Finally home and catching up on this. At this point since she continues to prolapse, your only option (since you can't order a prolapse spoon and harness) is to stitch her up. Just an X stitched across her opening. She needs to be able to pee through it.
This is not a happy posting and I apologize in advance for any pain or upset I cause you.
You will need to watch carefully when she goes into labor and be there to cut the stitches. You will need to help deliver the lambs since she will prolapse again during labor and delivery. When she prolapses during labor and deliver it will be a BAD problem because the swelling prolapse tissue will block the lambs exit from the ewe. You might have to use a scalpel, a razor blade, or very sharp knife to cut through prolapsing tissue to rescue and deliver the lambs. This will be a life or death situation for them.
I hate to say this but this is already a terminal problem for this ewe. Her chances of survival are very small. If she is just about ready to deliver, you should consider having the vet do a C-section now and avoid having her go through labor. If she does not go through labor she will not prolapse during delivery. This might be her only chance to survive labor and delivery. Otherwise, if your vet can sew her up afterwards she might make it long enough to raise her lambs for a month. She will need heavy doses of antibiotics and pain meds.
Whatever happens, try to milk the colostrum out of her to give the lambs a good start to bottle feed them. You can raise them on fresh goat milk if necessary. (If you can't get lamb replacer.)
I am really sorry to be so negative about your poor ewe. I am going from experience on the last ewe I had that prolapsed. Normally I would have euthanized her immediately but she was almost at term and I wanted to retain her particular genetics.
Our vet repaired the rectal prolapse temporarily but when she went into labor the straining caused a further prolapse which compressed the vaginal opening. This prevented the lambs from being able to come out. It took both DS1 (who is a large strong man) and myself to try to hold the prolapse out of the way. Finally I had to cut her vaginal opening to allow the lamb (a nice size ewe lamb) to be born Unfortunately by the time we got her out she was dead. I milked the colostrum on one side and while doing so, noticed that a second smaller lamb was being born. Luckily that one survived. The vet stitched up the areas where I had to cut her so she could rear her lamb. However the stitches did not entirely hold. She required heavy antibiotics and pain medication several times a day. The ewe survived to feed the lamb for 5 weeks. The she started showing extreme pain and I put her down.
I feel guilty that I did not euthanize her immediately and just bottle feed the lamb because I am convinced that I caused that ewe to suffer needlessly. I do not keep my animals alive unless they have a chance at recovery. I hoped this ewe would recover enough to be pain free for as long as it took to raise her lamb although I knew she would be euthanized eventually. She made a start at recovery but then went downhill after 3-4 weeks. I don't like my animals to suffer and should have out her down immediately.
I am telling you this so you will understand why I am recommending that you euthanize her once the lambs are born If you decide not to have the vet do a C-section, be prepared to do one yourself when she goes into labor. You will have to cut the lambs out of her regardless of whether you have any anesthetic and put her down immediately. The alternative is watching her die trying to give birth.
Go on line and read the procedure for c-sections on small ruminants.
I am so sorry.
Please keep us posted on her progress.
I will do. I have made a harness for her and it fits and works quite well. A quick question as I have never had to deal with this before. How will I know that she is definitely in labour and not relapsing and trying to push it out...Hopefully you will save the lambs.
Prolapsing not relapsing
