Faceless lamb born two months late.

[Sheepshape]

By dates of when the ram was in with the ewes, the ewe in question, a first-timer, should have had her lamb no later than mid April. Her early January scan showed a single foetus.

All of her flock mates had lambed by April 10th. This ewe had a small udder, so we kept her in until the end of April. As nothing looked like it was going to appear, I turned her out at the end of April.

Today I saw her lying in the fuel on her side.I thought she had bloat as she and her colleagues had broken into the vegetable garden and had eaten all my peas, beans, strawberries and cabbages. As I got closer I noticed something protruding.....a faceless lamb. The ears were present, then just a round ring of pink tissue where the noes, eyes, mouth should have been (sorry I couldn't bring myself to take a pic.....). I delivered the (normal) body with difficulty and some blood loss. It was not smelly or macerated, but the fleece was about 2 inches long.

Did the absence of most of the head allow it to stay in the womb for so long?

I spoke to the vet, who was pretty noncommittal, but she said she doubted that it was down to Schmallenberg virus which is wreaking havoc in this country.

No answers here, just observations and questions, I'm afraid.

 

[promiseacres]

crazy! hope the ewe is ok long term!

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

So sorry!! That must have been very disturbing and saddening!!! I have to say, I have never come across this before so have no answers for you!

 

[Ruus]

So sad. I had a nutrition professor who made us look at hundreds of slides of nonviable/stillborn/aborted lambs, calves, and piglets that were disgustingly malformed because of certain toxic plants that caused deformities like that if eaten at a certain stage of gestation, maybe she got into something poisonous? Don't know, sorry for your loss.

 

[CritterZone]

On the other hand, this sort of thing does happen spontaneously in people as well as animals. Unfortunately, this time it was your turn. Hopefully you will never see anything like that again. Hopefully the ewe is just fine and goes on to lead a productive life.

 

[Sheepshape]

It is possible that she ate some plant that may have affected her, Ruus. thank you all for your kind words.

I gave her Metacam and antibiotics yesterday and kept her indoors. Her appetite seemed to be quite good. Overnight her afterbirth has come away and her blood loss has been very small since yesterday. She was on her feet and walking around when I arrived at the shed this morning and was keen to have biscuits. When the ex-bottle lambs came down and she heard them she started bleating, so I let her out to wander around with the orphans and the couple of ewes who are with them who had illnesses after lambing. She seems to be relatively well. I'm unsure as to whether she should be bred again this year if she makes a full recovery.

I had an anencephalic lamb (back of head missing)some years back which caused the death of the ewe as her amniotic fluid built up enormously and she went into heart failure. (I did an autopsy on her prior to calling the incineration services). I doubt there is any link between the two, but it's just a possibility, I guess.

 

[Sheepshape]

5 days on and the ewe is fine and eating well.

Here's hoping that there is no repetition in our little flock.

 

[bcnewe2]

We suffered from a disease called hairy shakey lamb disease or border disease. Better known in the cattle world as bvd. It is a disease that will cross species. It can only be passed by contact not airborne or water. We don't know how we got it being a closed flock except I lent my ram out for a few weeks.

We had a necropsy done on a fetus.
Point of the story is it causes spontaneous abortion or deformed fetuses depending on exposure time during pregnancy. It doesn't cause anything that can be seen in adult sheep. You can also end up with a carrier being born that will look normal otherwise.
To be sure we have no more issues I had to sell all lambs that year.

 

[eweinHiscare]

Sheepshape, are you in Ireland ? I had read something about Schmallenberg there I think.
(I could be mistaken, it may have been Scotland.)

The post about plants causing deformities was interesting. Have you looked around for unusual plants in your pastures?

 

[Sheepshape]

There are quite a lot of diseases which seem to be able to affect the foetus, but the vet thought it was just a 'one off ' thing which didn't indicate any specific problem.

EweinHiscare I am in Wales. Schmallenberg came over to Britain from the continent and first was seen on the east coast. It has now spread across England and has reached Scotland and Wales. Our vet is offering a vaccination service.