getting towards lambing, pretty sure 2 ewes pregnant, few Qs

[patandchickens]

I wanted to do this the last two weekends but they were way too rainy, and husband not available to help during week, so it's waited til today. I caught all five sheep, wormed them all with ivermectin [because about to resume turnout in paddocks] and boostered with Covexin-8; separated girls and boys back into separate yards; and did the world's lousiest job of crutching the three ewes with insufficiently-sharp hand shears

1) How bad is it that I waited this long? The two dairybred girls were marked by the ram on Nov 1 and 8 (only), which would put their lambing dates in 1.5 and 2.5 wks from today. I hope that's not a problem. I did everything with them standing normally, just tipped them for vaccination in armpit, and did TRY not to stress them.

2) I'm figuring the two dairybred girls are preggers b/c their "hoo-ha's" look SO much like the pregnant goat hoo-ha pics that people always post here -- very puffy and poochy on either side of the vulva -- and it works the same in sheep as it does in goats, right? (Also I am pretty sure I could feel a big ol' chunk o' lamb inside one of them when I had my hand alongside her lower back trying to condition-score)

3) the shetland ewe, OTOH, never got marked last fall before I gave up on the crayon in December, and I never noticed anything resembling heat or interest from the ram. Her vulva looks very different from the above two ewes. OTOH she seems pretty "pot-bellied". What do you think the chances are of her having got bred in Dec or later? (when do sheep quit for the season?) She is real skittish so I am not easily going to be able to keep tabs on what her undercarriage looks like as time passes. I don't deeply CARE whether she is pregnant, I just don't want a completely unexpected lambing.

4) OMG, the dairy girls could lamb real soon now! Aaack. Is it ok for them to have just a very-open small shed for protection from the elements -- this time of year it is generally in, say, the 20s F overnight and maybe the 30s-40s daytime. Or do I need to knock something more substantial together, or perhaps put more walls on the existing shed? I am reluctant to put them in the barn at night without *reason*, because the barn is frankly not the dryest or freshest-air place in the world; although it is available if *needed* when lambing (e.g. bad weather during lambing, or lamb in trouble, or needing heatlamp)

I really, seriously need to get a set of electric (or at least hand-crank) clippers -- I may be able to do an adequate job of regular shearing with blades, but delicate areas with complex contours and important protrusions, combined with a year's growth of very matted/daggy/greasy/awful wool that would stop a bullet, is NOT a good job for a novice hand shearer I am SO kicking myself for not buying the hand-cranked clippers that showed up at an auction a year ago. Stupid stupid stupid.

Aargh, I am not ready for this lambing business! Let's fast-forward a month to the point where I either do or do not have lambs, and skip the bit in between, please? LOL

Pat

 

[jhm47]

You would be very wise to have your ewes sheared completely before they lamb, especially if they have long, matted wool near their udders. When we had sheep, we lambed in Jan - Feb, and the unsheared ones would lamb outside in below 0 weather. If sheared, they always lambed inside, which greatly increased our lamb survival. Also, lambs which are searching for something to suck on will often start sucking on a ball of wool somewhere, and happily starve to death while sucking on it. From experience, I can tell you that it's very hard to get them to suck on a teat, when they have programmed themselves to sucking on a ball of wool. After one experience of lambing unsheared ewes, I vowed to never do it again.

 

[Royd Wood]

Agree with above as our first lambing last year was hard due to unsheared ewes the lambs tails were wagging when they were sucking on wool balls. This year the udders are clean and lambs find the teats easy.

Good luck Pat

 

[patandchickens]

Well, there is just no possible way that's going to happen. I trimmed back as good bit of wool (cleaned off inner thighs and 'backside' to about 1/2" of wool, and took the fronts of the hindlegs and the stifle-and-rear-belly area back to an inch or so) but all I have is hand shears and I am leery of stressing them too much.

I suppose if there is some day my husband can help (they don't stand tied well enough for me to do it alone, I did try) I will try taking off *more*, but basically it comes down to, hand shears and inexperienced shearer and unable to tip the sheep in this state.

