Is she miscarrying?

[Sheepshape]

Rams can be ' a bit too enthusiastic' and cause bleeding , especially when the ewe is not in season and has been trying to escape from his advances.

Any spontaneous abortion causes blood around the vulva, even if it is pretty early on.

 

[Ridgetop]

Since she has been with the ram since January, she may be ready to lamb. The smell of imminent birthing can mimic the smell of estrus, causing the ram to try to breed her.

A couple days after the ram marked several of my ewes, they lambed!!! I had turned them in with him when their lambs were 2-3 months old. They are Dorpers so they bred and I missed it although he was wearing a harness then too. 5 ewes marked and 5 ewes lambed several days later! Quickest pregnancies on record! Looked back and sure enough they were in with him 5 months previously. He asked for a performance raise!

We got a guardian llama that was not gelded. When the dairy goats kidded he went after them trying to breed them. The smell is similar. He went to the vet immediately.

I would pull her out of the ram's pen and watch her for a week or so. Since she did not show much signs of pregnancy last time she could be pregnant and due soon. The ale color and non swollen appearance of the vulva doesn't look pregnant and due immediately.

What breed is she? Most wooled sheep are seasonal breeders, but some are not.

 

[BSue]

Since she has been with the ram since January, she may be ready to lamb. The smell of imminent birthing can mimic the smell of estrus, causing the ram to try to breed her.

A couple days after the ram marked several of my ewes, they lambed!!! I had turned them in with him when their lambs were 2-3 months old. They are Dorpers so they bred and I missed it although he was wearing a harness then too. 5 ewes marked and 5 ewes lambed several days later! Quickest pregnancies on record! Looked back and sure enough they were in with him 5 months previously. He asked for a performance raise!

We got a guardian llama that was not gelded. When the dairy goats kidded he went after them trying to breed them. The smell is similar. He went to the vet immediately.

I would pull her out of the ram's pen and watch her for a week or so. Since she did not show much signs of pregnancy last time she could be pregnant and due soon. The ale color and non swollen appearance of the vulva doesn't look pregnant and due immediately.

What breed is she? Most wooled sheep are seasonal breeders, but some are not.

If she is pregnant I don't think she is ready to lamb any time soon. With her last pregnancy (which was her first) she started to bag up slowly around 4 months and her vulva was swollen around the same time. Neither of those are happening yet so if she is pregnant I would guess anywhere from 1 day to 3 1/2 months gestation, but not more than that. That's why my first guess was a spontaneous abortion which still could be possible. I am hoping for an overactive ram who did a little damage that corrects itself. I REALLY need one of those portable eco machines so that I can see for myself if she is pregnant or not, but have you seen the prices on those!

As far as the breed your guess is as good as anyone else because I have no idea. Some kind of wool breed. I haven't figured out if she is a seasonal breeder or not yet. I would venture to say no only because she was born around Feb - Mar and she lambed in October.

 

[Ridgetop]

I am not sure what an eco machine is, but if it is like the portable ultrasounds vets use, I wouldn't bother with one. Too expensive if you only have a couple of sheep, particularly if they are grades and you are not doing AI or anything that makes it a necessity to know if she is pregnant.

A better investment would be a marking harness and crayons. They are pretty effective and you can get a Matingmark harness (the best one on the market in my opinion) and the snap in Matingmark crayons. The Matingmark straps are wide, the harness doesn't slip, the crayons snap in and don't need to pin in. You can get it at Amazon Prime and the crayons too. Use a different color each 2 weeks since that is how often she will cycle. If she continues to cycle a shown by him continually marking her, either he is sterile or she has a problem. If you have other ewes that he is settling, then you will know it is her. If none of your other ewes settle and lamb, replace the ram.

How old is this ewe? How old is the ram? Have you had them long? She lambed last year, so when did you put her in with the ram for rebreeding?

 

[BSue]

I am not sure what an eco machine is, but if it is like the portable ultrasounds vets use, I wouldn't bother with one. Too expensive if you only have a couple of sheep, particularly if they are grades and you are not doing AI or anything that makes it a necessity to know if she is pregnant.

A better investment would be a marking harness and crayons. They are pretty effective and you can get a Matingmark harness (the best one on the market in my opinion) and the snap in Matingmark crayons. The Matingmark straps are wide, the harness doesn't slip, the crayons snap in and don't need to pin in. You can get it at Amazon Prime and the crayons too. Use a different color each 2 weeks since that is how often she will cycle. If she continues to cycle a shown by him continually marking her, either he is sterile or she has a problem. If you have other ewes that he is settling, then you will know it is her. If none of your other ewes settle and lamb, replace the ram.

How old is this ewe? How old is the ram? Have you had them long? She lambed last year, so when did you put her in with the ram for rebreeding?

Sorry, sometimes I get confused with the English/Spanish words. Yes I was talking about the ultrasound machine. I will have to look into getting a marking harness and matingmark crayons the next time I am in the States. Here they don't use them and I don't trust the mailing system.

