Flehmen response

[Womwotai]

Okay, so I thought I understood the Flehmen response until this afternoon. I keep horses and I've seen geldings responding to a new mare. I've seen both my ram and my goat buck getting excited by scents that are in the air and curling their lips in the flehmen response.

This afternoon I spent awhile observing my herd. I have one ram and 3 ewes of breeding age, along with a couple of juvenile ewe lambs. I hope all of the ewes have been bred but as they all run together, due dates are mostly guesswork.

While I was watching, one of the ewes pooped and the ram immediately grew excited and stuck his chin in the air, curling his upper lip. She responding by peeing, which kept him going. Then to my surprise, she joined him, sticking her own head in the air and curling her upper lip. I've never seen one of the ewes doing this.

So my question is: does the fact my ram was getting excited mean the ewe is likely NOT pregnant and he was getting her scent and getting excited because she is in a heat cycle? Or can the scent of even a pregnant ewe still get him going? And, has anyone ever seen a ewe with a flehmen response and have any idea what that means?

 

[Southdown]

Yes, I've seen ewes do it too. My ram does it all year round, even when they are already pregnant. So I've determined it's not an indicator of whether or not they have been successfully bred. I've seen my wethers do it too. But the ram does it all the time. It doesn't take much to get him excited.

 

[Womwotai]

Good to know - thanks Southdown. The ewe is the one who looks to be the most pregnant (pink vulva, teats starting to develop) so I was a little dismayed at the idea I may have got THAT wrong and don't have lambs on the way after all.

 

[boothcreek]

The lip curl is used to bring a scent closer to the special receptors in the nose(there is a little gland in the corner of the nostrils) and roof of the mouth that really break down any smell into every individual chemical/hormone. So any smell that may be of interest to examine closer will get the response. My rams even do it with each others pee ...... for a ram its very important to always have every little bit of info on hand(like, oh something smells a bit off on the big boss rams pee, maybe we can kick him off his throne today).

 

[Womwotai]

LOL. Yeah, I knew they did it to draw the scent in - I was just concerned that it indicated he was drawing in "heat cycle smell" rather than "pregnant smell". I am relieved to know that isn't necessarily the case, as I'm starting to get excited about spring lambs

 

[Devon Fitzpatrick]

At UC Davis I super ovulated ten ewes on a few occasions and it was the funniest thing putting a teaser ram into the pen to detect heat. After putting the ram in their I actually saw two ewes flehmening at the same time. Both ewes and rams have have a Vomeronasal or Jacobsen organ that sits right behind their incisors, however, the organ grows in response to testosterone so males have a much larger organ that they use to sniff out heat. Your ewe was almost certainly still in heat because although rams are in heat all year round and could have a flehman response, ewes as you know are only in estrus a few days a year. A flehmen response in ewes is infrequent but usually a good indicator of heat.