There is no real "inside" for them to choose lamb in btw, they can be under the roof of a small (like 5x8, I think) 2-sided shed. Although most of their night yard is pretty well out of the wind b/c of two solid fences and the adjacent barn.

:/

Pat

 

[aggieterpkatie]

If you can at least trim away some of the wool directly near the udder it would help a great deal. I also really like to put each lamb directly on the teat. Not a big pain when you only have a few ewes.

It's not bad you waited this long as far as stressing them out (if that's what you were worried about). And sheep vulvas get MUCH more swollen and red/pink than any goat vulva I've seen....so be prepared to look for floppy vulvas.

The 2 sided shed may be ok, but it would be great to have a little more protection. But as long as the lambs can get out of the wind and rain, they should be ok. If you think they're cold, do you have a space you can hang a heat lamp?

And you'll do fine! This is the exciting time! Anticipation is my favorite part, even though I'm by nature a very impatient person!

 

[patandchickens]

If you can at least trim away some of the wool directly near the udder it would help a great deal.

OK, well, I did do that yesterday -- basically I knelt down and looked around and said 'if I were a lamb, what would my nose be encountering as I looked for the udder' and pruned back anything that was in the way and prunable. So, the rear half of the belly, and the area around the stifle and front of the rear leg, have been taken back to 1" or so of wool (that is sadly the best I can do with shears and without tipping the sheep) and the udder is as 'obvious' as I could make it.

Next day I get a chance (weather + husband) I will catch them up again and see if there is any more I can do in that regard, tho.

I also really like to put each lamb directly on the teat. Not a big pain when you only have a few ewes.

Actually that reminds me of the other thing I meant to ask -- if you had just 1 ewe due to lamb at a time (not, I realize, your normal sheep-flock situation ), what would you do in terms of checking during the night? (How often per night, and when would you start checking before the due date, in the absence of any obvious signs like discharge or funny behavior)

The 2 sided shed may be ok, but it would be great to have a little more protection. But as long as the lambs can get out of the wind and rain, they should be ok. If you think they're cold, do you have a space you can hang a heat lamp?

Well, I will try to get the larger shed roof built this week but it depends on weather etc. If I do get it built then it would be easy to hang a heatlamp under it, outdoors (there is an outlet just inside the doorway for the heated water bucket); or if I had to bring someone into the barn it would be easy enough to set up a small temporary pen in a horse stall and hang a heatlamp there. The area really is quite sheltered from the wind, and has a ~30' high barn end on the E side.

This is the exciting time! Anticipation is my favorite part, even though I'm by nature a very impatient person!

Not me, not for this. I just want to know if it turns out ok

Thanks,

Pat

 

[aggieterpkatie]

OK, well, I did do that yesterday -- basically I knelt down and looked around and said 'if I were a lamb, what would my nose be encountering as I looked for the udder' and pruned back anything that was in the way and prunable. So, the rear half of the belly, and the area around the stifle and front of the rear leg, have been taken back to 1" or so of wool (that is sadly the best I can do with shears and without tipping the sheep) and the udder is as 'obvious' as I could make it.

Next day I get a chance (weather + husband) I will catch them up again and see if there is any more I can do in that regard, tho.

Sounds great!

Actually that reminds me of the other thing I meant to ask -- if you had just 1 ewe due to lamb at a time (not, I realize, your normal sheep-flock situation ), what would you do in terms of checking during the night? (How often per night, and when would you start checking before the due date, in the absence of any obvious signs like discharge or funny behavior)

What I do personally is feed before work (~6 AM), try to sneak home at lunchtime to check, feed when I get home around work (~4 pm), check sometime in the evening maybe, check before bed (~10-11pm) and maybe check once during the night. If I thought one was really close (like maybe she didn't eat or was away from her flockmates) then I would check more often.

Not me, not for this. I just want to know if it turns out ok

Thanks,

Pat

Ok, then for your sake I hope they all hurry up and get it over with.