We bought the ewe and ram as lambs in June 2018 at an animal market and we were told they were three months old. They bred on May 7th 2019 and the ewe lambed on October 1st 2019. We decided not to wean the ewe lamb since I had read they will eventually wean on their own later. So mom and lamb went back with the ram around New Year's. I had read a little bit about the 'ram effect' and figured that she didn't ovulate right away because when they were separated all that separated them was a chain link fence. Now the ewe lamb is 8 months and I feel she will breed before her mom does.

 

[BSue]

Here is the thread I started last year when she was lambing for the first time and I was so nervous.
There are more pictures of the sheep family.
https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/weeks-away-from-lambing-maybe-not.40001/

 

[Ridgetop]

I read your lambing thread from last year. You definitely have a wool breed – from the heavy fleece and the horns some type of Merino cross perhaps. Most wool breeds are seasonal breeders. That means that the breeding season is based on daylight hours. The ewes will start to cycle as the daylight hours decrease and temperatures cool down. Seasonal breeding mature rams can be affected by heat – when the temperatures are extremely hot, they can become temporarily sterile.

It looks like you are in Ecuador, right?

Eduador is one of the southern hemisphere countries where summer and winter seasons are reversed. Your winter is June through September while your summer months are October to May.

Here in the northern hemisphere, our seasonal breeding sheep breed between September and January, in the fall when the days begin to get shorter and cooler, and lamb in the spring as the days get longer and warmer.

Since you are in the southern hemisphere, your fall season (and shortening daylight hours) will be between May and October. If your sheep are seasonal breeders, you can expect your ewe to start cycling in May, and breed between May and October. That means that your lambs would normally be born between October and February. Possibly even as late as March. Since you purchased your lambs in June at approximately 3 months old, they could have been born in late February/early March, at the very end of the lambing season.

Your first lamb was born in May 2019. This would have been out of season for your climate and the beginning of the breeding season. Since the ewe had just lambed in May, she would not have come back into heat during that breeding season. She would not have cycled again until this year at the normal breeding time.

Now that the ewe is mature, she has adjusted her metabolism to a daylight hour cycle. Her 8 months old lamb should be cycling this year as well, although some ewe lambs do not produce their first lambs until they are between 12 and 18 months old, depending on when they were born, time of the year, size and breed, etc.

If your ewe is cycling now, according to daylight hour length in the southern hemisphere, you should watch the ewe and lamb to see if the ram is interested in eiher at different times of the month. Sheep usually cycle every 14-17 days. Her vulva might appear slightly redder and swollen at that time indicating estrus. In that case both the ewe and her lamb could cycle and be bred for lambs to arrive between October 2020 and May of 2021.

If the ram was rough with the ewe when trying to breed, he could have caused a slight tear or scrape on the vulva, especially if she was not willing to stand for him. He has horns and could have accidently caught her with one.

What months do you usually see young lambs offered for sale in the market? This will give you an idea of when the normal lambing season occurs in your area. If no young lambs are being sold right now, then it is probably not normal lambing season.

 

[BSue]

Wow @Ridgetop , that was a very informative post! Thank You! You really explained things in a way that I understand. I really found the part of a Merino cross breed interesting because of the horns. I've had some neighbors ask me if they are Merino and even though I know they are not, a cross breed is very possible.

Let me clarify one fact to see if I understand the information right. My ewe first lambed on October 1st 2019, she was bred on May 7th, 2019. So her ewe lamb came right at the beginning of the lambing season. She herself was born at the end of the lambing season (Feb - Mar 2018). I didn't realize that breeding season and lambing season were months long.
The ram always seems interested in the ewe, smelling her and curling his lip (I've got to get a picture of that, always makes me laugh). I've noticed he started doing the same to the ewe lamb so I am almost positive she is cycling as well now. I guess I will leave them with the ram to make sure they breed, it's just that he is on the aggressive side and he probably was rough with the ewe and that is why she was bleeding a bit because of a tear.

I technically live in the Southern Hemisphere but I only live a couple of hundred miles away from the actual equator so our daylight hours vary only 30 mins throughout the year, right now I believe our days are a little bit longer. Our seasons are the rainy season and the not so rainy season. The not so rainy season just started. The temps don't vary that much either, highs around 70 degrees and lows around 45 degrees, and I live at about 10,000 feet above sea level, in the Andes. We live about 3 hours away from the animal market so I am not really sure when lambs are usually sold but everything that you have mentioned makes sense, my sheep sound like seasonal breeders.

Once again, thank you for explaining things they way you did.

 

[Ridgetop]

Since he is interested in both of them now, it is probably your breeding season right not. Sorry about the confusion in dates, I thought you said that the ewe had lambed first in May. Breeding in May and lambing in October would be right for your location.

You should have lambs in 5 or 6 months. Congratulations!

By the way, the lip curling is known as flehmen. It is used by some animal species to show extreme interest in something. In your ram's case, a female in estrus! It is pretty funny to watch.

 

[BSue]

Well, yesterday I found Polyester actively mating so the bleeding wasn't a miscarriage, more likely an overactive ram. I have my calendar marked for November 14th.