m., sheep were perfectly normal. Went back out at 5 a.m. after walking the dog, and there was a lamb! Woo hoo! 
It had clearly *just* been born, probably mere minutes before I got out there.
She was in the lee of the big barn, but I moved her into the more protected shed and shut them in there with a sheet of plywood and some close-boarded pallets. Trimmed the umbilical and dipped it in iodine, and let them be.
The funny thing is that at 5 I *assumed* it was the overdue ewe, Hope, but when I took the kids out to see the lamb this morning before the schoolbus, I realized "Hey... wait... that's *Peace*!" She was just day 147. Oh well, details details. Hope is still vast with lamb and apparently planning on staying that way forever.
I am not certain whether the lamb has sucked, much if at all. It's certainly been up and pokin' around back there in the exact right place, but only for maybe 20 seconds at a time does it get all tail-wiggly. Then either Peace moves aside, or the lamb gives up and goes to have a lie-down. How active is a <6 hrs old lamb supposed to be?
I figure I will give it a few more hours and see how it seems, if there is a question I suppose I will try to halter and tie the ewe and try to encourage the lamb to get a better drink but I am not sure how that will work, or milk her out a bit into a cup and syringe feed the lamb if I have to?
(e.t.a. - was out there just now, got Peace up and the lamb went in to suck, I hunkered down and pulled some wool otu of the way so I could see what was going on, the lamb definitely had the teat and was sucking for 15 sec or so but then quit. Is this appropriate for a newborn, or what? Milk [well, colostrum presumably] does come out when I try both teats by hand, so I *assume* the lamb was getting some?)
(edited again to add -- forgot to say, it's a girl)
Pat
It was cold, windy and pouring rain last night. I went out at 1 a.m., sheep were perfectly normal. Went back out at 5 a.m. after walking the dog, and there was a lamb! Woo hoo! It had clearly *just* been born, probably mere minutes before I got out there.She was in the lee of the big barn, but I moved her into the more protected shed and shut them in there with a sheet of plywood and some close-boarded pallets. Trimmed the umbilical and dipped it in iodine, and let them be.
The funny thing is that at 5 I *assumed* it was the overdue ewe, Hope, but when I took the kids out to see the lamb this morning before the schoolbus, I realized "Hey... wait... that's *Peace*!" She was just day 147. Oh well, details details. Hope is still vast with lamb and apparently planning on staying that way forever.
I am not certain whether the lamb has sucked, much if at all. It's certainly been up and pokin' around back there in the exact right place, but only for maybe 20 seconds at a time does it get all tail-wiggly. Then either Peace moves aside, or the lamb gives up and goes to have a lie-down. How active is a <6 hrs old lamb supposed to be?
I figure I will give it a few more hours and see how it seems, if there is a question I suppose I will try to halter and tie the ewe and try to encourage the lamb to get a better drink but I am not sure how that will work, or milk her out a bit into a cup and syringe feed the lamb if I have to?
(e.t.a. - was out there just now, got Peace up and the lamb went in to suck, I hunkered down and pulled some wool otu of the way so I could see what was going on, the lamb definitely had the teat and was sucking for 15 sec or so but then quit. Is this appropriate for a newborn, or what? Milk [well, colostrum presumably] does come out when I try both teats by hand, so I *assume* the lamb was getting some?)
(edited again to add -- forgot to say, it's a girl
)Pat
And a ewe lamb to boot! 
